So, she was not expecting a call with the news that she’d been selected for the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“Initially, just shocked,” Wendell-Pohl said. “You don’t ever expect that phone call.

“Once it settled in, it was just really cool. Then to hear the news that… Natalie Darwitz was also going in. It made it that much better.”

Wendell-Pohl, along with her friend and teammate Darwitz, will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on Nov. 11. The Hall of Fame induction weekend is Nov. 8-11.

Wendell-Pohl, 43, built a hall-of-fame career with eye-popping stats and awards as a high-scoring forward. But it’s not like she was a one-sport athlete as a kid. Whatever sport or game her older brother was playing, Wendell-Pohl wasn’t too far behind him.

“It’s funny, I don’t know what it was about hockey,” Wendell-Pohl said. “I literally grew up playing every sport possible from baseball to tennis to made-up games of hot box in the backyard.”

Her other claim to fame as a youth athlete came on the baseball diamond, becoming the fifth girl to play in the Little League World Series.  

But whatever it was about hockey, it was a sport Wendell-Pohl said she loved right away. She loved being at the rink. Loved skating on outdoor rinks. Loved any chance she could get to put on her gear and skate in a game. The competitiveness, the pace, the skating. She was drawn to it all from a young age.

That passion for the sport carried her through, especially because there initially weren’t many opportunities to look forward to for a future in women’s hockey. Playing in college or the Olympics “wasn’t even really an option.”

“So, for me, it really was just the love of the game and being able to play the sport,” Wendell-Pohl said.

Good timing
Turns out, timing was on her side. She may have been one of the most notable girls’ hockey players in Minnesota, who grew up playing with the boys, but doors started to crack open. It started with the addition of women’s hockey to the Olympics in 1998. That led to more opportunities with women’s college programs popping up.

Wendell-Pohl hadn’t even played on a girls’ hockey team – she was still playing bantams with the boys – before she went to the 1998 Olympic team tryout. But then she came back home and played another year with the boys before two years of girls’ high school hockey with Park Center, leading the team to a state championship in 2000. She also trained and played in the world championships and was part of the U.S. Women’s National Team program from 1998-2007.

She’s a two-time Olympian (2002 and 2006) and competed in six IIHF Women’s World Championships, including in 2005 when she helped the United States win its first-ever gold medal in the event. She led the tournament with nine points that year.

She forged a similar path to Darwitz – playing for the national team before playing college hockey. It’s a path that Darwitz noted is a bit in reverse.

“I feel like I got really, really fortunate with the timing,” Wendell-Pohl said. “There were so many people ahead of me that paved the way and was kind of just the beneficiary behind it just being able to enjoy playing and live in the moment.”

Wendell-Pohl moved to Lake Placid to train with the national team after she graduated from Park Center. With her training, she took nearly a two-year gap between schooling. She started college back home with the University of Minnesota Gophers at age 21.

Her journey left Wendell-Pohl with a new appreciation for coming home and being near her friends and family again.

“For me, it was interesting and unique, for sure, to go play in the Olympics and then almost come back and play college,” Wendell-Pohl said. “I certainly enjoyed and looked forward to coming home, and I absolutely loved my time playing college hockey here.”

She scored 106 goals and 237 points in 101 career games across three seasons (2002-05) with the Gophers. Skating with Darwitz, they helped lead the Gophers to back-to-back NCAA championships in 2004 and 2005. Wendell-Pohl was a Patty Kazmaier Award winner and two-time WCHA Player of the Year.

Similar paths for the Krissy-Natalie duo
Because Wendell-Pohl didn’t start college immediately following high school, it worked out well enough that she and Darwitz, already teammates for Team USA, played on a line together with the Gophers, along with Kelly Stephens. Darwitz is two years younger in age.

It’s fitting that this duo will be inducted in the same Hockey Hall of Fame class; they’re both already members of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. Even though they didn’t play together in their youth, and only faced each other once in high school. They played together for their country and their hometown college.

“I think people obviously look at the stats and say, ‘ok, they’re teammates,’” Darwitz said. “I think it goes way beyond that. Krissy and I, we basically saw each other grow up. We left home at an early age.

“We have a similar track record of playing with the boys and then going into the Olympics, and then doing college after that. … It’s just a really cool story.”

Wendell-Pohl agreed that seeing each other grow up was a good way to describe her and Darwitz.

“I do think that people probably pair us together,” Wendell-Pohl said. “I’ll happily take that pairing. If you’re going to pair me with Natalie, I’m happy to tag along with that, because she’s certainly a leader and a driver for women’s hockey.”

Memories surrounded by family
Looking back on her playing career, Wendell-Pohl has plenty of memorable moments from the various stages of her career. She credits a lot of her later opportunities to the positive experiences she had in her youth hockey days playing with boys, where a community was willing to embrace having a girl on the team.

“I just feel so fortunate that… for me, I got to live out a lot of my dreams,” Wendell-Pohl said. “I got to play in the Olympics, I got to go play and win national championships with some of my best friends that I grew up with here in Minnesota.

“Sometimes I almost have to pinch myself. You have no idea when you’re living in the moment until you look back that you realize how lucky and fortunate you really were.”

Wendell-Pohl will celebrate the Hall of Fame weekend with her family, including her parents, brother and sister. Her husband, Johnny Pohl, and their three daughters will also attend. It’s a chance to spend time all together, taking a break from busy lives.

Krissy and Johnny are longtime hockey coaches and just started their second season behind the bench of Hill-Murray’s girls’ team, now coaching their two older daughters on the varsity squad: Emily (sophomore) and Anna (eighth grade).

“To see where the game is now and have my own daughters grow up and have those kind of experiences and memories, to be able to play on all-girls teams and play in the summer and be able to go to different camps is really cool,” Wendell-Pohl said. “It’s a sport that unifies a lot of people. It’s a small world. But it certainly brings a lot of people together.

“I just feel really fortunate that I was able to have the journey I did.”

The post Hockey Hall Of Fame: Wendell-Pohl appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

“I beelined it for my dad’s and (with) my brother to go to the hockey rink,” said Natalie Darwitz. “I kind of grew up as a rink rat.”

Good choice, young Darwitz.

Her exposure to the rink, and continued requests to play hockey, paid off when her parents granted her wish on her 5th birthday. She was going to play hockey.

“For me, it was my passion,” Darwitz said. “I always had a stick in my hand.

“There were pictures of me in My Little Pony roller skates with a Christian hockey stick in my hand playing in the driveway or trying on my brother’s equipment.”

Natalie Darwitz set numerous state tournament records during her time with the Eagan High School girls’ team. In the 1998 consolation final, a 5-3 Eagan victory over Anoka, Darwitz scored two goals 11 seconds apart, a state tournament record for the least amount of time between goals scored by the same player. (Photo courtesy of Natalie Darwitz)

Jump ahead 30-plus years later, and that rink rat from Eagan, Minn. is getting inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on Nov. 11. The Hall of Fame induction weekend is Nov. 8-11. Darwitz, 41, is one of the most successful and notable hockey players to hail from Minnesota, with a lengthy list of hockey accomplishments spanning from her youth to the Olympics.

Not an uncommon story, Darwitz played on boys’ teams until she was in seventh grade. She credits a lot of her success to those early years playing with the boys, who she said were great and treated her like any other teammate.

Topping out at her 5-foot-3 height, she switched to girls’ hockey and played for Eagan High School, coached by her dad, Scott, from seventh grade until her sophomore year, racking up 468 points across four seasons. She led Eagan to three state tournaments where she scored plenty of goals and set a few records.

Skating backward, sort of
Beyond her high school career, Darwitz skated a path somewhat in reverse: She became an Olympian first, and then played college hockey. That’s how things were set up at the time, as momentum for girls and women’s hockey really took off after the 1998 Olympics, the first Olympic Games which included women’s hockey.

Darwitz was the youngest to make the U.S. national team at 15 years old, and she competed at her first Olympics at 18 years old in 2002, winning a silver medal.

Following her first Olympics, Darwitz played three seasons with the University of Minnesota Gophers, winning back-to-back national championships in 2004 and 2005. Darwitz, who racked up scoring records and awards, skated on a line with U.S. national teammate Krissy Wendell-Pohl and Kelly Stephens.

Wendell-Pohl, who is getting inducted into the Hall of Fame with Darwitz, describes her former teammate and friend as a quiet leader with a skillset that speaks for itself, “but her will to win and her will and determination is just unmatched to anybody I ever played with or against.”

“She just had this compete level that she made those players around her that much better,” Wendell-Pohl said. “Even more so just her IQ of being able to break down a team. She was almost like the second coach for me. I would learn from just playing with her and around her.”

Playing for the Gophers was also a full-circle moment for Darwitz. She’d watched plenty of Gophers hockey games over the years before lacing up her skates at the college rink.

“I remember growing up, every Friday, my family would order pizza and we’d watch the men Gopher hockey team play,” Darwitz said. “So, it just kind of was in your blood that that’s what you’re going to do.”

Years later, Darwitz was also behind the bench as an assistant coach for the Gopher women’s program.

Hall of Fame friends
Darwitz, and Wendell-Pohl, are two well-known women’s hockey players, and that reach goes beyond the boundaries of Minnesota. Only two other U.S.-born women are in the Hockey Hall of Fame: Cammi Granato (2010) and Angela Ruggiero (2015). Darwitz and Wendell-Pohl will go into the Hall as the third and fourth on that list, and representing Minnesota makes it that much more special for them.

Krissy Wendell-Pohl and Natalie Darwitz played hockey together for Team USA and the University of Minnesota Gophers. Now, they’re going into the Hall of Fame together. (Photo courtesy of Natalie Darwitz)

“We saw a lot of things together and experienced a lot together,” Darwitz said. “It just makes it more memorable.”

Of the seven members of this year’s Hockey Hall of Fame class, Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl are the first two women since 2010 to enter the Hall in the same year. They’re already in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, inducted in 2018 (Darwitz) and 2019 (Wendell-Pohl).

While they were teammates on various hockey stages, their connection runs much deeper than sharing a locker room or space on a line. Besides growing up in the Twin Cities metro area, they each left home as teenagers to pursue their Olympic aspirations.

“We kind of got thrown into the fire together,” Darwitz said. “We kind of saw each other grow up.

“So, I think it’s a really unique, fun situation that not only were we teammates, but we really saw each other in the growth phase. We went through stressful situations. Going through an Olympic process isn’t rainbows and butterflies. You’re going through seeing teammates get cut. You’re going through that process, too, yourself. So, we really experienced a lot of memorable moments.”

Being a couple of years apart in age, the first time they played together was at the U.S. national program. Darwitz, the younger of the duo by two years, was a constant, supportive presence for Wendell-Pohl, someone she could lean on. It brought about confidence for Wendell-Pohl, having Darwitz by her side as someone who navigated a similar hockey journey.

Natalie Darwitz is a three-time Olympic medalist, three-time IIHF women’s World Championship gold medalist and five-time IIHF women’s World Championship silver medalist. (Photo courtesy of Natalie Darwitz)

“It would almost feel weird if I was going to this weekend without her,” Wendell-Pohl said. “Just because I do feel like any time I went into battle, whether it was with the U.S. team or college, I always had Natalie.”

As far as memories go, little snippets from each phase of her hockey career stand out to Darwitz, including skating on outdoor rinks with her older brother and his friends, to having her dad coach her in high school. She took pride in playing for her community and seeing the “good luck at the state tournament” wishes around Eagan.

Leaving home to play hockey at such a young age, it also made Darwitz appreciate home a lot more. Home is where her parents are. Every time her mom and dad attended a game – whether in Minnesota or further away – Darwitz always found them in the crowd from her on-ice view after warm-ups and gave them a wave.

“That’s an emotional thing for me,” Darwitz said. “Because they let me play hockey number one, when it wasn’t a norm to have a girl play hockey. So, I have to give them credit for going against the grain and allowing their daughter to follow her passion even though it wasn’t normal at the time.”

Darwitz is grateful for her hockey career, which includes all the people she’s met along the way, too. “Hockey’s funny,” she added, in that she’s receiving an individual award even though it’s a team sport. She credits the great teammates and coaches on her career path, too, whether they helped in a big or small way.

“All walks of life, it’s just coming full circle, and I’m super grateful for all that,” Darwitz said.

The post Hockey Hall Of Fame: Darwitz appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

In this fourth and last series, Phil demonstrates stick handling skills.

• Stick Handling – Housley demonstrates the need to get into good hockey position and  to transferring the weight to develop the proper technique for stickhandling
• Toe Drag – Housley demonstrates the toe to heal and heal to toe figure 8 drill to develop puck handling skills
• Puck Protection – Phil shows the proper positioning for the best way to protect the puck while under pressure
• Offensive Puck Possession – Phil describes the proper technique on driving to the net with the puck using the body to protect the puck from the defender

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In this third series, Phil demonstrates passing skills.

• Passing – Housley shows the techniques on the three basic elements with catching and receiving and the heel to toe movement of the puck on the stick to create the spin for control
• Saucer Pass – Housley demonstrates the proper technique on coming from a good hockey position transferring the weight while going heal to toe with lifting the stick to create some lift on the puck and saucer it to your teammate
• Backhand Saucer Pass – Phil demonstrates the more difficult techniques to make a saucer pass from the backhand position
• Area Pass – Housley shows the correct way to lead a player by passing to an area where your teammate will be the first to reach the puck

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In this second series, Phil demos the more advanced shooting skills.

• One-Timer – Phil demonstrates how to get into the prime wheel house position with a strong lower hand following through to the target
• Shooting Angle – Phil Housley describes the technique for changing the angle of a shot
• Indirect Shot Pass – The Shot pass or indirect pass involves the shot from the point where the shooter aims for the stick of a breaking forward to redirect the puck to the net
• Catch & Release – Housley describes the concept of a quick shot on how to catch the puck and shoot quickly by changing the position of the body, catching and releasing the shot

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The post Phil’s Skills – Series 2/4 (Shooting II) appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota Hockey Magazine is excited to bring you 4 series of exclusive on-ice training videos taken with Phil Housley.  In this first series, Phil demos basic shooting skills.

• Wrist Shot – Phil demonstrates how to perform the basic Wrist Shot
• Snap Shot – Using the same principles as the wrist shot in loading the shot-Housley demonstrates the proper technique taking a Snap Shot
• Slapshot – Phil demonstrates the proper technique for the Slap Shot
• Backhand – Phil demonstrates how to get to the prime wheel house position with a strong lower hand following through to the target

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In our final segment, Phil Housley recalls playing for the US National Teams in World Tournaments starting while still in High School and figured after competing at that level he was ready to play in the NHL.  He did just that,  never a day in the minors and playing on all the top US Teams including playing 20 years later for the US National Team in the Olympics in Salt Lake City for Herb Brooks.  Phil then talks about his induction in the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.

The post Phil Housley – MHM Exclusive Interview (Segment 8/8) appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Housley lists his all-time favorites with who were the favorite players, coaches and teams in his legendary career and then talks about the intensity of the Stanley Cup playoffs.   Housley is still chasing getting his name on the Cup and is hoping that now happens as a coach.  He says after an 82 game schedule and then win another 16 games to hold the Cup is the hardest championship to win in all sports.

The post Phil Housley – MHM Exclusive Interview (Segment 7/8) appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

In this in depth interview, the 6th part of our series with Phil Housley, MinnesotaHockeyMagazine.com speaks with Housley as he recalls his NHL playing days, including the toughest places to play, the toughest teams to play, and the toughest players to play.  The interview includes Phil’s comments about what it was like to play against  Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux and what made them special.  Phil also recalls playing against the great teams including the Edmonton Oilers and the toughest places to play including the old Boston Gardens.

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Phil Housley talks to Scott Tiffany and MinnesotaHockeyMagazine.com on the big leap, going from South Saint Paul to the NHL.  Phil recalls his very first scrimmage in Lake Placid at camp where he scores a goal, but afterwards, is told to prepare to go to the minors.  Phil has a great camp and earns his way into the NHL, playing the next 8 years for the Buffalo Sabres.  Legendary coach Scotty Bowman leads a talented group of players, including Mike Ramsey, Lindsay Ruff and Phil’s favorite, Gil Perreault.  Phil then recalls the sad day when he learns His ride in Buffalo is over, as he has been traded.

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