Featured Image Caption:Iowa Wild forward Brett Bulmer is mobbed by teamamtes Brian Connelly, Chad Rau and Jason Zucker after Bulmer scored the Wild’s first-ever goal, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013, in Des Moines, Iowa. The 1-0 win was the AHL franchise’s first in its new Iowa home. (Iowa Wild Photo by Reese Strickland)

Des Moines, Iowa – As early as 5 p.m. new fans could be seen tailgating in the parking lot of

Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. The fans had arrived at the arena early and were eagerly awaiting the 7 p.m. faceoff of the inaugural Iowa Wild game.

The Iowa Chops, who were the American Hockey League affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks at the time, played their last game at Wells Fargo Arena on April 11, 2009, a 5-3 loss to the Quad City Flames. The state of Iowa was without an AHL franchise from that day until Saturday, Oct. 12 when the Iowa Wild, AHL affiliate of the Minnesota Wild, played their first home game at Wells Fargo Arena.

10,213 fans were in attendance for the Wild’s 1-0 win against the Oklahoma City Barons. It was the largest opening night crowd in the history of Iowa hockey and the second largest crowd to see a hockey game at Wells Fargo Arena. One of those fans, who showed up early to tailgate in the parking lot outside of the arena was Tony Hamilton.

Hamilton of Urbandale, Iowa was wearing a green Minnesota Wild jersey in the parking lot and has been a hockey fan his whole life. He said he was “super excited” to see the inaugural game.

The Iowa Stars, who were the AHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars, and the Iowa Chops failed after short stints in Des Moines, but Hamilton thinks it’s a great thing that this team is affiliated with the Minnesota Wild.

“It’s the closest pro team to us so it’ll get more people excited about hockey, at least locally,” Hamilton said. “Iowa’s obviously not that big of a hockey place, but I think it’s probably the best thing for us… Now that it’s the closest pro team that we have to us maybe people can get excited about it.”

He said that most of the people he had talked to about it seemed excited and he hoped that it would make for a loud environment.

“Everybody seems like they’re really excited for it so hopefully it’s loud and proud.”

The more than 10,000 fans in the arena who were waiting for the first goal in team history had to wait until 7:06 into the second period for Wild winger Brett Bulmer to break the scoreless tie on a one-timer that came off a pass from winger Jason Zucker. Chad Rau also had an assist on the first Iowa Wild goal.

After the game, Bulmer said finally getting that first goal in the second period was a weight off their shoulders.

“I think we had a bunch of chances early and as soon as you get that first one you kind of get rolling and start playing with more confidence so it was pretty big to get the first goal between both teams,” Bulmer said.

Wild coach Kurt Kleinendorst said he didn’t mind waiting until the second period to get the first goal of the season citing previous organizations he’s coached for, particularly the Lowell Devils, AHL affiliate of the New Jersey Devils through the 2009-10 season, and a defensive approach.

“If you take a look at where I come from and organizations that I’ve been involved with, New Jersey is the master of playing good defense,” Kleinendorst said. “What I’ve tried to do is take that same approach but try to add a little bit of offense to that. So hopefully we can continue to be really good defensively, which I thought we were tonight in a lot of ways and find a way to score a few more goals because I don’t want to sit here and win 1-0 every single night of the year. That’s just a little too tough.”

A Special Night

Kleinendorst thought the inaugural game was a “special night” at Wells Fargo Arena despite the low-scoring, defensive battle.

“It wasn’t a thing of beauty, but it was a beautiful thing,” Kleinendorst said. “I think exactly what we have been talking about for the last week, two weeks is that if you came tonight, if you had a ticket for tonight I don’t think anybody could’ve left and not felt good about the event that took place.”

Before the game an intro video was featured and fireworks were fired off as the whole team was introduced to the fans for the first time. These were some of the reasons that Kleinendorst thought the event was special.

“I thought they did a phenomenal job with the opening and the energy in here was outstanding,” Kleinendorst said. “It was a hard-fought game. Maybe people could’ve argued that it would’ve been better had there been more goals scored, but I don’t think the lack of goal scoring took away from the excitement of the event.”

The opening game of the season for the Wild was also goalie Johan Gustafsson’s first AHL start. Gustafsson made 27 saves in the contest against the Barons en route to the shutout.

Gustafsson said it was “awesome” to feed off the new Iowa Wild fans.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this game, it was a really good crowd, it was really good to have them here,” Gustafson said. “It was a fun game.”

After the game was over the three stars were announced and Gustafsson was named the second star of the game while Bulmer was named the No. 1 star.

Despite that, Kleinendorst said that they gave a “hard hat” to Gustafsson after the game.

“I thought, obviously, he played particularly well and if we don’t get the zero, we don’t necessarily get the two points,” Kleinendorst said. “I thought he was outstanding.”

The post The Minnesota Wild’s AHL namesake and its energized new Des Moines fan base bond quickly over opening-night win. appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Support for the Minnesota Wild was strong in the arena and fans showed up in packs to show their appreciation for the NHL club, in addition to members of the UMD men’s hockey team who watched on from the concourse. Wild coach Mike Yeo took note and joked, “I didn’t know today was a holiday!”

“It was a good crowd here today and the guys get a little pressure to be a little sharper in practice when you have some of the boys watching and some of the fans,” added Wild goaltending coach Bob Mason. “They were enthusiastic and gave us a couple of hands, so it was good.”

“It was unbelievable watching them practice. Just seeing what kinds of things they do and work on was good and seeing that they aren’t perfect and make mistakes was cool as well,” said Brenden Kotyk, one of the “boys”—a defenseman in his first year with the UMD men’s hockey program—watching and adding a little pressure to the practice. “Watching guys like Parise, Pominville, and Cooke was just an unreal experience.”

Young Wild fans watch their favorite players during Tuesday morning’s open practice at Amsoil Arena, Duluth, MN. (MHM photo / © Jamie Lund)

“You can’t say enough about the state of hockey,” Wild goaltender Josh Harding chimed in.“Coming here with the road tour and now with this, you realize that there are fans not just in Minneapolis/St. Paul but all across the state. We have the best fans in the world and I’ll stand by that, especially seeing the fans come out today and cheering, and how excited the kids were.

“This is what hockey is all about and this is one of the things I cherish about being a hockey player.”

While fans enjoyed the practice and the players enjoyed the bonding time, the very real fact that home opener is days away against a very tough LA Kings squad was not dismissed.

“This has been a great trip but the bottom line is we have to be ready on Thursday,” said Coach Yeo. “I know that they [the Kings] are good. I know that they’re big and they’re skilled and they play a very good team game. Bottom line is, especially at this time of year, but for us pretty much all the time, our focus is much more on ourselves than it is on them.”

“To have a full training camp and actual home opener is very exciting and we’re looking forward to it,” said Wild defenseman Ryan Suter. “We know LA is going to come in there and be ready to go so we have to make sure tomorrow we have a good practice day and match them.”

The Wild seemed to have found the perfect mixture of fun and hard work as they concluded their trip to the Duluth area with Tuesday’s practice; a mixture they can hopefully translate into an exciting and fan-thrilling season at the X.

Featured image above: Fans take photos of MN Wild players Marco Scandella and Josh Harding during Tuesday morning’s open practice at Amsoil Arena, Duluth, MN. (MHM photo / © Jamie Lund)

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More and more North American hockey players are packing up their hockey gear in pursuit of a professional career and new life experiences in other countries.

Former Gopher and Minnesota high school star, R.J. Anderson, is a player who has chosen the path of European professional hockey.

R.J. Anderson grew up playing his youth hockey in his hometown of Lino Lakes, Minnesota. After winning state titles as a pewee and bantam, Anderson and his teammates enjoyed the same success in high school by winning the 2004 Minnesota State High School Championship. Considered one of the greatest high school teams of all-time, the Cougars had a remarkable season going 30-1 while out scoring their opponents by an astonishing margin of 255-33 and becoming the only team ever to register three shut outs in three state tournament games. Individually as a defensemen, Anderson also had a magical junior season registering 85 points in just 31 games and leading the entire state in assists with 56.

Passing up the opportunity to play the 2004-2005 season in the USHL, Anderson came back his senior year for a shot at winning back to back state titles. The Cougars had another great season, but fell short of winning that state championship. Nonetheless Anderson still impressed. He was named to his second consecutive All-State Team, Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year and Mr. Hockey Award finalist his senior year. Additionally, he was a fourth round draft choice of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Before pursuing the dream of professional hockey, Anderson fulfilled another dream of wearing the Maroon and Gold. He played four seasons at the University of Minnesota where he helped lead the team to become WCHA Champions in 2006 and 2007 and three NCAA playoff appearances.

After his four seasons with the Gophers, Anderson played with various teams in the AHL and the ECHL before finding his path to play in Europe. On May 27, 2011 he signed a contract with the Lillehammer IK of the Norwegian Elite League joining former Gopher teammates Justin Bostrom, Kevin Wehrs and Gino Guyer.

“It made it easier because two of my three past [Gopher] teammates had played the prior season before so I had a good idea of what was going to happen before I went over there,” Anderson states, “Norway is a lot like Minnesota in a way because it is such a Scandinavian influence there. It reminds me a lot of the North Shore in Duluth.”

Anderson proved he could still put up impressive numbers in another country. In 45 games he captured the scoring title for defensemen by registering the most goals, 19, and the most points, 53, of any defensemen in the league.

“It’s a great honor winning an award like that, but a lot of the credit goes to the guys who were around me,” he remarks, “Them making me feel comfortable and putting me in a position to be successful because without that I probably wouldn’t have had the year that I did.”

On July 9th, 2012, Anderson signed a contract with the Malmo Redhawks of the Swedish second-tier league. Playing in 29 games with the team, he registered 10 points (5g, 5a).

“I felt [Sweden] was a good opportunity for me because it was a better league and a lot of doors can open up.”

Signing with Sweden gave Anderson another stamp on the soon to be full passport.

But coming into a new country and a new culture isn’t always easy.

“The biggest challenge in Sweden was being the only import. Figuring out who I was going to hang out with and the different groups and finding guys with common interests because you are half a world apart and a lot of things are different.”

Fortunately, Anderson was able to bring the North American athletic spirit with him to bond with his fellow teammates. American football became a bonding vehicle with his new teammates for he would have his teammates over to watch. In Sweden they do not play football, but they were very interested in learning and he was able to bond with them by teaching the game and rules for American football.

In midseason he was traded back to Norway where he had tremendous success a year earlier. Signing with the Oslo based Valerenga hockey team Anderson finished out the season. He again dominated as he led his team to the league championship. In the playoffs the team was runner up with Anderson leading all defensemen for the league in points and +/-.

One thing Anderson loved about Norway was the off ice camaraderie. He and his teammates enjoyed a lot of team bonding experiences such as skiing in the Norwegian Alps, playing paintball and going out for team dinners.

A funny tradition that is done in the Norway GET-league involves a game of “odd man out.” The leading scorer for each team wears a gold helmet the entire game so the other team can see who it may be. For some teams it is the same player all year long and others the helmet jumps around a bit. Anderson had the honor of wearing the illustrious gold helmet.

“It caught me off guard because it ended up being in my stall a few times. It’s pretty funny. I had to wear it, that’s the way it goes,” he shares with the laugh.

It doesn’t take much for the fans in Europe to get going. Fans are constantly doing cheers and waving flags the entire time; from warm ups to the end of the game.

“Here in North America you don’t see that as much. Fans are a little more quiet unless someone scores a goal; there is a fight or a big hit.”

The fans in Europe have so much passion for their sport teams; it is second to none.

“It’s pretty cool because a lot of the cities there kind of live and die by how their hockey and soccer teams do.”

“I still don’t know the language very well,” Anderson states with a laugh. “The Norwegians learn English at a very young age. English will get you farther than trying to learn their native language because some of those languages [in Europe] are hard to learn and speak. It’s funny because when they learn it, they learn proper English so sometimes it sounds like Shakespeare. They don’t understand our lingo a lot of the time.”

The food in Europe is another big change. Moose meat, oxen meat and horse meat, not something a North American may be used to.

“You have to keep an open mind about it,” he shares.

Traveling overseas to play has not only opened Anderson’s eyes about the game of hockey, but also about the passion of the sport in Europe. With Sweden being as small as it is and having won the Olympics, World Junior Championships and World Championships, that really made him think about the history of the sport in that country.

“It’s amazing how good some of the countries over there are considering how small they are. Sweden is 9 million and Norway is 5 million and to see how good their players really are is really remarkable and to see how well those smaller countries are going to be.”

R.J. Anderson has shown that moving to a new country to pursue a dream of hockey and travel may not always be easy, but it is a once in a lifetime experience that he will never forget.

“Overall, it’s been a great experience and I am looking forward to going back for a third year. And to see what else I get to encounter and broaden my horizon a little more. ”

The post Former Gopher Pursues his Professional Hockey Career Overseas appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Featured Image:
Nick Bjugstad has graduated to the NHL. (MHM Photo by Jeff Wegge)

Nick Bjugstad is living the dream. So much so it’s as if the term was made for the former Minnesota high school and college star who now plays his hockey a mere 15 miles from Florida’s Atlantic coast.

While growing up idolizing high school hockey players in his hometown of Blaine, Minn., Bjugstad dreamed of one day donning the Bengal’s jersey and playing in the Minnesota state high school hockey tournament. But before he would wear that uniform he had to make a very tough decision between playing for the U.S. National Development Program in Michigan or staying at home to play.

“I decided to play at Blaine instead of with the U.S. team because I grew up watching high school hockey and the state tournaments,” Bjugstad said. “It was a great tradition so I felt that it was a better fit for me and that I could develop there, produce more of a scoring touch and would build more confidence playing in high school.”

Bjugstad indeed played three seasons for the Bengals, leading them to the state tournament each time (2008-2010) but never won the state title he sought. In his last year at Blaine, Bjugstad racked up 69 points (35-34) in 35 games and was awarded the prestigious Mr. Hockey award given to the most outstanding high school senior hockey player in Minnesota.

Not only was Bjugstad a step ahead in hockey, he took on the challenge of rising above the crowd in school as well. By taking summer courses and extra classes his junior year he was able to graduate a year early in 2010 which accelerated his dream of playing hockey for the Gophers.

Former Gopher Aaron Ness of Roseau, who performed the same feat two years prior, served as Bjugstad’s inspiration.

“I had never really thought about doing that until I saw Aaron Ness do it and I thought that was pretty cool to see him do,” Bjugstad said. “I talked to [Minnesota coach Don] Lucia the summer between my sophomore and junior year and he thought that I would be ready a little early so I accelerated.”

Bjugstad always knew that he wanted to skate with the maroon and gold jersey flapping in the air so when it became a reality it was a dream come true.

“When I first met with Lucia my freshman year it was awesome because I never thought I could make it there especially at that young age,” Bjugstad said. “It was very surreal sitting in Don’s office. I didn’t really think about going anywhere else; I knew right away that I wanted to go there.”

In his first season with the Gophers in 2010-2011, Bjugstad received the Frank Pond Rookie of the Year award while registering 20 points (8g-12a). He began turning heads when, as a sophomore, he was named to the All-WCHA First Team, won national Player of the Month for November and led the team in goal scoring with 25. Additionally, he led Minnesota to the MacNaughton Cup title, as WCHA regular season champions, and to the Frozen Four.

After an outstanding sophomore season there were many who speculated that Bjugstad, a first-round pick (19th overall) in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft by the Florida Panthers, would leave the Gophers and embark on his NHL career. Bjugstad chose to stay, however, because he felt Minnesota had the talent to make another run at the National Championship.

“I had a good year my sophomore year, but we didn’t win it all like we wanted to,” Bjugstad lamented. “We came close, but it was the fact that we had another chance the next season. I was with a great group of guys and we had another shot at it.”

The Gophers indeed had another shot at it thanks to an exceptional season in which they captured a second straight MacNaughton Cup (shared with St. Cloud State). But a heartbreaking overtime loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament to eventual champion, Yale, dashed the Gophers’, and Bjugstad’s, championship hopes.

As a junior, Bjugstad was named to the All-WCHA Third Team after leading Minnesota in goal scoring with 21 and finishing third on the team with 36 points. Shortly after Minnesota’s season came to a stunning end, Bjugstad made the difficult decision to forgo his senior season with the Golden Gophers and sign with the Panthers.

“I didn’t really know what I was going to do,” Bjugstad said. “The offer was on the table and I took it because I felt that it was time to move on with my career.”

On April 3rd, 2013, Bjugstad officially became a professional hockey player and his NHL dream was realized three days later when he made his NHL debut as the Panthers hosted Washington. Stepping into his first NHL locker room was imposing and awe-inspiring for the rookie.

“I was pretty wide-eyed to begin with getting in that locker room and seeing my jersey there,” Bjugstad recalled. “Everyone was very welcoming and the coaches were really helpful with getting me to learn their systems.”

Bjugstad admitted his first taste of NHL action was, “pretty nerve-wracking.”

“My first game was against the Capitals and [Alex] Ovechkin actually had a hat-trick which was pretty intimidating,” he said with a laugh. “Getting on the ice for those first couple shifts, I wasn’t thinking too much, I was just trying to play defensively.”

Finishing the season with Florida was a great experience for Bjugstad and his development. In all, Bjugstad played 11 games, scoring 1 goal and firing 17 shots.

When Florida’s season came to a halt, Bjugstad’s whirlwind spring continued when he was proudly selected to play in the World Championships held in Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland. In the span of just one month, he went from college hockey, to the NHL, then to become one of two college players asked to represent his country in the World Championships.

“I didn’t expect that one coming,” Bjugstad said. “I got the call about a week after the season with Florida. It was very fun going out there and seeing what it is like in Europe.”

One of Bjugstad’s teammates at the World Championships was arch-rival Danny Kristo. When asked what it was like playing with his antagonist from Eden Prairie and hated North Dakota, he responded with a laugh.

“Danny was actually my roommate in Europe,” Bjugstad said. “We always went at it when we played each other, but that’s how it is when you play against someone in hockey then you end up playing on a team with them; you become friends.”

The two longtime combatants managed to collaborate together to form a strong line helping the U.S. reach the podium for the first time since 2004.

“It was funny that we were on the same line,” Bjugstad said. We always brought up some of the events that happened in college and some of the fights that we got in to. It was a good time.”

Bjugstad’s biggest idols growing up were his dad and his uncle, fellow former Gopher Scott Bjugstad who played 317 gamed for three NHL teams, including the Minnesota North Stars, between 1984 and 1992. Although he never got to see them play, they served as important role models for him.

Another of Bjugstad’s heroes growing up was NHLer Matt Hendricks, a fellow Blaine native, who signed a free-agent deal with the Nashville Predators last week after three seasons with the Capitals. Bjugstad was inspired by watching Hendricks lead the Bengals to the 2000 state title before going on to star at St. Cloud State and, ultimately, reach the NHL.

“Hendricks [played] for Washington so it was cool playing against him for my first game,” Bjugstad said. “He chirped me a little, but it was fun playing against him. He is a really good guy.”

Bjugstad offered some advice to young hockey players who may aspire to achieve what he has: Enjoy it.

“Don’t have your parents push you too much,” Bjugstad said. “You have to make sure that you are having fun as well as working hard.”

Nick Bjugstad is proof that with hard work dreams do come true.

The post Living the Dream appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.