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Tag Archives: Arizona Coyotes

Anthony Duclair departs the Arizona desert in a deal to Chicago Blackhawks

13 Saturday Jan 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Anthony Duclair, Arizona Coyotes, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers

The desert seemed like the perfect place for forward Anthony Duclair.

He was supposed to be a roadrunner on skates, a key component on a young Arizona Coyotes team looking to resurrect itself from the ashes of losing seasons.

Anthony Duclair moves from the desert to the Windy City in trade.

But the 22-year-old fourth-season player didn’t prove to be a Phoenix rising for Arizona and the Coyotes dealt him Wednesday to the Chicago Blackhawks along with defenseman Adam Clendening for forwards Richard Panik and Laurent Dauphin.

Duclair, a New York Rangers 2013 third-round draft pick, was unhappy in Arizona and requested a trade after being a healthy scratch in 10 of the team’s 33 games this season and playing only 13:27 minutes per game when he was in the lineup.

“It wasn’t a decision I made overnight,” Duclair told reporters Friday before skating in the Blackhawks’ 3-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets in Chicago. “I didn’t have the leash that others had…Not going to say it was unfair to me, but talking to the older guys on the team, they felt I deserved better. And I thought so, too.”

.@aduclair10 describes how he found out he was traded, his plans for the bonus bye week and more after his first #Blackhawks morning skate. #CHIvsWPG pic.twitter.com/u956ouSSJv

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) January 12, 2018

The Coyotes were only too happy to comply with Duclair’s request to move on.

“It’s gone back for a few years now where the team wasn’t happy with the player and the player wasn’t particularly happy with the team and we worked through some things,  tried a lot of different approaches in a lot of different ways,” Arizona General ManagerJohn Chayka told reporters. “I hope he has success in Chicago and does good things.”

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The trade comes two seasons after Duclair tallied 20 goals and 24 assists in 81 games for the Coyotes. His production dipped in the 2016-17 season to 5 goals and 10 assists in 58 games and he spent 16 games with the Tucson Roadrunners, the Coyotes’ AmericanHockey League affiliate.

Duclair had 9 goals and 6 assists in 33 games for Arizona this season. The player nicknamed “The Duke” said he was “stoked” about a fresh start in Chicago, a start that found him skating laps in Friday’s morning skate after he was the last player to join a team huddle.

Anthony Duclair is last to the team huddle after the morning skate and has to do a lap. The newcomers always learn this way. pic.twitter.com/OcsxroAGu0

— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) January 12, 2018

“We had a tough situation in Arizona,” Duclair told reporters. “(I’m) ready to be in a playoff atmosphere. Every game counts.”

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

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Three players of color chosen in first round of 2017 NHL Draft

24 Saturday Jun 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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2017 NHL Draft, Arizona Coyotes, Chicago Blackhawks, Edmonton Oilers, Kailer Yamamoto, Mathieu Joseph, Nick Suzuki, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Tampa Bay Lightning

CHICAGO – Three players of color took center stage at the 2017 National Hockey League Draft at Chicago’s United Center Friday night.

Two major junior hockey players of Asian heritage and a black French-Canadian player were chosen in the first round of the 31-team draft. And Ryan Reaves, a pugnacious veteran forward, was traded by the St. Louis Blues to the Pittsburgh Penguins, a move that capped the first day of the draft.

Thirteen proved to be a lucky number for Nick Suzuki, a forward for the Owen Sound Attack of the Ontario Hockey League. He was taken with the 13th pick in the draft by the expansion Vegas Golden Knights.

Nick Suzuki of the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack hopes to be Vegas-bound after being drafted in the first round by the Golden Knights (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

“It’s not every day you get picked by an expansion team,” Suzuki said after he had his named called  and donned the fledgling Golden Knights’ jersey. “I’m really happy about being picked by Vegas and I want to get there pretty  quick and see the new building.”

Suzuki was ranked as the 10th-best North American skater by NHL Central Scouting. The 5-foot-10 native of London, Ontario, was Owen Sound’s second-leading scorer last season with 45 goals and 51 assists in 65 games.

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His younger brother, forward Ryan Suzuki, was the first player chosen in the 2017 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection Draft in April, plucked by the Barrie Colts.

Nick Suzuki said he has no worries about joining a new NHL team that’s bound to have more losses than wins in its first few seasons.

“I don’t think I’m nervous,” he said. “I’m more excited to see what Vegas is like. I don’t know if there’s pressure. I kind of just take it as a new team and you have to show them that you’re a good player.”

Kailer Yamamoto is looking forward to someday playing with Edmonton Oilers snipers Connor McDavid  and Leon Draisaitl  after Edmonton selected Yamamoto, a forward with the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs, with the 22nd pick of the draft.

“I’m really looking forward to going to that skill team,” Yamamoto said. “I think it’s going to definitely benefit my game.”

The 5-foot-7, 140-pound  right wing was listed as the 17th-best North American skater by Central Scouting.

Spokane Chiefs’ Kailer Yamamoto hopes to prove that size doesn’t matter after the Edmonton Oilers chose the 5-foot-7 forward in the first round of the NHL Draft (Photo/Larry Brunt/Spokane Chiefs).

A Spokane native of Japanese and Hawaiian heritage, Yamamoto led the Chiefs in scoring in 2016-17 with 42 goals and 47 assists in 65 games. His older brother, Keanu, was Spokane’s fourth-leading scorer last season with 26 goals and 43 assists in 72 games.

Embed from Getty Images

 

“My dad’s dad, he’s from Japan actually, he was in the internment camps,” Kailer Yamamoto said. “My dad’s half Japanese so that makes me a quarter Japanese. It’s unbelievable to be Japanese, get the Japanese heritage, and hopefully be in the NHL someday.”

Right after Yamamoto had his name called, defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph was chosen with the 23nd pick of the draft by the Arizona Coyotes.

Embed from Getty Images

Joseph patrolled the blue line last season for the Charlottetown Islanders of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, where he had 6 goals and 33 assists in 62 games.

Joseph wasn’t a stranger to the spectacle and hype of draft day. He watched his older brother, forward Mathieu Joseph of the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs, get drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the fourth round in 2015.

Still, the younger Joseph – who was ranked as the 27th-best North American skater eligible for the draft by Central Scouting – admitted to having a case of the jitters on Friday.

“Obviously, I didn’t want to think about the draft,” he said. “I played cards and watched movies as the day goes on, but as I sat in the stands and watched the names go by, I was thinking whether I’d get called or not.”

He credited his older brother and his parents for helping him achieve his draft day moment.

“I was a bit of an underdog,” Joseph said. “Obviously, I had my brother and my family to push me. Everyone has been there for me to push me and make me the player I am now.”

Thanks to Evan Moore for contributing to this report.

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey.

 

 

 

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From Detroit to the Desert? Arizona Coyotes sign Jalen Smereck

11 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Arizona Coyotes, Flint Firebirds, Jalen Smereck, Ontario Hockey League, Oshawa Generals

Not taken in the 2016 National Hockey League Draft? Not a problem for Jalen Smereck.

When his name wasn’t called at June’s draft in Buffalo, the 19-year-old Flint Firebirds defenseman did what he always does – he went back to work and he impressed.

Smereck turned an Arizona Coyotes’ rookie camp appearance over the summer into an invite to the NHL team’s training camp last month into a three-year entry level contract with the team that he signed last week.

“This is a surreal moment for my family and I,” Smereck said of the signing. “This is an opportunity that I don’t take lightly and am very thankful to the entire Arizona Coyotes organization. There is still a lot of work to be done but I guarantee that I will work my hardest to get better everyday.”

Embed from Getty Images

The Detroit native appeared in one preseason game for Arizona last month, registering two hits and two penalty minutes while logging 13:44 minutes of ice time.

The Coyotes shipped the 6-foot, 195-pound defender back to Flint, where he’s an alternate captain on the Firebirds.

He has no goals and 6 assists in four OHL games this season. Smereck tallied 5 goals and 20 assists  in 63 games for the OHL’s  Oshawa Generals last season. He was acquired by Flint over the summer.

“This is an awesome day for Jalen and his family,” said Firebirds General Manager George Burnett of Smereck’s NHL signing. “This is another great example of determination and perseverance by a young man who was a late draft selection into our league and was not picked in the NHL Entry Draft.”

Jalen Smereck starred on the blue line last season for the Oshawa Generals (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

Jalen Smereck starred on the blue line last season for the Oshawa Generals (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

The Generals chose Smereck with the 299th overall pick in the 2013 OHL draft. Before joining Oshawa, he skated for the Bloomington Thunder  of the United States Hockey League after the Tier I junior  team selected him with the 18th overall pick in the 2014 Phase II Draft. He also played two games for the Odessa Jackalopes of the North American Hockey League.

Smereck hails from a hockey family that had him on skates by the time he was two years old.

“My dad coached my two older brothers and I was just one of the younger kids around the rink watching,” Smereck told The Detroit Free Press recently. I always took my brother’s stick and played in the hallway. My dad thought I was ready and took me on the ice.”

Despite Detroit’s black hockey history – the Detroit Hockey Association has produced players who’ve gone on to stellar collegiate and minor league careers– it wasn’t always easy being a black kid  playing in the Motor City, Smereck said.

“Everyone else is playing basketball or football and you’re playing hockey,” he told The Detroit Free Press recently. “I kind of got teased a bit for playing that sport. I still played basketball and baseball, but they looked down on me for playing hockey.”

These days, Smereck works to make sure that young kids of color in Flint and back home in Detroit learn that hockey is indeed for everyone.

“I definitely look to get out in the community here in Flint and open up the eyes of some of the young kids in the inner city,” he told the Free Press. “Even back home in Detroit, I’ve done a few talks with kids and just tried to show them. It’s amazing when you show them what a hockey puck is and they just can’t take their eyes off it.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Undrafted class of 2016 audition for NHL teams at development camps

10 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Arizona Coyotes, Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, Washington Capitals, Yushiro Hirano

For some, the glow of the 2016 National Hockey League Draft has long flickered out. Now is the time for sweat and hard work for the players who didn’t have their names called in Buffalo.

Several members of the Undrafted Class of 2016 have scored second chances of sorts with invites to the development camps of NHL teams interested in giving them a look  and maybe a spot in their minor league systems.

Right wing Daniel Muzito-Bagenda of the Ontario Hockey League’s Mississauga Steelheads didn’t get the call during the two-day draft in Buffalo. But he got a call from Buffalo a couple of days later.

Passed over by NHL teams at the 2016 draft, Mississauga's Daniel Muzito-Bagenda signed a one-year deal with the Rochester Americans, the Buffalo Sabres AHL farm team (Photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Passed over by NHL teams at the 2016 draft, Mississauga’s Daniel Muzito-Bagenda signed a one-year deal with the Rochester Americans, the Buffalo Sabres AHL farm team (Photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

The Rochester Americans, the Buffalo Sabres‘ American Hockey League farm team, signed him to a one-year contract. The Swedish Muzito-Bagenda, 20, was ranked the 205th-best draft-eligible North American skater.

He finished fifth on the Steelheads in scoring in 2015-16 with 20 goals and 17 assists in 63 regular season games. He notched 6 goals and 4 assists in seven playoff games.

Muzito-Bagenda attended the Sabres’ development camp last week and played alongside Steelheads teammates Alexander Nylander – the Sabres’ 2016 first-round pick, the eighth player chosen overall – and local boy Austin Omanski, Buffalo’s 2016 seventh-round pick, the 189th player selected.

The Sabres once featured the “French Connection,” the high-scoring line of Gilbert Perreault, Rene Robert and Rick Martin. Buffalo, at least for the development camp, could boast the “Mississauga Connection” with Muzito-Bagenda, Nylander and Omanski.

“We know each other from being teammates all last year, so it makes us feel more comfortable out there,” Muzito-Bagenda told the Americans’ website. “That has helped getting to know the other guys here, too.”

Mississauga Steelheads' Josh Burnside attended the Washington Capitals rookie and development camp (Photo/ Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Mississauga Steelheads’ Josh Burnside attended the Washington Capitals rookie and development camp (Photo/ Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Like Muzito-Bagenda, Steelheads team captain Josh Burnside went undrafted. Not ranked by NHL Central Scouting,  the 5-foot-11, 186-pound left wing landed a development camp invite from the Washington Capitals.

Burnside, 21, was the Steelheads fourth-leading scorer last season with 13 goals and 32 assists in 55 regular season games. He had 2 goals and 2 assists in seven playoff games.

Youngstown Phantoms right wing Yushiro Hirano is becoming a development veteran. Hirano, the first player born in Japan to skate in the United States Hockey League, was invited to the San Jose Sharks camp.

The Hokkaido native attended the Chicago Blackhawks’ prospects camp last year. Hirano, 20, was ranked the 184th-best North American player in 2016 by NHL Central Scouting prior to the June draft.

He finished third on the Phantoms in scoring in 2015-16 with 24 goals and 22 assists in 54 games.

High-scoring forward Yushiro Hirano found his way to the San Jose Sharks' development camp after he wasn't drafted by an NHL team (Photo/Bill Paterson).

High-scoring forward Yushiro Hirano found his way to the San Jose Sharks’ development camp after he wasn’t drafted by an NHL team (Photo/Bill Paterson).

Left wing Jermaine Loewen of the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers joined Hirano at the Sharks camp.

The 18-year-old is one of hockey’s remarkable stories. Born in Jamaica and adopted from an island orphanage by a white Manitoba family when he was five, Loewen didn’t lace on a pair of skates until he was six -late by Canadian standards.

Embed from Getty Images

 

But he’s making up for lost time. The 6-foot-3, 205 Loewen tallied 8 goals and 7 assists in 67 regular season games for the Blazers last season. He was held scoreless in 37 games in 2014-15.

It seems that no matter where defenseman Jalen Smereck goes, he always manages to surprise and impress. The Detroit area native worked his way from the USHL’s Bloomington Thunder to the Oshawa Generals who took him with the 299th overall pick of the 2013 Ontario Hockey League draft.

He developed into a top  defenseman for the Generals last season with 5 goals and 20 assists in 63 games.

Smereck  didn’t crack Central Scouting’s rankings and NHL teams passed on him in Buffalo, but the 6-foot, 173-pound alum of the minority-oriented Detroit Hockey Association  proved to be one of the highlights of the Arizona Coyotes’s development camp recently.

Former Oshawa Generals defenseman Jalen Smereck apparently impressed at Arizona Coyotes camp (Photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Former Oshawa Generals defenseman Jalen Smereck apparently impressed at Arizona Coyotes camp (Photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

“Jalen Smereck may be undrafted, but his play Monday looked like he should have been,” the website FanSided reported on its Howlin’ Hockey  Coyotes blog. “Smereck played hard on the puck, making it seem like he was bigger than he really was. His puck handling seemed reminiscent of P.K. Subban’s defensive stylings.”

Smereck appears destined to return to the OHL next season. The Generals traded him in the off-season to home state Michigan’s Flint Firebirds. That is, unless he surprises and impresses some more.

 

 

 

 

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Football player father gets hockey education on son’s way to skating for U of Maine

23 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Arizona Coyotes, Cushing Academy, Malcolm Hayes, University of Maine

Television newsman Mark Hayes knew one thing about hockey when his son, Malcolm, first laced on a pair of skates: That he didn’t know anything about hockey.

“Malcolm was invited to a birthday party when we lived in Detroit and they said ‘Bring your hockey bag.’ He was four or five at the time and we didn’t have a hockey bag. So his mother instructed me to go to the sporting goods store and find out what goes in a hockey bag and fill one up for him,” Mark Hayes told me recently. “The rest is kind of history.”

Today, Malcolm Hayes, 19, is a freshman left wing on the University of Maine Black Bears hockey team. Mark Hayes is a morning news anchor for WLWT television in Cincinnati and a former Howard University football player.

He and his wife, Latonya, have taken the journey that more and more minority parents are finding themselves on, guiding their children through a sport that they were rarely exposed to as kids growing up or seldom watched as adults.

Malcolm Hayes in action for Maine's Black Bears. Hockey was a learning experience for his dad, a former Howard University football player.

Malcolm Hayes in action for Maine’s Black Bears. Hockey was a learning experience for his dad, a former Howard University football player.

“I had no clue because I had no clue about what it took to be really good at it,” Mark Hayes said of hockey. “I knew what it took to be really good at football. Hockey, it’s a different sacrifice. People really don’t understand what it takes to get to that Division I hockey level.”

Popeye Jones knows how Hayes felt. Jones, who was a forward for six National Basketball Association teams over 11 seasons, wasn’t quite sure what to do when his sons, including Seth, became serious about hockey.

Playing for the NBA Denver Nuggets at the time, the 6-foot-8 Popeye approached  5-foot-11 Joe Sakic, the great Colorado Avalanche center, one day for advice.

“He said ‘You’ve got to make sure they know how to skate,'” Popeye, now an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers,  told me recently. “He said ‘They’ll be coordinated and, looking at you, they’re going to be big. Make sure they can skate.'”

Popeye followed Sakic’s advice. Today, Seth Jones is a smooth-skating – and tall – defenseman for the Nashville Predators.

“When you see what your kids are passionate about, you’ve got to let them do it,” Popeye said. “Then your job becomes, if you don’t know anything about hockey, to start watching, start learning about the game. You’ll love it if you start learning about it.”

The Hayes family quickly learned and went all-in on a team sport that perhaps requires more from families in terms of time, travel, expense and support than football, baseball or basketball.

“My dad and my mom were definitely my biggest fans growing up,” Malcolm Hayes told me. “They were always trying to help me be a better hockey player. Even when I was playing both hockey and football, it wasn’t like he (Mark Hayes) was pushing me to practice football more.”

WLWT anchorman and proud hockey papa Mark Hayes learned the game by watching son Malcolm play.

WLWT anchorman and proud hockey papa Mark Hayes learned the game by watching son Malcolm play.

That said, Malcolm conceded that mom and dad initially thought hockey “was going to be like a little phase and I would eventually start playing football or basketball or baseball…I really didn’t like any of those sports.”

Moving to Atlanta and playing football in the sunny South only cemented Malcolm’s desire to become a hockey player.

“Football wasn’t as fun because it was too hot there,” he said. “I would just go to the rink and have a blast. I enjoyed it more than football.”

As Malcolm’s love for hockey grew, so did Mark’s. But sometimes the father felt frustration from being unable to coach or share tips with his youngest son.

Mark’s oldest son, Kenny Hayes, followed in his father’s cleats and was a wide receiver for Howard University’s Bisons. He graduated in 2011.

“It was easy for me to say ‘Hey, try this,’ or ‘Hey, do this,’ or ‘Hey, this is what worked for me.’ I couldn’t do that with Malcolm,” Mark Hayes said. “All I could do is record games on our VCR or DVR and say ‘Hey, check this out. This is how the pros do it.’ I think the most frustrating thing was not being able to help him.”

Recruited as a defenseman, Malcolm Hayes adds scoring punch for Maine as left wing.

Recruited as a defenseman, Malcolm Hayes adds scoring punch for Maine as left wing.

His frustration eased when he learned one valuable lesson by watching Malcolm practice and play: It takes a village – and some serious extra coaching –  to build a good hockey player.

“I started paying attention to what the other families were doing at the rinks,” Mark Hayes recalled. “They were doing private lessons. I grew up playing football, basketball and lacrosse. I didn’t know you had someone to work with your son on just  skills or just skating.”

For eight years in Atlanta, the family had former New York Islanders left wing Yan Kaminsky work as Malcolm’s skating coach and Scott Pearson, a 1988 Toronto Maple Leafs first-round draft pick, as his skills coach.

“My wife would get up at 6 a.m., they’d be at the rink at 6:30 a.m., and back in the car at 7:40 a.m. on their way to school,” Mark Hayes said. “He’d get a nice little hour skate in twice a week then go to regular practices in the evenings.”

University of Maine's Malcolm Hayes.

University of Maine’s Malcolm Hayes.

The extra practice paid off. Malcolm went on to play hockey at Cushing Academy, a Massachusetts prep school that’s produced several National Hockey League players including Arizona Coyotes defenseman Keith Yandle, Buffalo Sabres defenseman Zach Bogosian, and Boston Bruins defensive prospect David Warsofsky.

“Malcolm has a ton of potential and has a high ceiling for improvement as he is physically far ahead of other players his age,” Cushing Head Coach Rob Gagnon told SBNation’s College Hockey blog last year. “He is big, strong and fast. He is very physical in the corners and in front of the net.”

After one season at Cushing, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Hayes accepted a scholarship at Maine.”Malcolm Hayes provides our team tremendous size, explosive power, and a significant offensive upside,” Black Bears Head Coach Red Gendron said in July.

Gendron was so high on Hayes’s offensive skills that he moved the freshman from the blue line to left wing earlier this season. He tallied four goals, two assists, and 34 penalty minutes in 29 regular season games for the Hockey East’s Black Bears.

“Overall, I think my year went pretty well,” he told me. “I definitely had my struggles being my first year, and getting acclimated to playing forward at a high level in Hockey East.”

 

 

 

 

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Surgery behind her, an Eagle looks to soar to NCAA title, Winter Olympics slot

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

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Arizona Coyotes, Boston College, Harvard University, Kaliya Johnson, Mighty Ducks

Suffering a concussion is usually a bad thing for a hockey player. But for Kaliya Johnson, it proved to be a blessing in disguise.

Johnson, a defenseman on Boston College’s women’s hockey team, suffered a concussion with debilitating symptoms that lasted beyond four months.

From the sun-drenched West Coast to snowy New England, Kaliya Johnson helps anchor Boston College's blue line.

From the sun-drenched West Coast to snowy New England, Kaliya Johnson helps anchor Boston College’s blue line.

An MRI done before the start of BC’s 2014-15 Hockey East season revealed the true source of Johnson’s problem: a Chiari malformation, a structural condition of the brain and spinal cord that contributes to a smaller than normal space for the brain, pressing it downward. In many cases, people aren’t aware they have the ailment.

“Basically, my brain was sitting below the base of my skull. It was something I was born with,” Johnson told me recently. “I had symptoms all my life – little things like pressure headaches, getting migraines. I thought it was normal for me.”

In September, doctors performed surgery that “opened up some space and removed the first vertebrae in my neck, so there was more room to breathe back there,” Johnson said.

Given the physical nature of hockey, Johnson’s condition was discovered in the nick of time.

“It could have been a lot more damaging if I would have continued to keep playing and I got hit in the head wrong, or my back,” she said “It would have been permanently damaging. I feel great now.”

Johnson, a junior, was back on the ice in November and has been a stalwart on the Boston College Eagles’ defense ever since.

The Eagles, the nation’s top-ranked Division I women’s hockey team, suffered a 3-2 defeat to fourth-ranked Harvard University Tuesday night in the championship game of the 37th annual Women’s Beanpot Tournament at Harvard’s Bright-Landry Hockey Center.

Still, it seems fitting that Johnson plays for a hockey team nicknamed after a bird. She has logged a lot of frequent flier miles traveling for the love of hockey.

Boston College's Kaliya Johnson takes flight on the ice.

Boston College’s Kaliya Johnson takes flight on the ice with the puck.

She got interested in hockey after watching “The Mighty Ducks” movie when she was two years old and living in Los Angeles. And after learning how to skate at the Culver Ice Arena and developing some serious hockey skills, she joined the Anaheim Lady Ducks, a program that has sent several players to the top NCAA women’s hockey powerhouses over the years.

Like ducks and eagles, Johnson knows a thing or two about flying. As Johnson’s youth hockey career was taking off in Southern California her mother, Kellie, decided to relocate the family to Arizona.

“I think she just wanted to change and where I was, the school system wasn’t the greatest,” she said.

Even though Arizona had the National Hockey League’s Phoenix (now Arizona) Coyotes, various incarnations of the Phoenix Roadrunners in various leagues, club hockey at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona, the state still wasn’t a youth hockey hotbed while Johnson was growing up.

“They had a boy’s league and I played in it for a year,” she told me recently. “It was the year I went from squirts to pee wee and they started checking. It got too physical and I broke my arm. I got hit pretty badly and I landed on my elbow. So after that, I decided that I would stick to girl’s hockey. But there wasn’t a team competitive enough for me in Arizona or one that had a well developed program where I could go out and play other competitive teams.”

So she kept playing with the Lady Ducks. Every other weekend Johnson’s mother would drive her 12-year-old daughter to the airport and watch her board a plane to Anaheim by herself.

“It was about a 1 1/2, 2-hour flight,” said Johnson, now 20 years old. “I went by myself and one of my good friends’ mother on my team would pick me up at the airport and I’d stay with them.”

“It  was a big sacrifice for my family,” she added. “I’m sure it was hard on her to have her daughter leaving that young almost every other weekend. But she was very supportive and encouraged me to follow my dream. That’s what I wanted to do.”

Boston College's Kaliya Johnson against arch-rival Boston University.

Boston College’s Kaliya Johnson against arch-rival Boston University.

Johnson earned even more frequent flier miles in high school when she was recruited to attend the North American Hockey Academy, an elite girl’s program in snowy Stowe, Vt. – nearly 2,800 miles from her family’s home in sun-drenched Chandler, Ariz.

“They had two hockey teams there, all girls, and there were about 40 of us,” she said. “We would move up there in late September and we would play the season. They had a league and everything established. We lived in an old resort ski lodge and there was private tutoring. We would travel almost every weekend to play league games and  tournaments. When the season was over, I’d fly back to Arizona and finish the school  year there.”

Johnson’s hockey prowess caught the eyes of USA Hockey. She was a member of the development program’s Under-18 team that won the Silver Medal at the 2011-12 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship.

At Boston College, Johnson has tallied one goal, five assists, and six penalty minutes in 20 games this season.

She’s hoping that her her strong defensive play, and the Eagles making a run for their first NCAA Division I women’s hockey title, will catch USA Hockey’s attention once again and lead to more flying: to PyeongChang, South Korea, in 2018 as a member U.S. women’s Olympic ice hockey team.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the Olympics and be able to represent Team USA,” she said. “My goal is to get back on their (USA Hockey’s) radar.”

In the meantime, Johnson is focused on helping the Eagles soar to an NCAA hockey title.

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