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Players of color compete in the other March Madness – the Frozen Four championship

24 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Boston University, C.J. Suess, Christian Lampasso, Erik Foley, Frozen Four, Jordan Greenway, Justin Wade, Minnesota State University, Providence College, The Ohio State University, University of Notre Dame, Winnipeg Jets

March Madness on ice is in full swing and the road to the Frozen Four features several players of color on teams vying to get to the championship game in St. Paul, Minnesota, next month.

The Ohio State University forward Dakota Joshua was the Buckeyes’ fourth-leading scorer in 2017-18, notching 15 goals and 10 assists in 33 games. A 2014 Toronto Maple Leafs fifth-round draft pick, the junior from Dearborn, Michigan,has a goal in the NCAA championship tourney.

Ohio State University forward Dakota Joshua hopes to lead the Buckeyes to an NCAA Frozen Four title (Photo/The Ohio State University Athletics).

Joshua has a chance to score more as Ohio State faces the University of Minnesota-Duluth on Thursday, April 5, at the Xel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Buckeyes senior forward Christian Lampasso was the Buckeyes’ sixth-leading goal-scorer with 10 to go along with 3 assists in 35 games in the regular season. The 23-year-old from Amherst, New York’s Twitter handle is @formerlydreadsy, nod to his Haitian heritage and the dreadlocks he used to wear under his hockey helmet.

Ohio State University forward Christian Lampasso shed his dreadlocks but hasn’t lost his scoring touch for the Buckeyes (Photo/The Ohio State University Athletics).

Defenseman Justin Wade helped secure the blue line for the  University of Notre Dame in 2017-18. Wade, a 23-year-old senior from Aurora, Illinois, was fourth on the team in blocked shots last season with 42. He also led the Fighting Irish in penalty minutes with 54 in 33 games.

The Fighting Irish play Michigan on Thursday.

University of Notre Dame defenseman Justin Wade and the Fighting Irish are back in a familiar spot – the NCAA playoffs.

After failing to win gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, Jordan Greenway rejoined Boston University’s team hoping to win a Frozen Four championship trophy to go with BU’s 2017-18 Hockey East title.

But his quest ended when the Terriers lost to the University of Michigan Wolverines 6-3 in the Northeastern Final on March 24.

The 6-foot-5 junior forward from Canton, N.Y., had 12 goals and 21 assists in 34 regular season games for the Terriers. Greenway,  a 2015 Minnesota Wild second-round draft pick and the first African-American player on a U.S. Olympic hockey team, notched a goal in five games in PyeongChang.

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Greenway didn’t make it to the Xel Energy Center with the Terriers, but he made it with the Wild after he signed a three-year entry level contract with the team after BU was eliminated from the NCAA tournament.

Forward Erik Foley was Providence College’s leading scorer in the 2017-18 season with 16 goals and 19 assists in 36 regular season games.

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Foley, a 2015 Winnipeg Jets third-round draft pick, is joined on the Friars by forward Vimal Sukumaran. A sophomore from Montreal, Sukumaran  was ninth on the team with 10 goals and 8 assists in 38 regular season games in 2017-18.

The hockey season ended for Foley and Sukumaran when the Friars lost to Notre Dame 2-1 in the NCAA quarterfinals on March 24.

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His name changed but his game remained the same. Minnesota State University senior forward C.J. Suess, changed his last name from Franklin and took his mother’s maiden name to honor her.

Despite the new name on the back of his jersey,  he remained the same hard-nosed, high-scoring  player for the Mavericks.

Mavericks' C.J. Suess named WCHA Player of the Year, first time for an Minnesota State player.https://t.co/K6zsBSKHkP pic.twitter.com/rl5sZC3Yhk

— Mankato Free Press (@Mankatonews) March 15, 2018

The 23-year-old Forest Lake, Minnesota, led the team with 22 goals and 21 assists in 40 games in 2017-18. His 22 goals tied him for twelfth among NCAA Division I hockey players.

Suess, a Winnipeg Jets 2014 fifth-round draft pick, also led by example. He was the Mavericks’ team captain for last two seasons.

His season ended on March 23 when the Mavericks lost to rival University of Minnesota-Duluth 3-2 in overtime in a first-round contest.

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Canisius College goalie Charles Williams named Hobey Baker Award finalist

16 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Atlantic Hockey, Canisius College, Charles Williams, Frozen Four, Hobey Baker Award

Canisius College goaltender Charles Williams is a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, the coveted prize for the top NCAA Division I men’s hockey player.

Canisius College goalie Charles Williams.

Williams, a transfer graduate student who’s enjoying an outstanding year between the pipes for the tiny Buffalo college, was one of 10 players chosen as Hobey Baker finalists by the NCAA’s 60 D-I hockey head coaches and by online voting by fans.

“It is a true honor to be mentioned with a lot of great names,” Williams told the Buffalo News Wednesday. “Being the first in school history is a great honor, too.”

The field of finalists will be whittled down to three – called the Hobey Baker hat trick – on March 30. The winner of the award will be announced April 7 during the 2017 NCAA Frozen Four tournament in Chicago.

Canisius College goalie Charles Williams has been a nightmare for shooters this season, making him a 2017 Hobey Baker Award finalist (Photo/Canisius College).

Williams, a Canton, Michigan, native led all D-I goalies with a .946 save percentage during the 2016-17 regular season. He was tied for first with 5 shutouts and second in the nation with a 1.83 goals-against average.

He finished with a 15-6-4 record and helped backstop the Golden Griffins on a 17-game unbeaten string dating back to January. He’s also been unbeatable in the Atlantic Hockey conference tournament, leading top-seeded Canisius to semifinal Friday against fourth-seed Robert Morris University.

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Powerade commercial’s black hockey player powers through tough times

23 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Des Moines Buccaneers, Frozen Four, Harlem Nights, Jonathon Robinson, March Madness, Saskatoon Blades, Swift Current Broncos, USHL, Washington Capitals, WHL

Jonathon Robinson has been religiously tuning into the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament on television looking for ice hockey.

No, the 20-year-old San Diego native isn’t confusing this month’s basketball fest with next month’s NCAA Frozen Four hockey tournament.

He’s been checking out the basketball games to see if a television commercial that debuted during last year’s March Madness and featured him playing hockey is airing again during this year’s tournament.

Jonathon Robinson calls TV commercial one of the best moments in hockey career.

Jonathon Robinson calls TV commercial one of the best moments in hockey career.

Robinson was the black hockey player in an ad for Powerade, a Coca-Cola brand sport drink, that generated a lot of buzz last year for challenging athletic and societal stereotypes. The 31-second spot featured quick cuts of athletes seemingly against type: a smallish basketball player going strong to the hoop; a slow defensive football player attacking a quarterback; and a female wrestler preparing to do battle against a male opponent.

Then there was Robinson, who skated towards the camera with his white teammates and asked whether he was “Not in the right sport?”

A year after the commercial premiered, Robinson remains thrilled that he had the opportunity to be in it and proud of the message – beyond selling a product – that the ad tried to convey.

“By saying those few lines and just the whole message of the commercial, it really  meant a lot more special to me than the normal guy would actually understand,” Robinson told me recently. “It was one of the best things that ever happened to me mainly because of all of the things I’ve been through with hockey.”

Robinson’s pursuit of a hockey career has taken him from California to Washington, Saskatoon, Swift Current, Atlanta, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Des Moines and back. He’s been through an alphabet of leagues – the British Columbia Hockey League, the North American Prospects Hockey League, the Western States Hockey League, the Tier 1 Elite Minor Midget Hockey League and tryouts with Western Hockey League and United States Hockey League teams.

At 14, Robinson was an 11th-round draft pick of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades in 2008. Doug Molleken, head scout for the Blades, told Canwest that he liked how Robinson skated and marveled how strong he was in with the puck in the corners of the rink.

“The had a hard time taking the puck away from him,” Molleken told the Canadian news service. “He’s gotta learn the game a little bit, but I think he’s going to be OK.”

But an injury kept him from competing in training camp, which helped launch his search for a hockey home. He had a 2011 tryout with the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos.  At 20, he finished the 2013-14 season playing for the WSHL’s Lake Tahoe Blue and now finds himself at the crossroad of his hockey career.

Robinson, skating for Lake Tahoe Blue, has been on a multi-city, multi-league hockey journey.

Robinson, skating for Lake Tahoe Blue, has been on a multi-city, multi-league hockey journey.

Robinson put his hockey dreams on hold in 2012 after he father, Rick, suffered a series of stokes. He moved from California to Arlington, Va., to help provide for his family while his father recovered.

“I had two jobs, I was a lifeguard and I was also cleaning grocery stores,” he said. “The stores were in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. I would leave the house around 5 a.m., start working around 6 a.m. and get home around 7:30 at night.”

Whenever he had time, Robinson tried to stay in hockey shape by attending stick and puck sessions at Virginia’s Kettler Capitals Iceplex, the practice facility of the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals.

Robinson temporarily halted his hockey career when dad suffered series of strokes.

Robinson temporarily halted his hockey career when dad suffered series of strokes.

And it was a good thing that he did. In January 2013, Robinson received a phone call from a friend in California who told him about auditions for the Powerade commercial.

“The timing could not have been better,” he said. “The year before, I was playing in the BCHL, that was my draft year, and I had separated my shoulder and my dad had three strokes and five brain surgeries.”

When he arrived at the casting call, Robinson said he found about 25 other black hockey players and actors vying for the role.

“The audition was throughout the day,” he recalled.  “I got there first, I was the first person to audition, and I stayed a good hour after that just watching the other guys.”

But Robinson had a leg-up on the competition because of his family background in show business. His dad was a cinematographer and his mother, Dawn, was an assistant on the set of the 1989 Eddie Murphy movie “Harlem Nights.”

The early exposure to the film business helped Jonathon land a cameo role in an episode of the old NBC hit series “Friends” in which he kicked Ross – played by actor David Schwimmer – in the face.

About a week-and-a half after the Powerade audition, Robinson headed to Iowa for a

Robinson in Powerade ad.

Robinson in Powerade ad.

tryout with the USHL Des Moines Buccaneers. He received a callback for the commercial during the tryout with instructions to scurry back to Hollywood ASAP.

Elated, Robinson caught the next flight to California – leaving his hockey equipment behind in Des Moines.

“I left all my gear in the locker room of the USHL team,” he said. “I had to  borrow some gear from some owners of teams I knew.”

Robinson recalls spending 12 hours on the ice shooting the commercial at the Pickwick Ice Center in Burbank and doing about 40 takes on just one scene that required him to check an opposing player hard into the boards.

“I remember at the end of it the kid was dead, he was begging not to be hit anymore,” Robinson said. “We had a couple of takes where I was laughing because of something the director yelled out while we were filming.”

These days, Robinson is working on the Phase Two of his young life. He plans to enroll in college this summer to study cinematography. But hockey still isn’t out of his system. He hopes to coach or teach at hockey camps.

“I want to coach kids, youth hockey players, be able to bring them up, and help them chase their dreams,” he said.

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