Tag Archives: Jalen Smereck

Dajon Mingo scores shootout-winning goal at 2019 ECHL All-Star Game

22 Tuesday Jan 2019

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The 2019 ECHL All-Star Game in Toldedo, Ohio, was a home game of sorts for Jacksonville Icemen defenseman Dajon Mingo.

A crowd of over 7,000 first cheered Mingo Monday, a salute to his playing days at nearby Bowling Green State University and his stint with the ECHL’s Toldeo Walleye.

But the cheers turned to boos after Mingo scored the All-Star Game-winning shootout goal for the Eastern Conference team against Team Fins, a squad of mostly Walleye players.

“I wasn’t really ready for the BGSU cheers. But I guess they still remember me here from the Walleye and at Bowling Green,” Mingo told The Toledo Blade. “When I scored there I didn’t know if they were going to cheer for me or boo me. So I just pointed at the crowd. And I think that got them going…”

Mingo played for Bowling Green from 2012 to 2016. He was bypassed in National Hockey League drafts but was invited to the Washington Capitals development camp in 2015. He made his professional hockey debut with the Walleye in the 2015-16 season.

Jacksonville Icemen defenseman Dajon Mingo, left, Cincinnati Cyclones Assistant Coach Jason Payne, at Norfolk Admirals defenseman Jalen Smereck at the 2019 ECHL All-Star Game in Toledo, Ohio.

The 5-foot-9 Canton, Michigan, native has 5 goals and 10 assists in 21 games for the Icemen. He has 22 goals and 53 assists in 191 ECHL regular season games.

The All-Star Game was played in a 3-on-3 round-robin format that featured Eastern and Western conference teams and two squads of largely Walleye players – the Fins and the Hooks.

Mingo wasn’t the only player or coach of color at the All-Star Game. Norfolk Admirals defenseman Jalen Smereck joined him on the East team.

Smereck, a 6-foot Detroit, Michigan native, tallied a goal and an assist in the All-Star tournament. He has 4 goals and 27 assists for the Admirals this season

Cincinnati Cyclones Assistant Coach Jason Payne served as an assistant coach for the West team.

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From Detroit to the Desert? Arizona Coyotes sign Jalen Smereck

11 Tuesday Oct 2016

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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.”

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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.”