Jets and Wings top Midwest performers –2016-17 Season Reviews — NAHL

The Aberdeen Wings and Janesville Jets enjoyed the best North American Hockey League playoff run among the Midwest-based teams this past season, both finishing as Division champions and reaching the Robertson Cup semi-finals.

The Midwest is well-represented in the four-division league with 11 of the league’s 24 teams setting up shop in the American Midwest. Six of the teams play in the Central Division – the only all-Midwest grouping in the circuit. Another four operate in the Midwest Division along with a pair Alaska-based clubs leaving the Topeka Roadrunners as the lone Midwest-based team in the South Division.

Central Division

This division was dominated for most of the regular season by the Minot Minotauros (38-18-4-0) who always led but never seemed able to pull away until near the end of the season. The Minotauros ultimately pulled out a 10-point margin on second place Minnesota Wilderness (32-22-4-2). For much of the season, the five teams behind the Minot crew ran neck-and-neck, the Wilderness sliding into the finish with a five-point margin on both the third placed Brookings Blizzard (30-25-4-1) and fourth place Aberdeen Wings (29-24-3-4).  Bismarck Bobcats (28-3-1-1) and Austin Bruins (24-27-4-5) stayed in the raced until near the end but ultimately finished behind the post season line.

After taking the fourth and final playoff spot, the Aberdeen Wings promptly won both games of the Best of Five opening round playoff at Minot and then dropped its first home playoff match before downing the regular season leaders in four games.

In the Division final, the Wings came up against the Wilderness who moved past the Blizzard in a hard-fourth five game opening round set. The final also went the full five-game distance, the Wilderness winning the clincher 1-0 in overtime in enemy territory.

Midwest Division

The Midwest was similar with plenty of movement behind the top team as the Jets (42-13-1-4) battled the Minnesota Magicians (31-22-4-3) for the first half of the season, but then pulled away to finish with a 20-point difference on both the third place Magicians and the Fairbanks IceDogs (33-24-2-1) who rose from fifth to the runners up spot through the final couple months of the campaign. The Coulee Region Chill (31-27-2-0) cemented its grip on final spot with several head to head matches against the Springfield Jr. Blues (27-28-4-1) down the stretch. The Blues meanwhile for a second straight season saw a post season berth slip away in the final matches after sitting as high as third place earlier in the season. The Kenai River Brown Bears (12-46-2-0) showed some improvement over the previous season but still finished a distant sixth.

In the post season, the Jets earned a three-game sweep against the Chill in an all-Wisconsin first round while the IceDogs also dispatched the Magicans in the three-game minimum.

In the division final, the Jets took the first two games in Janesville before making the long trek to Alaska where the IceDogs stayed alive with a game three win. The Jets advanced to the Robertson Cup though with a Game 4 victory.

South Division

The Topeka Roadrunners endured a down season. Perennial contenders in the South Division, the Roadrunners found itself chasing the pack virtually all season and ultimately slid all the way to the South Division basement with a final record of 21-34-4-1. As the rest of the league was about to find out though, the South Division was likely the toughest neighborhood in the league this past season.

Robertson Cup

Based on regular season win percentage, the Jets were ranked second overall and took on third ranked Lone Star Brahmas in one Best of Three semi-final while the top ranked Aston Rebels from the East Division met up with the fourth seeded Aberdeen Wings.

The Jets dropped a tough opening game decision 3-2 in overtime against the Brahmas and then went to the sidelines the following afternoon with a 3-1 defeat.

The Wings also dropped its opener to the Rebels 4-2, but rallied back with a 3-2 overtime win on the second day before exiting with a 2-1 overtime loss in the win or go home third game.

The Brahmas went on to claim the Robertson Cup with a 3-0 win in the Championship game against the Rebels.

Individual honors

Offensively, the Midwest was best-represented by Caleb Schroer, a 20-year-old forward from Wisconsin Rapids, WI who played for the Coulee Chill, tying for third best numbers in the league with 67 points (26g, 41a).

Paul Cotter, 16, from Canton, MI picked up 60 points (28g, 32a) for the Brookings Blizzard in 59 games and Justin Misiak, 21, from St. Clair Shores, MI scored 60 points (25g, 35a) in 60 games.

Matthew Berry, 19, from Naperville, IL collected 59 points (23g, 36a) in 59 games for the Bismarck Bobcats while Kevin Fitzgerald, 20, from Hinsdale, IL notched 59 points (22g, 37a) in 60 games for the Aberdeen Wings; Michael Slattery, 21, from Lino Lakes, MN picked up 59 points (20g, 39a) in 54 games for the Minnesota Magicians and Kevin Dineen, 21, from Fairbault, MN had 59 points (20g, 39a) in 58 games for the Coulee Region Chill.

In goal, Jacob Barczewski, 17, from O’Fallon, MO picked up 27 wins in 35 starts for the Janesville Jets, posting a 1.94 Goals Against Average and a .929 Save Percentage. Barczewski’s GAA was ranked third best in the league.

Austin Park, 19, from Colorado turned in a 15-win season for the Minotauros, posting a 2.16 GAA and a .927 SP and Forbes Polszaj, 20, from Arizona collected 20 wins in goal for the Aberdeen Wings with a 2.45 GAA and a .913 SP.

Ivan Prosvetov, a 17-year-old Russian import led the Magicians with 21 wins, a 2.52 GAA and a SP of .928. Rounding out the top five from the Midwest is Trevor Micucci, 20, from New York with 15 wins, a 2.56 GAA and a .928 SP.

League Awards

Among the Award Winners from the Midwest Region: Paul Cotter of the Brookings Blizzard was named as the league’s Rookie of the Year; Ryan Leibold, 18, from Virginia was awarded the Apex Learning Virtual School Academic Achievement Award and Gage Mackie, 19, from Alaska received the league’s Leadership Award.

Cotter was the lone Midwest team player on the all-NAHL First Team while forwards Matt Barry of Bismarck and Caleb Schroer of Coulee Region Chill were named to the Second team along with Andy Carroll, a 20-year-old Defenseman from Northfield, MN who patrolled the Aberdeen Wings’ blue line.