2021-22 USPHL Premier Midwest East Season Preview
A preview of the upcoming 2021-22 USPHL Premier Midwest East Division season. In order of the 2020-21 regular-season finish.
USPHL Premier Midwest East Season Preview
Metro Jets Development Program (MJDP)
Season Opener: Fri., Oct. 1, vs. Motor City Hockey Club
The Jets Development Program did a fine job in their Nationals debut, racking up a 2-1 record at the playoffs for the National Championship. Though they didn’t make it out of their pool, they still showed just how deep the organization is with two Jets organization teams present.
“We are excited about our group again this year. We had a lot on-ice success last year winning the Midwest Division and even more off ice success with players moving up as well as committing to colleges,” said Head Coach/General Manager Justin Quenneville. “We will be very young and energetic, but it’s a great opportunity for our players to take advantage of our program.”
The success in moving players on from the MJDP to higher levels has changed the face of the team almost entirely for 2021-22.
“Given that we had a lot of success graduating players from MJDP last season, we have nearly an entire new group of young and hungry players,” added Quenneville. “They will get the same opportunities as everyone in our organization with a difficult schedule and four or more showcases. But we are confident, based on what we have seen thus far, that they will continue to improve to develop and be difficult to play against.”
Nick Twombley, an ‘01 who played for DeLaSalle High in Michigan, is back for his second MJDP season after scoring 37 points in 44 games. He is joined by several players from last year’s Metro Hockey Club (MHC) now jumping on to the MJDP as the MHC is not playing this year. This includes ‘01 goalie Ethan Ryan, defensemen ‘02 Jake LaVack and ‘03 Matt Vanderworp, and forwards ‘01’s Jackson Moleski and Connor Hilliker and ‘02 Ethan Smith.
Newcomer Steven Miller (‘03) has had a lot of success with Howell (Mich.) High School, while other top forwards coming from the high school ranks are Carson Finney (‘03) – a big-time scorer for the Mid-Michigan Marauders – and Lucas Millmine (‘03) from Orchard-St. Mary’s.
Defensemen Josh Boze, an ‘03 with a big shot from Livonia-Franklin, and smooth-skating ‘03 Alex Blankenship from Plymouth are also new to the MJDP.
Additional new MJDP players to watch include Robert Grasso an ‘04 coming out of the USPHL 16U Division and ‘02 goalie Freddy Soderberg, a former DeLaSalle teammate of Twombley’s, joining from Meijer 18U AAA hockey.
Chicago Cougars
Season Opener: Fri., Sept. 24, at Dells Ducks
The Cougars just keep doing what they’re doing, finding success in the win-loss column while moving players on to fantastic colleges that will provide great futures whether on or off the ice.
It is a continuous result that comes from a total dedication to their players and everything to do with development of these student-athletes. With that in mind, the Cougars upped their game by joining forces with the Chicago Blackhawks to share the same facility where the Blackhawks practice, Fifth Third Arena (also the site of two USPHL NCDC Combines).
Cougars players will also get to work out at Goodman Elite Training, the same on-site off-ice facility where Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and other Blackhawks train.
It’s no wonder then that the team has nearly 10 returning players from last year who want to take advantage of this. Goaltenders Michael Lenhart (a 2020-21 Midwest East All-Star) and Ian Young, both ‘01’s were among the first in line. Jack Parks, an ‘01 defenseman, is also back after playing 17 games with the Cougars last season.
Up front, Michael Sliwinski (‘01) marks two returning All-Stars for Head Coach Josh Dallmann’s crew. He posted a 14-24-38 line in 34 games last season and is back for more. Additionally up front, the team returns T.J. Haas (‘03) who is the other top 10 scorer coming back from last year, scoring 29 points in 2020-21.
Add to the mix veterans Matthew Hagerstrom and Alex Hertlein (both ‘01) and Brendan Miranda (‘03).
With an additional group of highly-anticipated newcomers, you can expect that the Cougars will remain a going concern for the Midwest East and all of their non-divisional opponents.
Fort Wayne Spacemen
Season Opener: Fri., Oct. 1, at Cincinnati Jr. Cyclones
The Spacemen have been consistently a winning team in the USPHL Premier Division, not bad for just being two years out of their creation. Already, former Fort Wayne Komets Captain and current Spacemen Head Coach Lincoln Schrock has hit upon a strong recipe for player development, movement and on-ice success, all wrapped up in one big frustrating mix for opponents.
This year, the Spacemen figure to be deeper than in past years, also not good news for the rest of the Midwest East.
“Fort Wayne will be a well-rounded team this year. In the past we’ve relied on scoring from one or two players and now we feel we have depth at all three positions,” said Schrock. “Our goaltending has improved, especially from where we started at last year. All 12 forwards can play at both ends of the ice and we love our defensive core.”
Helping to lead the team will be returning Midwest East All-Stars Austin Buck (‘01), who is already fourth all-time in games played for the Spacemen. However, with the first game, returning forward Logan Robins (‘01) will become the all-time games played leader, as he sits tied with former Spaceman Jared Fisher in that category – Fisher owns all the offensive categories by a lot. Blake Ferris, an ‘02 who joined the Spacemen for eight games last season and was impressive in each.
Watch out for newcomers Mike Melnikov, Noah Maine and Matteo Daita. Melnikov (‘01) is a longtime North American-experienced goalie from Belarus, who already has one USPHL Premier season under his belt. Maine (‘02) put up good offense from the blue line with the Tri-State Spartans 18U AAA team, and ‘01 French forward Daita is playing in his first North American season after already earning experience in the pro ranks of his home country.
“This will be the most competitive the division has been in the past three years,” Schrock predicts. “Motor City should take a step forward with some of their new hires and the Fighting Irish program is heading in the right direction as well.”
Detroit Fighting Irish
Season Opener: Sat., Oct. 2, vs. Chicago Cougars
Fighting Irish Head Coach Sam Shaheen saw just how potent his team could be last year, when the team ended the season with a 3-0-0-1 run, including a big win over the Chicago Cougars, their first since Nov. 3, 2018, with a string of nine contests with only one overtime loss point in between.
With an All-Star back on defense, the Fighting Irish have the makeup that could lead to them having one of their best seasons in their recent history.
“We are very happy with the makeup of this year’s team. We have a lot of new faces and look to pick up where we left off last season,” said Shaheen. “We have upgraded on defense but have also lost our leader in points, so we feel like we have balanced out our roster better this year than previous years.”
Shane Romback, an ‘01 out of Macomb, Mich., put together an amazing two-way game last season, scoring 42 points in 42 games to lead the league in points by a defenseman, while also racking up 331 takeaways, more than 100 above his closest teammate.
“Shane is looking to pick up where he left off by leading the league in points as a defenseman, along with Cole Zalewski [‘01] who was second in points for us and looking to produce in the goal column some more,” said Shaheen.
There is a strong group of newcomers, one of whom Shaheen would be proud to send up to the next level any time he is ready.
“The Irish staff is very high on Owen Wilson, an ‘04 forward who is getting ready to sign [a Tier II] tender,” said Shaheen. “Jace Weimer, an ‘05 defenseman, brings a calmness to the blue line.”
Weimer is a local product from Brownstown Woodshaven High School, and Wilson – a Clio, Mich., native is out of the Meijer AAA program.
“We look to be the ones who will surprise, but we are continuing to worry about our rebuild and putting the best competitive team on the ice,” Shaheen added.
Decatur Blaze
Season Opener: Fri., Oct. 8, vs. Fort Wayne Spacemen
The core of the 2020-21 Blaze is back for another shot at keeping their name always in the conversation in the Midwest East Division, especially after earning a Nationals berth in 2020 for a tournament that was canceled due to COVID-19.
“For this year’s team, we went with all new goalies from the previous year,” said GM/Head Coach Zac Pearson. “We were able to bring back a great core group from the year before with players looking to take next the step after a year of juniors under their belt.”
Pearson searched high and low for players with a high work ethic in order to find the players who can give a hard 60 minutes in a game and leave everything on the ice.
“The biggest difference for this year’s team will be our work ethic. We are putting in the work right now at training camp that we will never be outworked for 60 minutes,” Pearson added. “In order for this to happen we have to make sure that we are in the best shape possible. We have been doing two-a-days for the past ten days and will continue that for the next two to three weeks.”
The team brings back Captain Austin Floyd (‘01), who posted 55 points last season as the second-leading scorer. He will be joined up front with Walker Smith, an ‘02 who returns to the Blaze after a season away with the Omaha AAA Hockey Club. He was one of the leaders of hte 2020 Nationals-qualifying squad.
Returning Defenseman Alex Randall (‘03) was the youngest Midwest East All-Star last year, and comes back to be “our top defenseman [who will] eat up many minutes in all situations.”
Bringing in ‘03 Jonathan Gurgul from Providence Catholic High in Illinois will bolster the offense.
“Gurgul is a forward coming to us who we expect to have a good impact right off the bat,” said Pearson. “He has a tremendous work ethic that will help him be impactful right away. We also have Brendan Hirliman [‘03] and Jake Sullivan [‘02] on the back end who we feel will be top defensemen for us by the end of the year.”
He also has expectations about the division itself.
“We expect Chicago to be good as usual and at the top. But we think this year our division will have more parity than ever before without any easy weekends,” Pearson added. “I think that this year’s first and last place teams won’t be far apart from each other.”
Midwest Blackbirds
Season Opener: Fri., Oct. 8, at MJDP
It’s all about newness in Dyer, Indiana, where the Midwest Blackbirds are concerned. Ownership and home ice may be the same for the Blackbirds, but essentially everything has else has changed. Richard Greene was brought in as a new General Manager and was everywhere at once during the 2021 off-season, often in the company of new Head Coach Tom Philbin.
Philbin had success at the college level, leading Florida Gulf Coast University to the 2018-19 ACHA Division II National Championship. He and Greene are excited to build a whole new culture for the Blackbirds.
“I think we have a good mix of new and old. We got a few junior transfers from other teams to bring more experience,” said Philbin. “I feel this year’s team will be deeper and more skilled. We hope to be more structured and harder to play against as a whole.”
Coming back from the 2020-21 Blackbirds are ‘01 goaltender Nick Meyering, defensemen Mason Perri (‘01), Connor Homan (‘02) and Jake Funge (‘03), and forwards Kevin Uhlir (‘01) and Derek Eaton (‘03). Uhlir scored at better than a point-per-game pace last year, posting 23 points in 20 games.
“We have a number of experienced junior transfers – [‘02] Matt Lombardi, [‘02] Tyler Hebert and [‘01 fifth-year junior] Tyler Balcerak – along with some new players who are fighting for playing time,” added Philbin.
Among the many newcomers to watch closely are wing/centers Rylee Luebbers and Jason Romer, both ‘02’s, as well as ‘02 winger Jason LaBoy from Florida and ‘03 defenseman Reed Gilmore.
“We intend to be a very hard team to play against. Our goal is to be in a good playoff position when the season ends and that when teams see our name on their schedule, they know they’re going to have a tough game ahead of them,” Philbin added.
Motor City Hockey Club
Season Opener: Fri., Oct. 1, at MJDP
Jason McCrimmon took down the house and started from a strong foundation when rebuilding his Motor City Hockey Club for 2021-22, with help this time from longtime USPHL coach Joakim Falt, newly joining the team for the new season.
“We are a brand new squad 25 new faces ready to make their mark on the league. I look forward to the development of our guys as the season moves forward,” said McCrimmon. “Last year, we struggled to finish games the right way. This has been our main focus as we get set to start the season. We are also fortunate to Add Coach Joakim Falt to our staff. That is going to put us in an even better position to develop our guys the right way.”
The team brought back just three returning players in promising ‘04 forward Brandon Thomas, already a one-year USPHL veteran at his young age, along with ‘01’s Sebastian Stukel on defense and Ian Morton in goal.
“We added some good defensemen with ‘01 [third-year USPHL Premier veteran] Evan Cummings and ‘02 Max Savel and speedy forwards Ethan Lida, ‘04 Ukrainian Demian Tychenko and ‘03 Gavin Cline.”
Cline played in the 2021 USPHL Elite Nationals with the finalist Charleston Colonials.
“We have a host of rookies that are to make a huge difference in the program’s success this season,” said McCrimmon. “I expect our Midwest East division to make a statement all the way around. I’m excited for the season to start and get back to competing every night and moving our guys to the next level.”
