Arena Almost Ready

By Tim Harwood

Ice is back at Young Arena.  It’s not set for skaters yet, and work will continue to build up the playing surface over the next several days.  However, it’s another sign that Waterloo Black Hawks hockey is about to return.

With participation at the Junior Club World Cup beginning less than a month from now, the Hawks will need to be competitive more quickly than ever before if the trip to Russia is to be successful from the perspective of tournament standings.

While Waterloo came within a game of the Clark Cup less than two months ago, and although several star players will return, the team traveling to Omsk will be considerably different than the one which finished the 2011-2012 USHL season.

Taylor Cammarata and Vince Hinostroza, the Hawks’ two leading point producers last winter do return in 2012-2013.  Four of the next top five scorers have departed, with Mike Huntebrinker and Ryan Papa serving as the only other veteran forwards who scored 30 or more points last season.  There is even less experience on defense, where NHL prospect Ian McCoshen and New Hampshire recruit Matias Cleland are the only skaters who have seen USHL action.  Goalies Eamon McAdam and Cal Petersen have combined to make 32 league appearances, or just about half a season’s worth of work.

Those facts may sound like “negatives,” but might be more accurately perceived as “unknowns.”  There was a lot to like and be excited about when it came to last season’s team, but there’s no indication that the club which goes to Russia will represent a step down.  Let’s look at some of the relatively new faces who could fill regular slots on the roster during the tournament and throughout the coming season after appearing briefly last year:

Kyle Schmidt saw action in two games while Waterloo was missing four key players at the World Junior A Challenge last November.  The 5-10, 175-pound Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin native held his own and, like the other affiliates who were with the team during that period, was key to keeping the Hawks competitive during the stretch.  He was a 17^th round pick during the 2011 USHL Entry Draft.  Schmidt led the Milwaukee Junior Admirals midget team with 36 goals in 48 games last season.

Jake Horton was 2011-2012’s answer to Papa, who had built a reputation as an affiliate skater the season before arriving as a fulltime Black Hawk.  Horton scored in each of his two most recent USHL appearances, including a goal which helped Waterloo make a stunning road comeback to defeat the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in late January.  He comes to the USHL with two full seasons of junior hockey experience, having played in 107 North American Hockey League regular season games for the Janesville Jets.

Kevin Duane has the size to be a professional hockey prospect.  At 6-4 and 215 pounds, he was ranked 145^th overall among North American skaters eligible for June’s NHL Draft after a winter playing at Brunswick Prep in Connecticut.  In March, he joined the Hawks for four games and notched a key goal in Chicago on the 25^th; the score early in the third period allowed Waterloo to tie a game which they eventually won 4-3 in a shootout.

Justin Kloos wowed Black Hawks fan over parts of two seasons.  During the entire history of the franchise, few other players who have appeared in just a dozen Waterloo games are as well known or as much talked about by local fans.  Small wonder…Kloos has five goals (three game-winners) and four assists in those twelve games.  He was Minnesota’s Mr. Hockey last winter at Lakeville South High School.

Those four players have had a taste of what it is like to skate in front of a big crowd at Young Arena.  With 28 home regular season and playoff wins last year, few teams rose to the occasion of playing at home like the Black Hawks.  For the 2012 Junior Club World Cup, no team will travel more miles to get to the rink in Omsk.  More than ever, “rising to the occasion” means coming together quickly.

When the ice in Waterloo is finally thick enough to skate on, Black Hawks fans can help introduce most of the roster to a USHL environment.  More than watching a scrimmage on July 28^th, the team’s Fan Fest will offer an opportunity to meet the newest players…to tell them who and what they will be representing when they go to play on the other side of the world. 

Hockey time in Party Town has almost returned.