A PR IL 2 017 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8
hawktawk MAG-E-ZINE
PLAYOFF PRODIGIES T EN B L ACK H AWKS WH O WER E AT T H EI R B EST WH EN I T M AT T ER ED M OST PAGE 8-12
P H O T O CO U R T E S Y O F S T E P H A N I E LY N P H O T O G R A P H Y
TAWK TO US PAGE 2
EVENTS & MARCH REMINDERS RECAP PAGE 3
PAGE 4-5
WAT ER LOO B L ACK H AW K S .COM
ANNIV. & NOTABLE DATES PAGE 6
22
HawkTawk
APRIL 2017 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8
Tawk
to us
Q U EST I O N: W H E N W I L L W E F I N D O U T A BO U T PL AYO F F T I CK E TS? – B I L L R. ANSWER: Information should be on its way to you; please stop in to see us or call, and the front office can assist in setting up your package. This season, we have reduced the package rates compared to last season, meaning that season ticket holders continue to receive the best value available compared to anyone at Young Arena during Clark Cup Playoff games. Also new this year, and following the success of our reduced season ticket pricing for kids, children 12 and under will receive $8 tickets per game during the postseason. After cheering for the team all season long, don’t miss the playoffs! A few other important notes: -Season ticket holder credential cards will NOT work during the playoffs. All playoff package participants will receive printed tickets. -You will receive a playoff ticket for every possible home game, but after the playoffs end, you will only be charged for the home playoff games which were actually played. -Playoff balances will be charged in one lump sum during the week following the Hawks’ final playoff game.
SEND US YOUR QUESTIONS and be featured in HawkTawk
Q U EST I O N: W I L L T H E DO M I N O’S WA R M U P J E R S E YS B E O N SA L E? A B BY J. ANSWER: Yes. Like past seasons, these will be available for $50 each. Beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 4th during the Hawks’ game against the Chicago Steel, season ticket holders will have the first chance to purchase these. The exclusive season ticket holder purchase period will last through the end of the final regular season game on April 8th. During both the April 4th to 8th special purchase period and then during the public sale period to follow, these jerseys will be sold “first-come, first-served” and must be paid in full. No reservations will be accepted. The jerseys will be available for pickup after the conclusion of the regular season.
WAT E R LO O B L A C K H AW K S .CO M
REMINDERS
EVENTS &
TUESDAY, APRIL 4 Chicago Steel vs. Waterloo Black Hawks 7:05 p.m. > College Night > One of only two remaining raincheck nights Help the Black Hawks make a big impression on future fans. Put your unused tickets to use and invite your friends, family, neighbors or co-workers to the rink!
FRIDAY, APRIL 7 Fargo Force vs. Waterloo Black Hawks 7:05 p.m. > UAW Weekend > National Beer Day Celebration/Beer Tour > Subway Family 4-Pack Night > Waterloo Golf Headquarters Night > Last raincheck night of the season Black Hawks Beer Tour Calling all beer lovers – join us this Friday night for a Black Hawks Beer Tour. As a Season Ticket Holder, your discounted rate of $5 (tour only) or $10 (tour + pint glass) will include samples of over 20 beers from United Beverage from 6:05pm to 7:05pm, as well as drink specials in the Coors Light Cold Zone throughout the game.
SATURDAY, APRIL 8 Fargo Force vs. Waterloo Black Hawks 7:05 p.m. > UAW Weekend > Fan Appreciation Night including FREE Waterloo Black Hawks t-shirts to the first 500 fans through the doors presented by Next Generation Wireless > Knockerballs Intermission Special
PARTY TOWN OUTFITTERS Party Town Outfitters' End-of-the-Season sale is now underway. Take advantage of all the great deals before they are gone. In addition, playoff t-shirts and other playoff merchandise is on the way and can be picked up soon.
Mar ch Re Cap
KEVIN CHARYSZYN #28 | FORWARD
HawkTawk
MARCH 2017 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7
MARCH RECAP – LOOKING AHEAD TO WHAT’S POSSIBLE During a challenging March in which the Black Hawks consistently faced some of the United States Hockey League’s top teams, Waterloo earned a 6-3-0 record. The month included a pair of wins against the rival Dubuque Fighting Saints and another against the Chicago Steel. Perhaps it is more impressive to look at the only teams to defeat the Hawks: the dynamic U.S. National Team Development Program Under-18s and the league-leading Sioux City Musketeers (Waterloo split two March games with Sioux City). Goals continued to stack up last month for the USHL’s highest-scoring offense. Waterloo outpaced their collective opponents 35-29, led by Alex Limoges, who found the net five times and finished March with 11 total points. Linemate Shane Bowers accounted for a team-high seven assists. Two-way defenseman Grant Gabriele also made a sizable contribution: not only did he tally a goal and six assists, Gabriele also was a club-best +6. Peter Thome was in net for all nine games. The February acquisition pushed his Black Hawks win total to double-digits. During his six victories last month, Thome’s cumulative save percentage stood at 93.3%. In tandem with Robbie Beydoun, this is the first time Waterloo has had two ten-game winners in the same season since Cal Petersen and Cameron Johnson earned the distinction in 2013/14. Maybe most importantly, March of 2017 was a reminder for players in Waterloo today of what is possible, and for fans, that they are watching some of the greatest young players in the world. Only four college hockey teams are still playing: Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, Harvard, and Notre Dame. Each program includes a player who won the Anderson Cup in Waterloo during 2013/14 (Tyson McLellen, Peter Krieger, Jake Horton, and Petersen respectively). Meanwhile, as college seasons ended with various tournament losses, three former Hawks signed NHL contracts. Mark Friedman will join the Philadelphia Flyers three seasons after they drafted him. Justin Kloos made a free agent deal with his hometown Minnesota Wild. Most spectacularly of all, Brock Boeser is already making a difference in Vancouver with the Canucks, scoring goals in two of his first three NHL games. One day, Boeser was at the University of North Dakota and the very next, he was in the NHL. And it seems like only yesterday he was here in Waterloo.
WAT E R LO O B L A C K H AW K S .CO M
5
6
anniversaries
HawkTawk
APRIL 2017 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8
AND N OTA B L E DATES APRIL 8, 2003 The Hawks won their first playoff series in more than a decade, taking three of four games from the Des Moines Buccaneers. Matt Fornataro delivered the series-winning goal midway through double overtime of a 5-4 victory in Game Four on Waterloo’s 62nd shot of the night.
APRIL 14, 2007 On the final day of the regular season, the Hawks clinched the Anderson Cup with a 3-2 comeback road win against the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. Vince LoVerde tied the game with under nine minutes remaining, then Paul Weisgarber scored the game-winner at 17:19 of the third period.
APRIL 11 Garrett Klee’s 19th Birthday
APRIL 17 Grant Gabriele’s 20th Birthday
APRIL 27 Ben Copeland’s 18th Birthday
WAT E R LO O B L A C K H AW K S .CO M
HawkTawk
APRIL 2017 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8
“March Madness,” as they call it, really lived up to its name. The Black Hawks had some late game heroics with Dubuque and a playoff-type game with Sioux City to finish the month which just ended. Those were only part of the madness that we experienced in March.
CAPTAINS CORNER BY NICK SWANEY
Nick Swaney made his first appearance for the Black Hawks as an affiliate during the 2013/14 season. He scored a goal in his very first game for Waterloo and has continued to put the puck in the net ever since. During 2015/16, the Minnesota-Duluth recruit led the Hawks with 30 goals.
For me personally, it felt like a really long month, because I wasn't able to play much. Sitting in the stands really gave me a look at what the fans see, and it was a whole different thing for me. For us as a team, we had a great accomplishment in clinching a spot in the Clark Cup Playoffs. That is something we have been pushing for the whole year, and to finally see that “X” by our team name in the standings was pretty nice. But now we got a lot more work to do. As playoffs approach next month, we have to fine-tune everything and get ready to play our best hockey yet. The playoffs are something that brings out emotion in everyone, and we can't wait to play in front of our home crowd.
NICK SWANEY WATERLOO BLACK HAWKS FORWARD #13 | CAPTAIN
photo courtesy of hickling images
WAT E R LO O B L A C K H AW K S .CO M
7
8
HawkTawk
APRIL 2017 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8
PL AYOFF PRODIGIES TEN BL ACK HAWKS WHO WERE AT THEIR BEST WHEN IT MAT TERED MOST Unlike the old saying about Las Vegas, what happens in the playoffs, rarely stays in the playoffs. Postseason hockey has resounding implications. A pedestrian 60-game regular season for an individual player can fade from memory very quickly when followed up with four or five strong playoff showings. A solid year can become legendary. The pressure of competing for the Clark Cup has brought out memorable performances for many Black Hawks. Some have gone on to great achievements in college and professional hockey. For others, the moments from Aprils and Mays of the past – which Black Hawks fans still remember with pride – might have been THE pinnacle of their time on the ice. As you prepare to watch the most exciting hockey of the season, we have selected the top ten Black Hawks standout playoff performers of the 21st Century (so far). 10. Mikey Anderson, 2016 Still just 16 when the playoffs began last spring, Anderson had recorded exactly one goal
in his USHL rookie season. During an opening period power play in Game One at the Ice Box in Lincoln, he scored the Hawks’ first goal of the 2016 postseason, spurring a 2-1 road win against the Stars. A little more than a week later in Game Four, Anderson assisted on one goal then scored another – shorthanded – as the Hawks clinched the first round series with a 4-3 double overtime victory. The young defenseman added another goal and an assist during the five-game second round set with the Tri-City Storm. He finished tied for fourth in scoring (five points from three goals and two assists) on the Hawks’ 2016 playoff stat sheet after ending up tied for 13th during the regular season.
WAT E R LO O B L A C K H AW K S .CO M
9. Tyler Sheehy, 2014 “Steady” might be the best single word to describe Sheehy during the 2014 postseason. In a dozen playoff games that spring, the future Minnesota Gopher contributed 15 goals or assists, including multiple points during each matchup of a three-game first round sweep of the Sioux Falls Stampede. His power play game-winner during Game Two of a second round series with the Sioux City Musketeers helped assure that the Hawks would retain home ice advantage when heading to Tyson Events Center for Games Three and Four. During the championship round, Sheehy scored three times. In each instance, his goal tied a different game against the Indiana Ice, and Waterloo went
HawkTawk
APRIL 2017 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8
on to win two of the three. Sheehy’s point total from 2014 ranks among the top ten most productive playoff years in Black Hawks junior-era history. 8. Garrett Regan, 2003, 2004 & 2005 Regan got better and better as the Black Hawks got closer to raising the Clark Cup in 2004. He was held without a point during the first three opening round games against the Chicago Steel. Facing elimination in Game Four, his late second period score broke a 1-1 tie and stood up as the winner during a 4-1 decision. The Hawks ousted the Steel in Game Five. Regan struck for another decisive, tie-breaking goal with six minutes remaining in a 3-2 Game One result during the next round against the Danville Wings. He also scored the game-winner on a three-point night as the Hawks clinched the series in Game Three, 9-1. Facing the Anderson Cup-winning Tri-City Storm in the Finals, Regan could not be kept off the scoresheet. He tallied five points (two goals, three assists) in four games as the Hawks won their only junior-era postseason title. In the end, Regan notched 11 total points during the 2004 run, finishing the playoffs on a seven-game point streak.
end of regulation, and with another goal by Mark Naclerio early in the third, prevailed 2-1. Witek found the net again during Game Three of the Finals. His +10 plus/minus differential was a team best in the 2012 playoffs. Although the Hawks fell to Green Bay in five games, Witek was a national champion the following year as a freshman at Yale. 6. Brandon Montour, 2014 (pictured below) While Witek’s blue line scoring was a surprise in 2012, everyone expected defenseman Brandon Montour to produce points in the 2014 playoff run. Montour did not disappoint. The USHL Player of the Year came through and led all skaters with 16 points. He started the run with a Game One hat trick against the Sioux Falls Stampede, putting the affair out of reach with his second goal of the night in the opening minute of the third period on a power play. He later capped the opening round series with a five-point effort in Game Three.
7. Mitch Witek, 2012 Witek was a quiet, responsible, defensive defenseman. Over parts of three USHL regular seasons, he did not score a goal until four weeks remained on the schedule in his final campaign Then he exploded in the 2012 playoffs. Over the course of 15 postseason appearances, Witek delivered 14 points, including four goals. The biggest single effort was a two-goal, three point night in Game Three of the semifinal series against the Lincoln Stars (Waterloo won 5-0). However, Game One of the championship set against the Green Bay Gamblers might have been his mort personally satisfying game as a Black Hawk. Green Bay had traded Witek to Waterloo just prior to the beginning of the regular season. Only 1:47 into the action, Witek scored against his former team. Waterloo led from that point to the
However, Montour’s most memorable goal during the 2014 postseason came in a loss During Game Three of a second round series with the Sioux City Musketeers, the Hawks fell behind, 3-2, late in the third period at Tyson Events Center. The clock ticked down, and Cal Petersen was
WAT E R LO O B L A C K H AW K S .CO M
9
10
HawkTawk
APRIL 2017 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8
called to the Black Hawks’ bench for an extra attacker. With just four seconds to go, Montour blasted a shot into the net from the right circle, forcing overtime. Although the Musketeers prevailed that night, two Montour assists in Game Four helped lift Waterloo to the Finals with a 5-1 victory. 5. Joel Hanson, 2003 & 2004 (pictured below) If you did not watch Waterloo hockey in the 1980s and 90s, it’s hard to capture how important the 2003 postseason was to the Black Hawks organization. Waterloo had not won a playoff
took Game Four in Des Moines in overtime to advance; Hanson contributed nine points during the four-game round. The Hawks were eventually dispatched by the River City (Omaha) Lancers as the bracket narrowed, but Hanson returned the following season and appeared in all 60 2003/04 games, leading Waterloo’s offense with 59 points. However, the 2004 playoffs were not going well for the 20-yearold. Hanson had just two assists in the first round against the Chicago Steel and only one more in the second round versus the Danville Wings.
4. Stephon Williams, 2012 The three star celebrations alone were the stuff of legend. The canoe. The swim. The broom. Williams backed all of it up. Acquired from the Sioux Falls Stampede specifically to provide veteran experience in the playoffs, Williams had fun winning in Waterloo. He was especially effective when big Young Arena crowds roared with approval after athletic stops on home ice. Williams backstopped Waterloo to pairs of postseason home wins respectively against the Tri-City Storm, Omaha Lancers, and Lincoln Stars during the preliminary rounds Bouncing back from a 4-3 loss in Game Two of the Stars series – a loss suffered despite 37 Williams saves at the IceBox – the Hawks netminder turned away all of Lincoln’s 23 chances in a 5-0 Game Three shutout.
series since 1987. A few good seasons during the 1990s were unceremoniously overshadowed by early postseason exits. During the 2002/03 regular season, the Hawks set a thenclub record with 38 wins. However, the year hung in the balance ahead of Game Three against the Des Moines Buccaneers. With the first round series tied at one win apiece, Hanson took over. He scored the first goal of the night only 1:08 after the opening faceoff, adding second and third period tallies for a hat trick. Waterloo
Held without a point in Kearney during two upset decisions against the Tri-City Storm, his only point in the first three finals matchups was an assist in Waterloo’s 4-3 home loss. Hanson picked the right time to score his only 2004 playoff goal. Putting the puck in to break a 1-1 tie with 8:48 remaining, his goal started the countdown as Hawks fans became louder and louder, willing on the team toward the championship. It was Hanson’s final appearance in three seasons skating for Waterloo.
WAT E R LO O B L A C K H AW K S .CO M
Williams extended the Stars’ scoreless spell into Game Four, making a remarkable “nonglove” save in the second period. The puck came to USHL leading scorer Kevin Roy one-on-one in the slot. As Williams turned to face the shooter, his glove came off after catching on the post. The Hawk netminder still made the save using his body to turn Roy’s shot aside. Although Roy scored twice in the third, Williams and the Hawks won the game, 6-2, and the series, 3-1. During the championship round against the Green Bay Gamblers, Williams’ 37 Game One saves made two goals stand up for a win. However, Waterloo’s offense was shutout in Game Two and limited to one goal in
HawkTawk
APRIL 2017 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8
Game Three losses, giving the Gamblers momentum to win the series in five games. Yet, Williams did something which cannot be duplicated this spring. With four playoff rounds in 2012, the Waterloo goalie won ten games. The maximum win total achievable in one postseason under the current format is nine. 3. Joe Pavelski, 2003 & 2004 (pictured below)
assists) as Waterloo rolled to a 6-3 decision against the Des Moines Buccaneers. He duplicated those numbers in Game Three. The Hawks advanced, then were eliminated during the second round. However, Pavelski had scored goals in five of the seven postseason contests during 2003; the only game in which he was held without at least a point was a 2-0 shutout loss in Game One against the River City Lancers.
Would Joe Pavelski have been a San Jose Shark without his postseason success in 2003? In
The next year, Waterloo could not have escaped the first round – much less won the Clark Cup – without Pavelski. Meeting the Eastern Division champion Chicago Steel, the Hawks’ captain lifted
retrospect, it seems Pavelski was destined to be an NHL player, but that summer, the Sharks drafted him with 24 picks remaining in the seventh round and just 87 slots shy of that draft’s conclusion.
his team to a series-tying 2-1 Game Two win thanks to an unassisted, shorthanded goal. Then in the decisive fifth game, Pavelski scored the winning goal – the only goal – in a 1-0 affair at Edge Ice Arena.
They had seven extra opportunities to watch the USHL Rookie of the Year during the 2003 playoffs. Nothing they saw could have diminished their conviction that he had the ability to someday make a difference in San Jose.
More offensive support arrived as the run continued, yet it was Pavelski delivering again at a prime moment. His final point as a Black Hawk was an assist on Joel Hanson’s Cup-clinching goal in Game Four of the Finals. With a dozen points during each of his two playoff campaigns, Pavelski is Waterloo’s junior-era career postseason scoring leader.
During his first postseason game, Pavelski had a hand in four of six Hawks goals (one goal, three
WAT E R LO O B L A C K H AW K S .CO M
11
12
HawkTawk
APRIL 2017 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8
2. Jamie Hill, 2010, 2011, & 2012 (pictured below) No statistics could measure Jamie Hill’s heart better than these: ten teeth and 32 stitches.
With the Hawks shorthanded during Game Three of a second round 2012 series against the Omaha Lancers, Hill was on the ice on penalty killing duty in the second period. A blocked Kenney Morrison slapshot came up off of Hill’s stick and hit him squarely in the jaw. He skated to the bench spitting blood. Teeth, stitches, and all, Hill was back on the ice in the third period and the Hawks took a 2-1 series lead with a 4-2 win.
During Hill’s first two seasons in Waterloo, the Black Hawks went 0-5 during the playoffs, suffering two first round sweeps. In the team’s 2012 postseason debut, Hill put Waterloo permanently ahead of the Tri-City Storm with
in the first minute of the second. Chasing the puck down behind the Stars net, he flipped a shot up from the end wall, hitting the back of goalie Jackson Teichroeb’s left shoulder and bouncing into the net. Waterloo
a shorthanded goal near the midpoint. It was the first of two goals and three points that night.
won 6-2 with four points from Hill that evening.
The 5-9 forward contributed six total points during the first three games, then found prime opportunities to have big nights as the Hawks continued to advance. In a series-clinching fourth game against the Lincoln Stars, Hill had already scored in the first period when he delivered an unlikely eventual winning goal
WAT E R LO O B L A C K H AW K S .CO M
During the Finals, Hill led the effort to stave off elimination in Game Four, recording the first Hawks playoff hat trick in nearly a decade, including the decisive score, in a 5-3 contest. Waterloo could not claim the Cup in Game Five, but Hill’s nine goals during the 2012 playoffs were the most by a Black Hawk in one postseason since 1980.
HawkTawk
APRIL 2017 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8
1. Kevin Regan, 2004 (pictured above) Kevin Regan did everything except score a goal during the Black Hawks’ 2004 Clark Cup run, and technically, he even did that. Facing Chicago with no score during the second period of Game Three in the first round, the Steel had the puck in a delayed penalty situation. Their net was empty for an extra attacker, but a miscue allowed the puck to slide back down the length of the rink and into the open Chicago net. As the last Black Hawk to touch the disk, Regan was credited with the goal. That night, Chicago prevailed 2-1 in overtime despite 39 Regan saves. It was a rare loss for the Boston Bruins draft pick. Regan didn’t lose again for nearly a month. Back in Chicago for a tense fifth game, Regan made a Joe Pavelski first period score stand up for a 23-save, 1-0 shutout. Throughout the postseason, he held the Hawks opposition to three goals or fewer in all but one game. He made 30 or more saves four times (on three occasions in the Clark Cup Finals).
He played every minute, except for the closing seconds of two one-goal regulation losses when he was called to the bench for a sixth attacker. All totaled, Regan boasted a 94.4% save percentage at the end of the playoffs and a sparkling 1.55 goals-against average. The GAA was a league-best during the 2004 postseason. As for save percentage, only Chicago’s Shane Connelly had a higher mark, but Regan certainly got the best of it against his Steel counterpart. When the horn sounded on Game Four of the championship series, Regan was deservedly recognized as the Clark Cup MVP. He is the only Black Hawk to ever take that honor. Black Hawks fans at the rink that spring and Regan’s 2003/04 teammates agree no Waterloo player has deserved it more. -----Disagree with these picks? Did we leave someone out? Who should be added to the list after the 2017 Clark Cup is presented? Send us your opinions by emailing info@waterlooblackhawks. com. We will share them during the Summer 2017 edition of Hawk Tawk.
WAT E R LO O B L A C K H AW K S .CO M
13