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Battleford native Young playing in Frozen Four for second straight year

Apr 5, 2018 | 10:00 AM

While the Battlefords North Stars have a do-or-die playoff game tonight at the Civic Centre, one of their alumni will also be playing to keep his season alive.

Battleford native Blake Young, who suited up for the North Stars from 2012-14, is playing in the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s Frozen Four Thursday night as a member of the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. Now in his senior season, Young and the Bulldogs are looking to make up for last year, when they lost in the national championship game 3-2 to Denver.

This year their path to the Frozen Four took them through Minnesota State, where they won 3-2 in overtime in their first-round playoff matchup, and then past Air Force in the second round where they won 2-1.

The Bulldogs are going up against Ohio State Thursday, a team they haven’t gone head-to-head with yet this season.

“They’re a big, strong, physical team and we haven’t really seen too many of those this year, so it’s going to be a fun challenge,” Young told battlefordsNOW in a phone interview.

“Personally, I like opponents we haven’t really seen because then it’s a whole different ball game,” he added. “If you haven’t seen them, they have no idea what you can throw at them.”

Preparing for a brand new opponent also means countless hours of video sessions, which Young said can take a toll but are absolutely necessary.

“Sometimes teams will have four different power play breakouts or on their kill they’ll switch it up halfway through and you’ve kind of got to know every little detail and what each guy’s role is out there,” Young said. “You’ve got to be able to identify before it’s even happening.”

In the NCAA Division-1 playoffs, it’s one-game elimination all the way through. Young said he doesn’t mind it at all.

“I enjoy it a lot, because getting to that 16-team tournament is extremely hard throughout the year and once you get it there’s satisfaction,” he said. “Then you know you’ve just got to win four games to win the national championship. This year we kind of limped in a bit with those two losses right before [playoffs], but now we’re heading to the final four and it’s anybody’s game.”

The Bulldogs went 21-16-3 this year, grabbing the third seed in the west region. That’s what set up their game with Minnesota State, who were ranked second out of the west, where they came back from a 2-0 deficit to win in overtime. They even had a goal in overtime called back because of goaltender interference before ending it for good just a couple minutes later.

“To go into overtime and have our first goal taken away, that was kind of like ‘Holy. What happens now?’” Young said. “I thought we responded really well. It took like two minutes to get the second goal. It was just a great feeling overall.”

Young’s linemate Parker Mackay had the overtime winner in that game.

Mackay is a 23-year-old junior from Irma, Alta. who played in the Alberta Junior Hockey League for three years with Spruce Grove, where he won a championshp in 2014-15 and won playoff MVP. Young’s other linemate is Justin Richards, a 20-year-old freshman from Colmbus, Ohio.

“Our line’s role basically is to generate, not goals, but offensive zone time,” Young said. “We’ll get pucks deep, we’ll work them down low and kind of create momentum and energy for the others guys. [Parker] scored the overtime winner, so we can contribute offensively as well but, for the most part, it’s getting momentum going our way.”

Playing for head coach Scott Sandelin, who has coached the Bulldogs for nearly 20 years, has also been a pleasure for Young.

“He’s seen almost everything, so he knows how to react in situations and he’s good at keeping guys level-headed,” Young said. “He knows how to get the most out of everybody. He knows what buttons to push and where you’ll do well and he holds guys accountable really well.”

The Bulldogs game Thursday versus Ohio State, top seed from the midwest region, is set for 6 p.m. Eastern Time at Xcel Energy Centre in Saint Paul, Minn. the home of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. With a win the Bulldogs will advance to the national championship game April 7, to face either Notre Dame or Michigan.

 

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11