Springfield, Illinois – With the NCAA Division 3 hockey schedule underway, we now have over 100 alumni actively playing in North America and around the world! From the USHL to the AHL and all stops in between, here is this week’s Alumni Report!
We start our journey this afternoon in Atlanta, GA as netminder Tyler Parks picked up ECHL Goaltender of the Week honors after helping lead the Atlanta Gladiators to two victories this past weekend. Parks, a native of Imperial, MO, registered a 17 save shutout for the Gladiators on Friday over the Jacksonville Icemen before coming on in relief to help backstop a 7-5 come from behind victory over the Greenville Swamp Rabbits on Saturday. Although he is under contract with the Belleville Senators of the AHL, Parks has appeared in three games for the Gladiators and sports a 2-1-0 record with a 1.50 GAA, .938 SV%, and 1 shutout. Parks played for the Jr. Blues during the 2011-12 NAHL season (pictured above) and finished with a 12-9-0-1 record with a 2.75 GAA, .917 SV%, and 1 SO in 24 appearances.
We’re sticking in the realm of professional hockey for our next spotlight, but this time we look at a pair of brothers who are making a name for themselves in the Czech league. Kevin & Kelly Klima, who both play for HK Hradec Kralove, are in their fourth professional season and are adjusting nicely to the professional game. Kevin currently has 3 goals and 7 assists in 20 games while Kelly has 1 goal and 5 assists in 15 games. Overall, Kevin has appeared in 165 career professional games between the AHL, ECHL, and Czech league with 29 goals scored and 40 assists. Kelly has played in 125 games with 27 goals and 27 assists. The Klima brothers played in Springfield during the 2014-15 season where Kevin had 3 goals and 3 assists with 65 PIMs in 21 games while Kelly had 2 goals, 5 assists, and 40 PIMs in 23 games.
Our remaining spotlights focus on how our alumni in the NCAA fared this past weekend and we begin at American International College with Senior forward Brian Rigali, who was named an Honorable Mention for Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week. Rigali, a native of Green Oaks, IL, registered 2 goals and 3 assists for the Yellow Jackets in their weekend series split against RIT. He had previously played four seasons at UCONN before transferring to AIC for a fifth season under the new COVID rules that gave players an extra year of eligibility. Rigali played for the Jr. Blues during the 2014-15 season and scored 8 goals and 14 assists in 58 games before playing two seasons for the Sioux City Musketeers of the USHL.
We move from Division 1 hockey to Division 3 as our next spotlight is on Bethel University defenseman Caydon Meyer. Meyer, a product of Woodbury, MN, is a Freshman at Bethel and picked up his first collegiate goal in the Royals weekend sweep of Finlandia. Overall on the weekend Meyer collected a goal and two assists and now has 4 points in 3 games. Meyer played for the Jr. Blues to start the 2018-19 season where he appeared in 9 games before moving on to play for several other junior teams in the MJHL, NAHL, and USHL.
Our final spotlight this week is on another defenseman who picked up career goal number one. Saint John’s blueliner Max Osborne picked up his first collegiate goal in Friday night’s loss to Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). Osborne transferred from St. Thomas to Saint John’s this season and currently has 1 goal and 3 assists in 10 collegiate games, limited in number due to the pandemic. Osborne was, and still is, a big fan favorite here in Springfield as he played 143 games for the Jr. Blues over the course of three seasons. In that time Ozzy scored 14 goals, added 40 assists, and chipped in 6 assists in 7 playoff appearances. Osborne was selected to and participated in the 2020 NAHL Top Prospects Tournament where he collected 2 assists in two games.
And while these young men went above and beyond this past week, they weren’t the only alumni who represented the shield proudly! Here are other alumni who performed successfully:
Mattheson Iacopelli 1 A Kalamazoo K-Wings ECHL
Brady Tomlak 1 G, 1 A Toledo Walleye ECHL
Stefanos Lekkas 1-0-0 Fort Wayne Komets ECHL
Ricards Bernhards 1 G, 1 A Kiruna AIF HockeyEttan
Martin Liljekvist 1 A Tegs HockeyEttan
Hugh Levenius Quinn 1 A
Sandro Aeschlimann 1-0-0 HC Davos NL
Janis Voris 1-0-0 HC Donbass Donetsk Ukraine
Bradley Marek 2 G Ferris State NCAA
Dryden McKay 1-1-0 Minnesota State-Mankato NCAA
Brandon Puricelli 1 G Lake Superior State NCAA
Sam Craggs 1 G Bowling Green NCAA
Coale Norris 1 A Bowling Green NCAA
TJ Friedmann 1 G Quinnipiac NCAA
Ryan Leibold 1 G, 1 A Holy Cross NCAA
Will Gavin 1 G Air Force Academy NCAA
Danny DiGrande 2 G Canisius NCAA
Dylan Rauh 1 G Aurora NCAA DIII
Nigel Nelson 1 A MSOE NCAA DIII
RIley Doyon 1 A Aurora NCAA DIII
Sam Sterne 1 G Wisconsin-Superior NCAA DIII
Mark Leach 2 A Saint Anselm NCAA DIII
Jeffrey Skinner 1 G UMass-Boston NCAA DIII
Brendan Schultz 1 G, 1 A Utica NCAA DIII
Andrew McGlynn 1 A Wisconsin-Eau Claire NCAA DIII
Nick Techel 1 A Wisconsin-Eau Claire NCAA DIII
Nathan Solis 1 A Saint Mary’s NCAA DIII
Reed Stark 1 A Wisconsin-Superior NCAA DIII
Jack Nickels 1 A MSOE NCAA DIII
Jack Williams 1-1-0, 1 SO Waterloo Black Hawks
Mason McCormick 1 A Waterloo Black Hawks
