Former Tiger Paw Student Addresses Group as World Champion

Today, at 12h30, one of the most accomplished Lac St Louis Tigers in our history will be addressing the students at the Tiger Paw Elite Summer Hockey school. we are talking about Lauriane Rougeau, of course. Lauriane was the first captain in the U18 Team Canada program. Won championships with the U22 team, and just recently in April , as a member of the Woemn's national Team, Lauriane won gold at the IIHF World Championships. Lauriane knows a thing or two about championship habits. If you can pull yourselves away from Italy- Germany today, come listen to Lauriane as she addresses the Tiger Paw students.

Read what Gary Roberts Has to say...The Tiger Paw Message!!!!!

Talent not enough to make it in NHL: Gary Roberts “You look at Steve Stamkos (shown against Canadiens), he’s a great hockey player, he’s a great baseball player, he’s a great golfer, he’s great in the gym,” Gary Roberts says. “You don’t score 60 goals in the National Hockey League unless you’re an all-around good athlete." MONTREAL - A lot of young hockey players watched Friday night’s first round of the NHL draft with dreams that one day in the future their name will be called. It’s a dream many hockey parents also have from the first time they lace up a pair of skates for their kid. But Gary Roberts, a veteran of 22 NHL seasons who won a Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames in 1989, has a message for those kids and their parents: It takes a lot more than talent to make it. Since retiring after the 2008-09 season, Roberts has become somewhat of a guru when it comes to training and nutrition for amateur and professional athletes through the Gary Roberts High Performance Centre. And he will play a key role at the NHLPA Allstate All-Canadians Mentorship Camp, slated for July 17-21 in Mississauga, Ont. The camp will bring together 42 of the top bantam-age players (born in 1997) from across the country, teaching them not only hockey skills, but also the importance and development of physical fitness, nutrition habits and mental skills. Six of the players invited to the camp are from Quebec: goalie Callum Booth of Montreal, defenceman Jérémy Roy of Richelieu, and forwards Julien Gauthier of Montreal, Daniel Sprong of Île Bizard, Anthony Beauvillier of St. Hyacinthe and Nicolas Roy of Amos. “These kids today, they need to be fed properly and fuelled properly,” Roberts, 46, said when I spoke with him recently. “Nutrition is the No. 1 thing I do with my guys, and it’s the one thing we’re going to enforce all week with these young athletes: eat right first. That’s the first thing you need to accomplish. If you don’t eat right, the training just goes by the wayside.” Roberts added that the bantam level is when kids need to really get serious about hockey – both on and off the ice – if they want to succeed. “This is the age we need to start preparing these players,” he said. “This is the time in their life when they say, ‘OK, I’m going to try and make hockey a career, or at least try to let hockey pay for my education in some form.’ This is the age these young players need to start getting this information to prepare them for whether it’s playing major-junior hockey or playing Junior A hockey or going to college. Fourteen, 15 years old, if you’re not doing this stuff – off the ice I’m talking about, when it comes to your lifestyle choices and your nutrition and your respect for the game – you’re not going to make it.” But Roberts added that healthy eating for hockey players – and children in general – should start at a much earlier age. “My biggest beef is hockey arena cafeterias,” he said. “They haven’t changed since I played minor hockey 40 years ago. I see kids eating pizza, Gatorade, and hotdogs and chips. That’s post-game meals for kids at hockey arenas. And they might play three games that day because they’re in a tournament.” I asked Roberts what young hockey players should be eating. “A garden salad with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar,” he said as a starter. “That’s the dressing … it’s not Ranch or Thousand Islands of French. It’s extra-virgin olive oil with balsamic vinegar, with some seeds on it. People don’t realize how good seeds are for you, whether it’s pumpkin seeds of hemp seeds or sunflower seeds. That’s a great salad for kids … it’s substance. Kids need substance. And then a chicken breast with some sweet potato and broccoli is a great meal. It’s got your protein, it’s got your long-lasting carbohydrates in the sweet potato. And even put some real butter on that, and you’ve got an ultimate pregame or post-game meal.” For snacks, Roberts suggests Greek yogurt with berries and flax seed, raw vegetables with humus, raw almonds (if there are no nut allergies) and an apple, trail mix or a tuna wrap. “I say to guys: ‘Worst-case scenario put a chocolate milk and a couple of bananas in your hockey bag so when you’re done playing you’ve got something to put in your body right away,’” Roberts said. “It’s about preparation. That’s what this whole thing is about. If you prepare properly you’ll succeed.” I also asked Roberts what he thinks about kids with NHL dreams playing hockey 12 months a year. “I’m totally against it,” he said. “My whole belief is that you play hockey all winter … it’s a physical sport. In the summertime you need to get outside, enjoy some sunshine, get out of the hockey arena. Eight weeks minimum of off-ice training depending on when your season ends. Go do something else in the summer. “You look at Steve Stamkos, he’s a great hockey player, he’s a great baseball player, he’s a great golfer, he’s great in the gym,” Roberts added. “You don’t score 60 goals in the National Hockey League unless you’re an all-around good athlete. So become a good athlete first, don’t focus so much on one sport or one activity. I think it’s totally wrong that parents think they’re going to lose the edge if (their kids) don’t go out on the ice 12 months a year. What’s going to happen is your child is going to be less motivated in September to put his skates on because he did it all summer.” Stamkos has become the poster boy for Roberts’s program, working hard with the former NHLer when it comes to fitness and nutrition. “The biggest thing for Steve was understanding how to lift weights properly ... that was No. 1,” Roberts said. “Understanding that to get stronger you follow tempo ... that’s what people don’t understand when they lift weights. Understanding exactly what we were trying to accomplish with his weightlifting instead of just working out. And then the nutrition … not eating near enough food. I refined his eating and introduced him to the proper training. “Obviously, he came to me with lots of skill,” Roberts added. “ I didn’t give him his shot.” But it takes more than just a big shot to make the NHL. scowan@montrealgazette.com Twitter: @StuCowan1 To learn more about the All-Canadians Mentorship Camp, including fitness and nutrition tips, go to the website at allcanadians.com Ken Dryden pays tribute to The Gazette’s Red Fisher on his retirement. Read more on Stu Cowan’s blog at montrealgazette.com/stuonsports Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Talent+enough+make+Gary+Roberts/6827945/story.html#ixzz1yeMQJtPN

Tiger Paw elite Summer Hockey school 2012 Opens Monday

The Tiger Paw Elite Summer Hockey School gets underway Monday to kick off the 2012 summer training We ask that everyone arrives between 11h30-12h30 to complete registration process. Peewees wil start their dry land sessions at 12h30, Bantams and Midgets will go to Championship Habits at 12h30 Note, Tiger Paw campers should come with a lunch as they will need an energy recapture following dryland and/or on ice. The Canteen will open at 4pm if you prefer to have your Tiger Paw camper purchase food at the rink. Note, we encourage the consumption of water, protien, vegetables/fruits...we discourage chips, soft drinks, gatorade/powerade/red bull, skittles/chocolate bars On Tuesday at 12h30, Marc David of Maxxgard outh protectors will be in attendance. Mouth protectors help to prevent concussions and we are big supporters of the use of mouth guards! If you do not use one, please do!!!!!!!!...Marc will help you to understand the use of mouth guards if you are not clear on their applications. Please use this email address ( lsltiger@gmail.com) to notify us of early departure, late arrival or unscheduled absences. You can alo reach me on my cell phone HOWEVER reception inside the arena is not good and I could miss calls 514.210.2607...best to text that cell number. We will provide a t-shirt, hockey jersey on Monday. Tiger Paw Campers should attend with a change of clothes, one set to work out in and another to leave in...under clothing for hockey is also a must RESPECT is rule 1...we expect our TIGER PAW CAMPERS to respect he coaches, staff, the staff of the arena,the facilities...no spitting on the dressing room floor, clean up after yourself, use the garbage bins to put your tape and other discharge RULE 2, is team first...you are part of the Tiger Paw team now...you are here to learn, not to disrupt... make an effort, do what is asked of you to the best of your ability and we will have a great summer! REMINDER, Our first guest speaker is Lauriane Rougeau who is the lone female to play for the Lac St Louis Tigers, played for Team Canada this past April and won gold by defeating the USA in overtime at te University of Vermont before a partisian crowd of 5000... I had the pleasure to be in attendance Final day BBQ is August 3rd! Daily Schedules below TIGER PAW ELITE SUMMER HOCKEY SCHOOL PEEWEE SCHEDULE Peewee (June 25-August 3) @ Vincent Lecavalier Arena 12h30-13h30 DRYLAND 13h30-14h00 transition to on ice 14h00-15h30 On Ice (with 6 instructors) 16h00-17h00 Championship Habits/Guest Speakers TIGER PAW ELITE SUMMER HOCKEY SCHOOL BANTAM SCHEDULE Bantam (June 25-August 4) at Vincent Lecavalier Arena Ile Bizard 12h30-13h30 Championship Habits/ Guest speakers 13h30-14h00 Transition to On Ice 14h00-15h30 On ice (with 6 instructors) 16h00-17h00 DRYLAND TIGER PAW ELITE SUMMER HOCKEY SCHOOL MIDGET SCHEDULE Midget @ Vincent Lecavalier Arena June 25-Aug 3 12h30-13h30 Championship Habits/ Guest speakers 13h30-15h00 DRYLAND 15h00-15h30 Transition to On Ice 15h30-17h00 On ice (with 6 instructors)

From NEHJ: Make developing durability a priority

By Sean Skahan Sean Skahan (Quincy, Mass.) is the strength and conditioning coach of the Anaheim Ducks. The definition of “durable” — according to Dictionary.com — is “The ability to resist wear, decay, etc.; well; lasting; enduring.” In team sports, the ability for athletes to be healthy on a game-to-game basis is sometimes what separates the good from the not-so-good. In the NHL and NFL, statistics are kept on man games lost to injury (NHL) and starters games missed (NFL). Over the course of the season, it is ideal that those numbers are low to ensure that the team is healthy. In professional sports, the athletes obviously possess enough talent to play their sport, but not so many have the durability to help them remain in the lineup. Having the best players on the team available to play in each game gives a team the best chance for success. Unfortunately, injuries do occur. Broken bones, head injuries and other ailments are unfortunately unavoidable. In hockey, the speed of the game combined with physical contact and a hard rubber puck that is shot around the ice and in the air at upwards of 90-plus mph can create plenty of opportunities for injury. It is the soft tissue injuries such as strains/pulls to muscle groups such as the adductors, abdominals and hip flexors that can be avoided. Can we prevent all of them from happening? Probably not, but we can do our best at implementing strategies to help our athletes avoid them. Creating and implementing strategies to help prevent these injuries from occurring needs to be part of the strength and conditioning coach’s responsibility. We can’t continue to wait for these injuries to happen before we take action. We need to be pro-active, not re-active. I am not suggesting that we should be spending all of our time on “pre-hab” or “corrective” exercises instead of trying to get our players stronger at the basics. Although we do what some would refer to as pre-hab and/or corrective exercises daily in our program. These are done with all of our athletes even if they don’t have any issue to “correct.” However, we use our pre-hab or correctives in conjunction with more traditional exercises used to increase strength and power. Some may refer to this as functional training. I am not sure what it should be called, to be honest, but I don’t feel like it needs to be classified as a system of training. It is what works for us and our players. In the NFL, the youngest age a rookie may be is 21 years old. Most of these players already are strong, fast and powerful as a result of being involved in a structured collegiate strength and conditioning program. In the NHL, the physical maturity of a young player is mostly different from the NFL. First, the NHL drafts young men when they are 18 to 19 years old. Also, NHL-drafted players are not exposed to the similar training methods that collegiate football players are. NHL-drafted players are being selected at the same age that football players are when they begin a collegiate strength and conditioning program. In my opinion, there are only a small number of college hockey programs with good strength-and-conditioning programs in place. As for the junior players throughout Canada and the United States, the offseason strength-and-conditioning programs provided by private strength-and-conditioning companies probably are the best option because the in-season strength-and-conditioning programs at the junior level are not as structured as the U.S. collegiate programs. The teams in the major junior leagues play twice the amount of games that college players do, which doesn’t leave an adequate amount of time to train. Unlike in the NFL, an 18-year-old may have the talent to play in the NHL right away. With these young players, it is crucial that they embrace the strength-and-conditioning process so that they can develop the durability necessary to play in 82 regular-season hockey games at a pace that they have never played in before. It may take time for this development to occur, but we must make it a priority. With the veteran NHL players, they are more like the NFL players who already possess the physical tools to play in the NHL. These players need to continue to work on their durability in the offseason and in season so that they can play every game. They may not need the overall hypertrophy that the younger player may need, but they still need to address some physical characteristics so that they can remain healthy. How do you create or improve durability? Methods to prevent the breakdown of the body have to be implemented. It may be different for each player. For one player, it might be gaining strength and lean body mass. For another player, it may be continuing to gain strength but also to improve their overall mobility. These are just some examples, but I think the point is made. Identifying the weakness and trying to improve it so that it is good enough relative to the strengths is a huge component. What I think is important in designing a strength-and-conditioning program is developing an all-encompassing program that takes everything into consideration. Even though an athlete may have specific weaknesses versus strengths, we still can work on their strengths at the same time. I don’t think that other areas need to take a back seat as we work on weaknesses. Durability also should be the focus of the training for the average trainee. The ability to resist wear and decay should be why we embark on exercising. You don’t have to be a pro athlete to not want to decay. This article originally appeared in the March 2012 issue of New England Hockey Journal. Sean Skahan, a native of Quincy, Mass., is the strength and conditioning coach of the Anaheim Ducks. He is also part owner of www.HockeySc.com, the leading online hockey training resource. He can be reached at feedback@hockeyjournal.com

Rougeau to Join Tiger Paw elite Summer Hockey School June 28th

Former Lac St Louis Tiger, Lauriane Rougeau, will be present at the Tiger Paw elite Summer Hockey School Thursday June 28th. Lauriane is a three time second team All American defenseman at Cornell University, who is fresh off her first experience with women's National Team at the IIHF World Championships in Burlington, Vermont where Canada won the gold medal in overtime before a partisan crowd. Lauriane will discuss her path to espoir level and beyond including her experience as captain of the U18 Team Canada, experiences with the U22 program, Cornell and , of course, the recent World Championship experience.

Championship Habits: What Eating Too Much Sugar Does to Your Brain

Overeating, poor memory formation, learning disorders, depression – all have been linked in recent research to the over-consumption of sugar. And these linkages point to a problem that is only beginning to be better understood: what our chronic intake of added sugar is doing to our brains. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the average American consumes 156 pounds of added sugar per year. That’s five grocery store shelves loaded with 30 or so one pound bags of sugar each. If you find that hard to believe, that’s probably because sugar is so ubiquitous in our diets that most of us have no idea how much we’re consuming. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) puts the amount at 27.5 teaspoons of sugar a day per capita, which translates to 440 calories – nearly one quarter of a typical 2000 calorie a day diet. The key word in all of the stats is “added.” While a healthy diet would contain a significant amount of naturally occurring sugar (in fruits and grains, for example), the problem is that we’re chronically consuming much more added sugar in processed foods. That’s an important clarification because our brains need sugar every day to function. Brain cells require two times the energy needed by all the other cells in the body; roughly 10% of our total daily energy requirements. This energy is derived from glucose (blood sugar), the gasoline of our brains. Sugar is not the brain’s enemy — added sugar is. Research indicates that a diet high in added sugar reduces the production of a brain chemical known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Without BDNF, our brains can’t form new memories and we can’t learn (or remember) much of anything. Levels of BDNF are particularly low in people with an impaired glucose metabolism–diabetics and pre-diabetics–and as the amount of BDNF decreases, sugar metabolism worsens. In other words, chronically eating added sugar reduces BDNF, and then the lowered levels of the brain chemical begin contributing to insulin resistance, which leads to type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which eventually leads to a host of other health problems. Once that happens, your brain and body are in a destructive cycle that’s difficult if not impossible to reverse. Research has also linked low BDNF levels to depression and dementia. It’s possible that low BDNF may turn out to be the smoking gun in these and other diseases, like Alzheimer’s, that tend to appear in clusters in epidemiological studies. More research is being conducted on this subject, but what seems clear in any case is that a reduced level of BDNF is bad news for our brains, and chronic sugar consumption is one of the worst inhibitory culprits. Other studies have focused on sugar’s role in over-eating. We intuitively know that sugar and obesity are linked, but the exact reason why hasn’t been well understood until recently. Research has shown that chronic consumption of added sugar dulls the brain’s mechanism for telling you to stop eating. It does so by reducing activity in the brain’s anorexigenic oxytocin system, which is responsible for throwing up the red “full” flag that prevents you from gorging. When oxytocin cells in the brain are blunted by over-consumption of sugar, the flag doesn’t work correctly and you start asking for seconds and thirds, and seeking out snacks at midnight. What these and other studies strongly suggest is that most of us are seriously damaging ourselves with processed foods high in added sugar, and the damage begins with our brains. Seen in this light, chronic added-sugar consumption is no less a problem than smoking or alcoholism. And the hard truth is that we may have only begun to see the effects of what the endless sugar avalanche is doing to us.

Tiger Paw Instructor: from Harvard

Harvard's Killorn Caps 2011-12 with Calder Cup Win Killorn lifts the Calder Cup (photo by John Wright/courtesy Norfolk Admirals). Less than three weeks after graduating from Harvard, Alex Killorn capped a brilliant 2011-12 season by hoisting the Calder Cup following his Norfolk Admirals' defeat of the Toronto Marlies to win the American Hockey League championship. The title run highlighted a strong season for former Crimson players in professional hockey. Killorn, who earned All-America first-team honors and led Harvard to the ECAC Hockey title game this season, ranked fourth on the Admirals with nine assists and sixth with 12 points in 17 playoff games. He previously joined the team in the midst of a 28-game win streak and began his career with two goals and four assists to close the regular season and start his professional career. Four former Harvard players played in the National Hockey League this season. Craig Adams '99 played in all 82 games to help the Pittsburgh Penguins finish with 108 points, the NHL's fourth-greatest total. Dominic Moore '03 also finished the season in the playoffs, with the San Jose Sharks after a midseason trade from the Tampa Bay Lightning. Moore totaled 25 points on the season. Former Crimson forward and first-round draft pick Louis Leblanc made his NHL debut with his hometown Montreal Canadiens, totaling five goals and 10 points in 42 games to go with 22 points in 31 AHL games with the Hamilton Bulldogs. Defenseman Dylan Reese '07 also spent time at both the NHL and AHL levels. He skated in 28 games for the New York Islanders, registering 11 points from the blue line. Killorn was one of five members of Harvard's Class of 2012 to play or sign with pro teams. Classmates Ryan Grimshaw, Eric Kroshus and Daniel Moriarty all made their pro debuts before graduating, and Colin Moore signed with Les Repaces de Gap in France's top league. Below are the 2011-12 regular-season statistics of former Harvard players in pro hockey (courtesy HockeyDB.com). Craig Adams '99, Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL) - 82 games played, 5 goals, 13 assists, 18 points, 34 penalty minutes Alex Biega '11, Rochester Americans (AHL) - 65 GP, 5 G, 18 A, 23 P, 47 PIM Ryan Grimshaw '12, Rochester Americans (AHL) - 3 GP, 0 G, 0 A, 0 P, 2 PIM Ryan Grimshaw '12, Trenton Titans (ECHL) - 3 GP, 0 G, 0 A, 0 P, 0 PIM Chris Huxley '11, Ontario Reign (ECHL) - 69 GP, 6 G, 29 A, 35 P, 109 PIM Alex Killorn '12, Norfolk Admirals (AHL) - 10 GP, 2 G, 4 A, 6 P, 2 PIM Eric Kroshus '12, Wheeling Nailers (ECHL) - 3 GP, 0 G, 1 A, 1 P, 0 PIM Ryan Lannon '05, KalPa Kuopio (SM-liiga) - 28 GP, 1 G, 5 A, 6 P, 10 PIM Louis Leblanc, Montreal Canadiens (NHL) - 42 GP, 5 G, 5 A, 10 P, 28 PIM Louis Leblanc, Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL) - 31 GP, 11 G, 11 A, 22 G, 30 PIM Craig MacDonald '99, Mannheim Eagles (DEL) - 28 GP, 6 G, 14 A, 20 P, 12 PIM Ryan Maki '07, Hannover Scorpions (DEL) - 43 GP, 9 G, 15 A, 24 P, 34 PIM Dominic Moore '03, San Jose Sharks (NHL) - 23 GP, 0 G, 6 A, 6 P, 6 PIM Dominic Moore '03, Tampa Bay Lightning (NHL) - 56 GP, 4 G, 15 A, 19 P, 48 PIM Daniel Moriarty '12, Evansville IceMen (CHL) - 2 GP, 0 G, 0 A, 0 P, 0 PIM Jon Pelle '08, Belfast Giants (EIHL) - 44 GP, 24 G, 33 A, 57 P, 20 PIM Dylan Reese '07, New York Islanders (NHL) - 28 GP, 1 G, 6 A, 7 P, 11 PIM Dylan Reese '07, Bridgeport Sound Tigers (AHL) - 27 GP, 2 G, 13 A, 15 P, 12 PIM Noah Welch '05, HV71 Jonkoping (SEL) - 51 GP, 4 G, 6 A, 10 P, 85 PIM Dov Grumet-Morris '05, San Antonio Rampage (AHL) - 34 GP, 2.33 goals-against average, .921 save percentage, 19-13-1 record

Tiger Paw Guest Instructors Killorn and Barberio Win Calder Cup with Norfolk Admirals

Calder Cup sets sail for Norfolk June 9, 2012 TORONTO … The Norfolk Admirals completed a storybook 2011-12 season by capturing the franchise’s first Calder Cup championship with a 6-1 win over the Toronto Marlies at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto on Saturday afternoon. The Admirals, the top development team of the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning, finished off a four-game sweep of the Marlies in the Calder Cup Finals. After completing the regular season with a professional hockey record 28-game winning streak, Norfolk went 15-3 in the postseason to finish with 70 victories in 94 games overall, including 43 in their final 46 games of the year. 2012 AHL MVP and Rookie of the Year Cory Conacher recorded four assists in the Game 4 clincher, while fellow 2012 AHL All-Rookie forward Tyler Johnson notched two goals and two assists and defenseman Mike Kostka scored twice. Richard Panik gave Norfolk the lead 6:17 into Game 4, driving to the net and banking a shot off the skate of Toronto defender Juraj Mikus and past Ben Scrivens. Panik’s elbowing major and game misconduct late in the first period gave Toronto an opportunity to get back in the game, and after Jean-Philippe Cote and Mike Kostka also took minors, the Marlies converted on a lengthy five-on-three advantage when Mike Zigomanis buried a cross-crease pass from Joe Colborne with 16.1 seconds left in the frame, tying the score at 1-1. Zigomanis’s goal was the first allowed by Norfolk on the road in more than a month, since Game 4 of the Admirals’ second-round series vs. Connecticut on May 7 – a span of 272:38. Norfolk reclaimed the lead in the second period when Kostka’s shot from the blue line sailed through traffic and past Scrivens at 4:26. A goal by Johnson at 16:45, banking the puck in off Scrivens from below the goal line, gave Norfolk a 3-1 lead at the second intermission, and Kostka added his second of the night on a power play 44 seconds into the third period. Johnson’s second goal of the night came into an empty net with 7:25 left after Toronto had pulled Scrivens for an extra attacker, and Pierre-Cedric Labrie snapped one home less than a minute later. Dustin Tokarski stopped 18 of 19 Marlies shots in Game 4, finishing the postseason with his league-leading 12th victory. Scrivens made 26 saves in the loss. Norfolk never trailed over its final two playoff series and finished the postseason with 10 consecutive wins, outscoring their opponents 34-7 during the streak. Under second-year head coach Jon Cooper, the Admirals eliminated the Manchester Monarchs (3-1), Connecticut Whale (4-2) and St. John’s IceCaps (4-0) before defeating Toronto in the Finals. The Admirals’ 2012 playoff roster featured seven players who appeared in the NHL with the parent Lightning this season. Norfolk forward Alexandre Picard won the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the most valuable player of the 2012 Calder Cup Playoffs, leading the Admirals with nine goals and 16 points while registering a plus-11 rating as well as a team-high 48 penalty minutes in 18 playoff games. Norfolk’s victory brings the curtain down on the AHL’s 76th season. In operation since 1936, the AHL continues to serve as the top development league for all 30 National Hockey League teams. More than 88 percent of today’s NHL players are American Hockey League graduates, and this season marked the 11th consecutive year in which more than 6 million fans attended AHL games across North America. 2012 Calder Cup Finals – Series “O” (best-of-7) E1-Norfolk Admirals vs. W2-Toronto Marlies Game 1 – Fri., June 1 – NORFOLK 3, Toronto 1 Game 2 – Sat., June 2 – NORFOLK 4, Toronto 2 Game 3 – Thurs., June 7 – Norfolk 1, TORONTO 0 (OT) Game 4 – Sat., June 9 – Norfolk 6, TORONTO 1

Tiger Paw Instructor Graduates Harvard and Playing in Calder Cup Final

Alex Killorn: The Head Of The Class 2012 Harvard Graduate and Lightning Prospect Alex Killorn's career is already off to a fast start Monday, 06.04.2012 / 9:09 PM / Features By Dan Marrazza This spring, thousands of young adults in the United States have been rewarded for many years of hard study by graduating with a college degree. For most, their college graduation signals their transition from childhood to adulthood, with the time immediately after graduation being reserved for a job hunt with which they’ll pursue their dream career. For Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Alex Killorn, a May 24 graduate of Harvard University with a degree in government, his post-college life has gotten off to a rollicking start, as he’s just two wins away from being a Calder Cup champion just days after graduating one of America’s premier educational institutions. “If you told me last year that I’d be in the Calder Cup Finals with the Norfolk Admirals right now, I probably wouldn’t have believed you,” Killorn said. “But I’m just trying to take it day by day. So far, it’s been fun.” It isn’t very difficult to see why Killorn would be having so much fun at this juncture of his life, since fulfilling most of his educational requirements at Harvard earlier this winter enabled him to turn pro and join the Norfolk Admirals in March as they were in the midst of a winning streak that would reach 28 games at the regular season’s conclusion, making it at least 10 games longer than any other winning streak in any league in 108 years of professional hockey. The Admirals have followed their record-breaking winning streak by winning 13 of their first 16 playoff games, holding a 2-0 final-round series advantage over the Toronto Marlies after eliminating the Manchester Monarchs, Connecticut Whale and St. John’s IceCaps in the first three rounds. And Killorn has hardly been a passenger on the Admirals’ postseason drive either, as his 11 postseason points (3g, 8a) are second among all AHL rookies, only trailing a Matt Frattin of the Toronto Marlies that spent much of this past season in the NHL while Killorn was still playing collegiately. “Killorn has been a top player in an Ivy League school for four years,” said Admirals head coach Jon Cooper. “It’s hard for a lot of junior and college guys who have never played at this level to walk in and be a great player right away. But Killorn is just a bit older and stronger. It only took him 10 or 15 games for the game to basically slow down for him, which means he’s really adapting. He’s been a pivotal player for us.” Killorn’s great strength doesn’t necessarily show itself in the form of fights or thunderous hits; rather, for Killorn, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound Nova Scotia native that’s equally adept at playing all three forward positions, his strength is most apparent on the forecheck, from where he generates most of his offensive chances by seemingly effortlessly shoving larger defensemen off pucks. Actually, since Killorn’s advanced level of strength has seemed to make his adjustment to pro hockey look so easy at times, it’s quite possible that the most challenging task he’s had to face in his life lately was fitting his college graduation into his busy hockey schedule. After all, the Admirals’ schedule originally dictated that they’d be over 1,000 miles from Cambridge, Mass. at the time of Harvard’s graduation, leaving Killorn’s ability to actually attend his graduation in doubt down to the very last minute. In the end, what turned out to be the thing to guarantee that Killorn would be able to attend his graduation was the great haste with which the Admirals swept the St. John’s IceCaps in the Eastern Conference Finals, since Killorn’s graduation was originally scheduled for an off day between Game 4 and what would have been a Game 5 of Norfolk’s third-round series. But since the Admirals sweeping the IceCaps enabled the Eastern Conference Finals to conclude early on May 22, Killorn was able to separately fly out of Newfoundland & Labrador to Boston ahead of his teammates and not have to worry about hanging around for another four days to play an extra game in St. John’s. “I was going to try and make it to my graduation either way,” said Killorn. “Obviously, the sweep made everything a whole lot easier. The only thing was that I really didn’t have a lot of family at my graduation, since nobody knew until the last second if I was actually going to be able to make it.” But Killorn made it to Harvard’s graduation, where commencement speakers included Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, actors Mark Wahlberg and Nicolas Cage, and comedian Andy Samberg. “You put in so much effort by working hard in class,” said Killorn. “And to be able to celebrate a degree with your buddies after ending a chapter of your life is very exciting.” But in terms of pure excitement, it will be hard for any 2012 Harvard graduates to be able to duplicate the level of instantaneous excitement that Killorn has experienced, given that the Admirals’ next game will be the first championship-series game of any pro-hockey league played in the hockey-crazy city of Toronto in five decades. “I don’t know if anybody I know is doing anything quite like this,” said Killorn. “For me, a lot of my friends are hockey players who are trying to figure out what the next steps for their playing careers are. I do know another guy, though, that is trying to invent this heart-rate monitor that seems pretty cool.” While Killorn playing in the Calder Cup Finals and probably having the chance to push for an NHL roster spot next fall are certainly things that put him ahead of most of his classmates immediately after college, the 2007 Tampa Bay draft pick knows that he’s going to have to accomplish an awful lot as a hockey player to stay ahead of a group of peers that in all reality, will probably be America’s leaders much sooner rather than later. “Score 800 goals,” joked Killorn. “Yeah, somebody from my class will probably do something to pass me by at some point.” But until someone passes him, Killorn is just going to enjoy truly being the head of his class.

Former Tiger Paw Student Momesso gets invite to Canucks Rookie Camp

Former Tiger Paw Elite Summer Hockey School student Stefano Momesso has received an invitation to attend the Vancouver Canucks rookie camp this summer. Congratulations, Stefano!