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Brian Hedger

Ruggiero recalls journey to U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

Monday, 08.03.2015 / 2:12 PM / U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

David Satriano - NHL.com Staff Writer

Growing up in California, Angela Ruggiero had limited opportunities to play hockey. Moving to Michigan changed that, and as a result, Ruggiero had one of the most successful careers of all time.

"I grew up loving hockey and my family loves hockey," said Ruggiero, who was announced as a member of the 2015 United States Hockey Hall of Fame class Monday. "Fortunately, I found hockey at a very young age when I was 7 when there wasn't a lot of it in the state of California. … My family moved to Michigan in 1996 for my brother's hockey. My brother and I would train in the summertime. We'd go to different rinks, wherever we could find ice and join summer leagues. Because hockey was so popular in Detroit relative to California, I think I really benefitted."

Ruggiero, 35, was a key player on the United States women's team that won the gold medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. The defenseman was the youngest player on that team, at 18, a senior attending prep school in Connecticut.

Drury, Schneider head U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame class

Monday, 08.03.2015 / 12:44 PM / U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

Mike G. Morreale - NHL.com Staff Writer

Chris Drury, Mathieu Schneider, Angela Ruggiero and Ron DeGregorio will be inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, it was announced by USA Hockey on Monday.

The 43rd U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame enshrinement dinner and ceremony will be held in Boston on Dec. 17.

The NHL's Lester Patrick Trophy, awarded annually for outstanding service to hockey in the United States, also will be presented.

Survival instincts helped Rafalski to U.S. Hall of Fame

Wednesday, 12.03.2014 / 3:00 AM / U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

Mike G. Morreale - NHL.com Staff Writer

Former University of Wisconsin men's hockey coach Jeff Sauer vividly recalls the day he reached out to New Jersey Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello with a little insight on a player he felt destined to make it big.

That player was 5-foot-10 Brian Rafalski, who at the time was considered by scouts an undersized defenseman incapable of handling the rigors of an NHL season.

"Lou told me he was too small and wouldn't be able to stand the physical game," Sauer said. "But four years later he was playing in the NHL and playing for Lou."

Lamoriello confirmed how Rafalski was back on his radar four years after Sauer's recommendation.

Vairo's innovations to U.S. game led to Hall induction

Tuesday, 12.02.2014 / 3:00 AM / U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

Mike G. Morreale - NHL.com Staff Writer

Four years before "The Miracle" in Lake Placid, Lou Vairo was leading his midget junior team in the United States Hockey League to a national championship while introducing European concepts of training and playing rarely seen in this country.

His teachings stressed puck control and pursuit, passing and speed through the neutral zone. It was a style of play Vairo embraced after a visit with Soviet Union coach Anatoli Tarasov at a clinic in Moscow in 1972. From that moment, Vairo was hooked and determined to pass along this knowledge to anyone willing to listen.

"Tarasov's hockey was different than anyone else's and it just fascinated me," Vairo said. "I brought the best features of North American hockey, which was basically Canadian, and European, basically Soviet, and tried to mend them together to fit the culture of our people."

Jeff Sauer built coaching success on communication

Monday, 12.01.2014 / 3:00 AM / U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

David Kalan - NHL.com Staff Writer

In decades of coaching, Jeff Sauer had to learn many different ways to communicate with his players.

These days, he is using that ability with the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association.

"The big thing with the [hearing-impaired] kids is just giving them a chance," Sauer said. "By giving them a chance, they really bond together well and they really stick up for each other. ... It's rejuvenated me from a coaching standpoint."

Sauer, who will be inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame on Thursday, has worked with the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association, of which he is now president, for more than four decades. His relationship with the organization started when, as Sauer tells it, a parent of a deaf player in the Stan Mikita Hockey School for the Hearing Impaired asked if their son and another player could participate in a camp Sauer was running when he coached at Colorado College. Four days later, Sauer was asked if he would continue working with the school, and he has been a part of the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association ever since.

Trailblazer Bye Dietz to enter U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

Sunday, 11.30.2014 / 3:00 AM / U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

Jon Lane - NHL.com Staff Writer

Early in her athletic career, Karyn Bye Dietz arrived at a crossroads.

She entered the ninth grade at River Falls High School in Wisconsin excelling in hockey and basketball. Her hockey ambitions, though, were met with resistance because for the female athlete, the sport wasn't thought to offer a career path. Her father told her so, as did River Falls' varsity basketball coach. Each tried to convince her to stick with basketball.

But there was something about hockey that touched Bye Dietz’s heart, the speed and grace of being on the ice along with a test of her will and perseverance; to survive and thrive playing with boys under exacting circumstances.

"There were teams that I played against that they did not like having a girl out there," she said. "They would actually try to take extra hits at me or go after me.

"It was a daily habit of mine, but I felt that I had to prove that not only to myself but to my teammates on a daily basis that I was good enough to be there, because I obviously took the spot of another boy that didn't make the team. As I got older the challenge became tougher. When I was 12 years old, I was the tallest one out there and, quite honestly, I think I was one of the fastest ones. But as the boys matured they caught up to me and actually went ahead of me, so that's when the challenge really took place when I felt like I had to work that much harder just to prove I deserve to be there.

"I think, looking back, that's what made me the player that I became."


Rafalski headlines U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame inductees

Wednesday, 08.06.2014 / 3:12 PM / U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

Mike G. Morreale - NHL.com Staff Writer

Four Olympic medalists, including two players and two coaches who played an integral role in establishing the sport of hockey in the United States on several fronts, will headline this year's inductees into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.

The honorees, announced Wednesday by USA Hockey, include Brian Rafalski, a two-time Olympic silver medalist and three-time Stanley Cup champion. He is joined by Karyn Bye Dietz, who served as alternate captain for the gold medal-winning U.S. women's team at the 1998 Nagano Games; Jeff Sauer, college coaching legend and coach of the gold medal-winning 2014 U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey team; and Lou Vairo, who was an assistant coach for the silver medal-winning U.S. team at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

"The class of 2014 is an extraordinary collection of individuals that have had an immensely positive impact on hockey in our country," president of USA Hockey Ron DeGregorio said. "Cumulatively, they have been involved at every level of hockey and this group is a big reason why our sport has advanced to the point it has in the United States."

The 42nd U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame induction dinner and ceremony will be held in Minnesota on Dec. 4 at a site to be announced.


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