U.S. camp has Minnesota roots

BUFFALO --Minnesota has long been known for being the "State of Hockey" but players competing to play for the United States at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship will tell you the game has grown beyond their home.
Five players from Minnesota and two others who were drafted by the Minnesota Wild took part in the 2017 WJC selection camp at HarborCenter in Buffalo. For them it was a chance to show pride in not just representing the United States but also their home.

"There's plenty of pride," forward Kieffer Bellows said. "The state of Minnesota, we're known as the State of Hockey and when you see so many guys drafted out of Minnesota and so many NHLers that are from Minnesota, and the guys here that are from Minnesota, just speaks wonders of all the organizations there and how many former NHLers come back.
"Like my coach (at Edina High School) Curt Giles, (U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer) Dave Langevin and they come back and they coach kids because they want to help them get better and improve them so they can play college hockey and possibly go on to the NHL one day."

Bellows along with forwards Ryan Lindgren and Joey Anderson, defenseman Jack Ahcan, and goalie Jake Oettinger, represented Minnesota in camp. After growing up playing against each other in Pee-Wee and high school hockey, playing together in Buffalo and over the summer in Plymouth, Michigan, made things a little awkward.
"I know growing up, me and Ryan were always rivals on our teams and you could almost say we kind of disliked each other," Anderson said. "Now finally we're on the same team and became really, really close friends, and that's pretty cool how you can grow into that. It's like that with everybody too like Kieffer and all those guys, we play against each other growing up and you get a chance to play together and you have that little bond being similar to each other. It's pretty cool."
What sets Minnesota players apart from players from other states might be their ability to play hockey outdoors more often during the winter, but there are some other traits as well.
"I think playing outdoors it's a different type of hockey; more skill, and probably more patience with the puck, I'd say," Ahcan said. "It's not too different from other players because we're all good here, so it's probably the smarts; the smarts and skills I'd say [that separate Minnesota players]."
Playing outdoors and being able to hone your skills at any time might give native Minnesotans an edge, but the rest of the country has caught up, especially at the 2017 selection camp. There are five players from New York, four from Missouri, and three each from Michigan, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

"The world just shrunk; our hockey world has," United States coach Bob Motzko said. "These guys have been around each other for years and years in all the events they're in. You always see it in the movie, there always used to be this line between east and west. There is no line anymore. There's not."
If the hockey world is shrinking, it's not going to prevent the pride in Minnesota hockey from pouring out. The Wild drafted U.S. forwards Luke Kunin (Chesterfield, Missouri) and Jordan Greenway (Canton, New York). They may not be natives of Minnesota, but they've already received a taste of life there at Wild development camp. Greenway is well acquainted with it already after he attended legendary prep school Shattuck-St. Mary's in Fairbault, Minnesota.
"I was at Shattuck for three years so I have a lot of friends from there and got acclimated to the Twin Cities, and obviously being drafted there helped as well," Greenway said. "I couldn't be more excited to be drafted to that team because I've gotten acclimated to the city and I've got a lot of good relationships there and it's a great organization."