Feb. 8, 2007
By Danny Martin, Staff Writer
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Published February 8, 2007
It's easy to wonder if the Alaska Nanooks would be in an eighth-place tie in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association if Jeff Lee had decided to play another season in the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
The freshman right wing scored the game-tying goal Saturday night at the Carlson Center to rally the Nanooks to a 3-3 tie against the then 10th-ranked Miami (Ohio) RedHawks, giving Alaska a three-point weekend in the series and putting it in contention for home ice for the first round of the playoffs.
Eighth place is the lowest a team can finish in the regular season to play host to a first-round series, scheduled for March 2-4. The Nanooks, at 7-10-5 league and 9-13-6 overall, are tied for eighth place with Northern Michigan and Western Michigan, whom Alaska faces this weekend in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Nanooks head coach Tavis MacMillan, after Tuesday morning's practice at the Patty Center, said that Lee, the younger brother of junior left wing Aaron Lee, and the freshmen Knelsen brothers, Dion and Brandon, were originally scheduled to spend another season in the AJHL.
The Knelsens played last season for the Drumheller Dragons while Lee started the season with the Drayton Valley Thunder and finished with the Sherwood Park Crusaders.
A few personnel changes and a recruit going in a different direction led to Jeff Lee and the Knelsens coming to Fairbanks a year earlier.
Then sophomore center Ryan McLeod was academically ineligible following the fall semester of 2005 and he decided to sign a professional contract with the Victoria (British Columbia) Salmon Kings of the ECHL.
Defenseman Jordan Hendry also decided to sign a two-way contract with the National Hockey League's Chicago Blackhawks following last season. Hendry was a senior academic wise last season but a junior in regards to eligibility.
The Nanooks coaches also saw promising recruit Branden Campos head to the major junior-level Western Hockey League.
Jeff Lee did consider spending a third straight season in the AJHL. In 54 games last season with Drayton Valley and Sherwood Park, he compiled 12 goals and 21 assists for 33 points.
"It was definitely a big option," said the 6-foot-2, 210-pounder from Calgary, Alberta, "but you always want to move on to the next level."
A reason Lee considered staying at the junior level was getting more playing time with Sherwood Park.
"I had a team where I was going to play a lot and playing a lot of hockey is important," he said, "but I thought I could play up here."
The first 28 seconds of the third period last Saturday night showed that the 18-year-old wing could.
Lee, set up by junior defenseman T.J. Campbell and senior center Lucas Burnett, skated through the right circle and weaved by Kevin Roeder. He used one arm to muscle off the backchecking pressure of RedHawks defenseman Mitch Ganzak, and with his other hand, he controlled his stick well enough to dip the puck between the pads of Miami goaltender Jeff Zatkoff.
Lee said the Nanooks coaches had been encouraging him to capitalize on three of his attributes -- size, speed and strength -- to get to the net.
"They have always been harping on me to do that and play to my strengths, and I just saw the opportunity," Lee said. "I saw the opportunity to beat that one d-man and then kind of fight my way to the net against the other one. I got a good bounce and it went in."
Lee, who has two goals and four points in 25 games this season, brought speed with him from the junior level, as he finished second in the fastest skater competition at last season's Canadian Junior Amateur Hockey League Prospects Game.
Nanooks coaches, though, welcomed his speed but wanted him to control it.
"I don't think his mind and his hands can keep up with his legs," MacMillan joked, "but I think they will develop there."
Lee continues to enhance his speed.
"I've just been practicing skating as fast as I can and just moving around a lot and just kind of keeping the puck on my blade," he said. "That's helped me a lot."
His decision to not stay in junior hockey ended up helping the Nanooks early in the third period last Saturday night.
