{"id":143140,"date":"2023-11-02T14:00:01","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T19:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=143140"},"modified":"2023-11-01T14:59:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T19:59:17","slug":"this-week-in-nchc-hockey-remembering-minnesota-duluths-johnson-who-was-fun-to-be-around-sometimes-the-life-of-the-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/11\/02\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-remembering-minnesota-duluths-johnson-who-was-fun-to-be-around-sometimes-the-life-of-the-party\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Remembering former Minnesota Duluth standout Johnson, who ‘was fun to be around, sometimes the life of the party’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Adam Johnson skated for UMD from 2015 to 2017 (photo: Minnesota Duluth Athletics).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former Minnesota Duluth forward Adam Johnson played two seasons with the Bulldogs, and earlier this week, UMD coach Scott Sandelin explained why Johnson would\u2019ve gone on to captain the team if he hadn\u2019t left early for pro hockey.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s intangibles on and off the ice helped make him a coveted prospect out of Minnesota high school hockey with Hibbing\/Chisholm, and the Pittsburgh Penguins saw that, too. Johnson signed with them before what would\u2019ve been his junior season in Duluth, and went on to play 13 games with the Penguins in a pro career that ran for six years.<\/p>\n

During a press conference Monday, Sandelin heralded his former assistant captain, who died Saturday after an on-ice accident while playing for the Nottingham Panthers, a professional team in England. Johnson was 29.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the kind of person he was,\u201d Sandelin said of why he held Johnson in such high regard. \u201cThe guys loved him and respected him, and obviously he was a talented player, but it was his personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got along with everybody, he was fun to be around, sometimes the life of the party. When you have that and your teammates see that, I think that would’ve been a big reason why we saw him as being a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

The son of Davey Johnson, a former UMD captain and four-year letterman with the Bulldogs, Adam was UMD\u2019s top-scoring rookie in the 2015-16 season and then posted a career-best 18 goals, 31 points, 133 shots and seven power-play goals as a sophomore, when the Bulldogs won their first NCHC playoff title. He was also twice named as a NCHC All-Academic Team selection.<\/p>\n

HIs pro career would include stints with Pittsburgh as well as Pittsburgh\u2019s American Hockey League feeder team, the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins. He later appeared for the Ontario Reign, the Los Angeles Kings\u2019 AHL team. Johnson also played for clubs in Sweden and Germany before joining Nottingham this season.<\/p>\n

He played seven games with the Panthers, and suffered a medical emergency Saturday when an errant skate blade slashed his neck during a road game against the Sheffield Steelers. The Elite Ice Hockey League\u2019s three games scheduled elsewhere for Sunday were postponed following Johnson\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

UMD coaches learned of the incident before the Bulldogs\u2019 own game Saturday, a 3-0 defeat at Cornell.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight before the game, we were notified that he had passed away,\u201d Sandelin said. \u201cThe players didn\u2019t really know. After the game, they were obviously aware. There are a few guys on our team that had a little closer relationship with Adam, but we didn\u2019t really say much.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you lose a family member, it hurts, and there\u2019s guys on our team, including staff, who probably know Adam a little bit better and have a little deeper relationship, but that doesn\u2019t matter. It does matter that we all look after each other, and make sure everyone\u2019s handling it the right way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe incident itself is scary, right?\u201d Sandelin continued. \u201cWe\u2019re all hockey players, and I know I saw a couple of (AHL) guys wear neck guards the next day in their game. Those are all things we\u2019ll probably talk about over time, but I want to get our guys together and make sure we\u2019re all there for each other, and some guys probably need it a little bit more. We\u2019ve got to get through it together, and that\u2019s why you\u2019re a team and that\u2019s why you\u2019re a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s passing was bound to prompt Sandelin to look at the bigger picture.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Saturday\u2019s game against Cornell), at the end, to me, was very inconsequential,\u201d said Sandelin, himself a Hibbing native. \u201cIt does put it in perspective, but we still have a job to do, and it\u2019s no different this week. We\u2019ve got to talk about it, move on, hopefully get strength from it and stay together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty of this is hockey\u2019s a unique world. You see the outpouring from everybody. Hockey\u2019s unique, and it\u2019s pretty touching to see everybody has reached out. It\u2019s on everybody\u2019s radar, and that helps you get through it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Minnesota Duluth forward Adam Johnson played two seasons with the Bulldogs, and earlier this week, UMD coach Scott Sandelin explained why Johnson would\u2019ve gone on to captain the team if he hadn\u2019t left early for pro hockey. Johnson\u2019s intangibles on and off the ice helped make him a coveted prospect out of Minnesota high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":143068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[810],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in NCHC Hockey: Remembering former Minnesota Duluth standout Johnson, who 'was fun to be around, sometimes the life of the party' - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Minnesota Duluth forward Adam Johnson played two seasons with the Bulldogs, and earlier this week, UMD coach Scott Sandelin explained why Johnson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143140\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Remembering former Minnesota Duluth standout Johnson, who 'was fun to be around, sometimes the life of the party' - 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