Family traditions

Austin Adduono had every right to be nervous on Saturday night.

The 17-year-old doesn’t get to play that often in front of friends and family any more. Add to that the fact he was in a mini-slump heading into a Fort William Gardens battle against the Thunder Bay North Stars, having been held off the score sheet for a pair of games, and it’s no wonder he got off to a slow start.

But the Wisconsin Wilderness rookie made up for it when it mattered, drawing a pair of assists in the third period, the first coming on Derek Tylka’s equalizer at 11:27 of the third, the second on Wilson Housley’s power-play winner with 3:25 to go in regulation.

Adduono was named to the Thunder Bay Major Midget Kings roster in June, but chose to try out with the Waterloo Black Hawks of the United States Hockey League, which ultimately led him to Spooner, Wis. and the expansion Wilderness.

He has plenty to celebrate these days.

On Friday he was the sole Superior International Junior Hockey League player named to the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s annual prospects game in Dauphin, Man. on Dec. 7 and 8, a showcase for the top 40 Junior A players in Canada (or in Adduono’s case, the United States).

The enormity of the honour isn’t lost on the peach-fuzzed teen, though a product of his generation, he found out about it in a not-so-traditional way.

“I actually read about it at school, on the computer. I was looking at the CJHL site, checking up on how our team was doing in the league standings. Then my coach called me two nights ago and told I was going to be given the opportunity to play there. I was pretty excited to do that,” Adduono said after Saturday’s 3-2, come-from-behind win.

“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. How many kids get the chance to play in that game? I’m pretty fortunate and lucky to be able to go there. Hopefully I do well.”

Wisconsin is coached by Rod Aldoff, a Lethbridge, Alta. native whose 15-year-journey through the minor hockey trenches took him to outposts as remote as Vipiteno, Italy, Talahassee, Fla. and Amarillo, Texas before he hung up the blades last season.

One of those stops, in 2002-03, was Greensboro, S.C., where the defenceman put up 32 points in 54 games.

There he was mentored by none other than Fort William’s own Rick Adduono, Austin’s uncle, a former NHler – albeit briefly – who played four games with Boston and Atlanta in the 1970s.

The Adduono name is one Aldoff never forgot, and when the chance to recruit the latest generation of a family that also sent Rick’s brother Ray to the WHA and more recently Jeremy Adduono to the American Hockey League and later Europe.

When he saw Austin Adduono’s name on the Waterloo roster – the two clubs share the same ownership group – he was bound and determined to bring him to Spooner should the opportunity arise. USHL team’s are only allowed two imports, and though he originally made the team, when a higher-profile NHL draft pick returned to the squad, Adduono was the odd man out.

Aldoff knows his stay with the Wilderness might be short-lived. But Adduono is second in the SIJHL in scoring, with 12 goals and 17 assists, so the first-year coach will take what he can get.

“He’s one of those kids that the puck kind of sticks with him. When he doesn’t have the puck and he’s grinding it out, he gives it everything he’s got. He has to get the puck back,” Aldoff said. “He’s a tough one-on-one player down in the corners.

“He’s not a big guy, but he plays with a lot of grit and a lot of heart. That’s a big asset to him.”
Adduono hopes the opportunity to play in front of all nature of scouts in Dauphin furthers his dream of playing U.S. college hockey next year.

“I haven’t really narrowed it down to anything yet. I’ve talked to Bowling Green and the University of Minnesota-Duluth,” he said.

But he tries not to think too far into the future, his immediate goal at hand making the first-place Wilderness into the title contenders, a tough task in a league where first and fourth place are separated by a single point.

He has thought a little about the prospects game, and is pretty sure he knows what he needs to do to stand out among the crowd, as he tries to live up to the family name. 

“Just work hard all the time, always be moving. Every shift you’ve got to try to win the battle and try to win every shift. It’s basically all you can do and hope for the best.”

Notes: Four Prospects Game alumni have been selected in the first round of the NHL draft: Riley Nash (Edmonton, 2007); Dylan Olsen (Chicago, 2009); Joe Colborne (Boston, 2008) and the most highly-touted of them all, Kyle Turris (Phoenix, 2006).
 
First period
Scoring: 1. Thunder Bay, Howarth 2 (K. Hamel, Hogan) 8:08. Penalties: Valley TB (boarding) 3:22, Adduono WIS (hooking) 9:46, Belobaba WIS (illegal equipment) 13:30, Cisco TB (high sticking) 16:04.

Second period
Scoring: 2. Thunder Bay, Forbes 10 (Valley, Marostica) 1:18. Penalties: Usiski TB (slashing) 2:12, K. Hamel TB (unsportsmanlike conduct, Holmes WIS (fighting major, game misconduct), C. Hamel TB (fighting major, game misconduct) 4:42, Dubinsky TB (slashing), Hendrickson WIS (cross checking) 6:52, Bentzen WIS (high sticking double minor) 15:44.
 
Third period
Scoring: 3. Wisconsin, B. Anderson 4 (Adduono) 4:29. 4. Wisconsin, Tylka 7 (Adduono, B. Anderson) 11:27. 5. Wisconsin, Housley (Kline, Hendrickson) 16:35 pp. Penalties: A. Anderson WIS (unsportsmanlike conduct) 1:41, Valley TB (slashing) 6:45 Betzen WIS (misconduct) 12:26, Usiski TB (roughing) 14:44, Brule TB (boarding) 16:49.
 
Game Data – SOG – Wisconsin 9-10-17-36, Thunder Bay 10-17-10-37; Power plays (goals-chances) – Wisconsin (1-6), Thunder Bay (0-4); Goaltenders – Wisconsin: John McLean, Thunder Bay: Guillaume Piche; A: 200 (estimated).