Joey Moffatt didn’t land the NCAA hockey scholarship he wanted but he still found an excellent outlet to continue playing when he wrapped up a five-year junior career last spring.
The 21-year-old right-winger from Portage la Prairie landed at Minot State University, where he was one of 10 Manitobans on the men’s hockey team in 2022-23.
The Beavers recently claimed their third American Collegiate Hockey Association Division 1 national championship with a 1-0 win over the Adrian (Mich.) Bulldogs in the title game on March 21.
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Joey Moffatt, who had 46 points and a team-high 20 goals in 32 games, helped the Beavers to a 35-3-0 overall record.
“They welcome you the first week you’re here and you feel like you’re already part of the family and obviously, being Minot, they’re usually pretty good team and that’s another reason why I chose to come here,” said Moffatt by phone Monday afternoon.
“In training camp, we kind of knew what we had and being ranked first all year we kind of knew what the expectations were for us. Obviously being able to win — it just couldn’t get a whole lot better for my first year.”
Moffatt, who was second in team scoring behind St. Andrews product Carter Barley, a fellow grad of the MJHL’s Portage Terriers, found success playing with centre Jay Buchholz, a Fargo native, and left-winger Sheldin Howard, who hails from Thompson. The trio had been teammates with the Terriers but had never played together previously.
Other Manitobans on the Minot State roster included: Goaltender Riley Wallace of Oak Lake, defenceman Eric Krywy of Winnipeg, forward Landyn Cochrane of Silverton, forward Troy Hamilton of Brandon, defenceman Logan Rands, defenceman Wayde Johannesson of Arnes and defenceman Brayden Pawluk of Teulon.
Moffatt, who had 46 points and a team-high 20 goals in 32 games, helped the Beavers to a 35-3-0 overall record. Programs competing in the ACHA do not offer athletic scholarships, something that distinguishes it from the NCAA.
The calibre of play, Moffatt said, is improving but is not consistently high.
“It’s definitely a weird because one game it’s like you’re playing kind of higher end (MJHL) team and the next game you play it’s like you’re playing a lower end junior B team, because there’s so many teams (in the ACHA),” said Moffatt. “So when you play the top teams, it’s very good hockey.”
Head coach Wyatt Waselenchuk could lose as many as eight seniors from the championship squad but Moffatt expects the club to contend again next season, when the Beavers have non-conference games scheduled against Denver University and Colorado College, a pair of NCAA Division 1 programs.
“We’ve got a good corps of juniors, sophomores and freshmen that will be coming back next year and obviously a lot of boots to fill with a lot of our (graduating) seniors but (Waselenchuk) is already looking at bringing in more players,” said Moffatt. “It’s kind of exciting to see what kind of guys he’s gonna bring in.”
While the Minot State’s men were winning a national crown, the school’s women’s team came ever so close to matching the achievement.
Bolstered by seven Manitobans, including forwards Alisha O’Hara (Chater), Mia Mckee (Winnipeg), Krissy Rink (Melita) and Gillian Gervin (Boissevain), blue-liners Denali Sigurdson (Riverton) and Makenna Beard (Boissevain) and goaltender Morgan Baker (Petersfield), third-ranked Minot State went all the way to the ACHA Division 1 championship game before losing a 3-2 decision to the Liberty Flames.
“We knew going into that we were the underdog,” said Minot State head coach Ryan Miner, a Winnipeg product. “Obviously, having the opportunity to get there, we earned that and then for most of the (championship) game we looked like the better team, in my opinion. We outshot them 17-3 in the third period and just couldn’t buy an extra goal.”
Seniors O’Hara and Sigurdson are among those scheduled to graduate.
“We do lose a handful of our top point-getters in our seniors but it just means that someone next year will have step up and fill those roles,” said Miner. “It’s kinda hard to say right now but the expectation or the goal is to continue to be a top three team in the country at this level.”
