02-28-2020, 10:25 AM
ALLISON, WESTERN MICHIGAN'S SENIOR-LADEN CORE FIGHT MISFORTUNE WITH METTLE
By Phil Ervin, NCHC Writer, 02/27/20, 1:00PM EST
AS FLYERS DRAFT PICK HAS OVERCOME INJURIES, BRONCOS HAVE BOUNCED BACK INTO CONTENTION
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Hugh McGing despised Wade Allison. He hated the chrome face mask he wore as a youngster. He hated the long, died-blond-over-red curls falling out the back of Allison’s helmet. And he hated how this kid was usually the best player on the ice to boot.
“It was definitely funny, the style he had,” said McGing, who ran into his future Western Michigan teammate at more than one youth tournament and during their United States Hockey League (USHL) days, “but the real problem was he was always a really good player, and that made me hate him even more.
“When I found out he was committed to WMU as well, I sat back and thought, [dang], he’s a good player; I’m going to have to like this guy soon enough.”
Four years later, the vitriol is a distant memory.
That’ll happen when you watch one of your classmates overcome multiple injuries, including a debilitating ACL tear that might’ve caused an athlete with less passion for his craft to mull retirement. It’s also a product of McGing and Allison’s membership in a deep Broncos senior class, all of whom decided to come back this season despite multiple avenues away from the program.
Sticking it out. It’s come to define Allison’s career. It’s also why this veteran-laden group ranks third in the NCHC standings, fifteenth in the Pairwise and 14th and 16th in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine and USCHO.com polls with two weeks left in the regular season.
“We’ve got an unbelievable group of guys,” Allison said. “Good, quality, character guys. And we’re all good friends, too; it’s pretty crazy all eight of us (seniors) have been here for four years, you know what I mean? We know what it takes to win, and what happens when you lose.”
Born Oct. 14, 1997, Allison grew up on a 200-acre agricultural plot, the son of a cattle and crop farmer in tiny Myrtle, Manitoba -- about an hour southwest of Winnipeg.
“There are 29 people there,” Allison said. “There used to be 30, but they’re down to 29 now that I’m gone.”
He’s been gone since he was 17. After learning -- and learning to love -- the sport on the backyard rink his dad created every winter, Allison rose up the youth ranks and played for the USHL’s Tri-City Storm from 2014-16. Allison led his team to the 2016 Clark Cup Championship, then was drafted in the second round (52nd overall) by the Philadelphia Flyers.
He chose the college route for his development and tallied 29 points in 36 games as a freshman. Through the first half of his sophomore campaign, he looked like a Hobey Baker Award candidate, helping the Broncos to a top-10 Pairwise ranking while ranking in the top five nationally in goals.
Then Jan. 13, 2018 happened.
“It was the most regular play ever,” Allison says now, recalling a season-ending injury from which he’s still technically recovering. “I tore my ACL and separated my shoulder on a routine play I’ve made 500 times.”
Allison missed the rest of the season after a simple forecheck attempt on his opening shift at St. Cloud State. He says he wasn’t right for about 20 months and that “I don’t know if [the knee] will ever be 100 percent again; you just get used to it eventually.”
That’s even more difficult when you suffer multiple concussions like Allison has. He missed four and five games during two separate stints earlier this season. In each of the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, he appeared in just 22 contests.
Has it been rough? Absolutely. Has he wallowed, considered doing something else, saving his body, making more concrete plans to use his impending sports management degree?
Never.
“It’s your mindset,” Allison said. “If you’re always dwelling on it or get upset or are mad at the world or whatever, it’s not gonna get any better.”
Allison -- now 22 with a more professional haircut but still a happy-go-lucky persona to go with it -- talks about as fast as he skates. This season, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound forward has eight goals and 10 assists as part of a balanced Western Michigan attack.
And as he’s rounded into form during the latter part of the schedule, so has Western Michigan. The Broncos have won or tied 11 of their past 13 games and are in position to lock up home ice for the first round of the NCHC Playoffs.
Western Michigan’s eight seniors haven’t been to the Frozen Faceoff since their freshman year. The program seeks its first NCAA Tournament appearance since then, too.
With top-level collegiate talent often leaving for the pros well before graduation, it’s becoming rare for a large group of players to compete in four seasons together. Western Michigan’s senior class is somewhat countercultural.
“We just kind of all felt that we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to in college hockey,” said McGing, the Broncos captain. “We played on many good teams and fell short.”
They had different reasons to consider moving on. McGing is a biomedical science major with a whopper of a course load (he’s still set to graduate this summer). Defenseman Kale Bennett, son of Colorado Avalanche assistant Ray Bennett, is in the same educational program. Both could have opted to focus solely on finishing their degrees.
Allison and McGing (St. Louis Blues draft pick) also have potential NHL futures to consider. But when it came time to renew leases in the Kalamazoo apartment complex where most of Western Michigan’s seniors live, a collective decision to give it one more go was made.
“I think, first of all, they really genuinely like each other,” Broncos coach Andy Murray said. “They’ve all got unique personalities that usually bring a smile to your face every day.”
Bennett, a 4.0-GPA student, is regarded as the most straight-laced. McGing pointed out Allison as one of the group’s funniest and most laid-back individuals.
Which might be somewhat unexpected given Allison’s status as Western Michigan’s posterboy for battling through hardship. Unless you know the guy personally.
“I think Wade’s probably a perfect example for that,” McGing said. “He’s overcome a lot … and he’s good at bringing the team together and making sure everyone’s enjoying the rink.
“He was an absolutely dominant player … and the way he’s now playing, it’s the Wade Allison that we all know and love.”
Which is why the crowd at Baxter Arena for Western Michigan’s road series Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at Omaha included a fan in a white and purple, No. 19 Tri-City Storm jersey with “Allison” emblazoned across the back. Anthony Rocco and his friend, Doug Kuskie, received an up-close look at greatness during Allison’s two seasons in Kearney.
The hockey diehards from central Nebraska also got to know a player who always took time to chat with their sons and sign autographs after games. So the four of them frequently make the three-hour drive west on Interstate 80 to get a glimpse of their favorite player before his college career ends.
It doesn’t hurt Rocco is a Pennsylvania native and lifelong Flyers fan.
“He’s definitely good with the kids,” said Rocco, a volunteer statistician for the Storm, as well. “When he got drafted by the Flyers, that just made it the whole package.”
By Phil Ervin, NCHC Writer, 02/27/20, 1:00PM EST
AS FLYERS DRAFT PICK HAS OVERCOME INJURIES, BRONCOS HAVE BOUNCED BACK INTO CONTENTION
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Hugh McGing despised Wade Allison. He hated the chrome face mask he wore as a youngster. He hated the long, died-blond-over-red curls falling out the back of Allison’s helmet. And he hated how this kid was usually the best player on the ice to boot.
“It was definitely funny, the style he had,” said McGing, who ran into his future Western Michigan teammate at more than one youth tournament and during their United States Hockey League (USHL) days, “but the real problem was he was always a really good player, and that made me hate him even more.
“When I found out he was committed to WMU as well, I sat back and thought, [dang], he’s a good player; I’m going to have to like this guy soon enough.”
Four years later, the vitriol is a distant memory.
That’ll happen when you watch one of your classmates overcome multiple injuries, including a debilitating ACL tear that might’ve caused an athlete with less passion for his craft to mull retirement. It’s also a product of McGing and Allison’s membership in a deep Broncos senior class, all of whom decided to come back this season despite multiple avenues away from the program.
Sticking it out. It’s come to define Allison’s career. It’s also why this veteran-laden group ranks third in the NCHC standings, fifteenth in the Pairwise and 14th and 16th in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine and USCHO.com polls with two weeks left in the regular season.
“We’ve got an unbelievable group of guys,” Allison said. “Good, quality, character guys. And we’re all good friends, too; it’s pretty crazy all eight of us (seniors) have been here for four years, you know what I mean? We know what it takes to win, and what happens when you lose.”
Born Oct. 14, 1997, Allison grew up on a 200-acre agricultural plot, the son of a cattle and crop farmer in tiny Myrtle, Manitoba -- about an hour southwest of Winnipeg.
“There are 29 people there,” Allison said. “There used to be 30, but they’re down to 29 now that I’m gone.”
He’s been gone since he was 17. After learning -- and learning to love -- the sport on the backyard rink his dad created every winter, Allison rose up the youth ranks and played for the USHL’s Tri-City Storm from 2014-16. Allison led his team to the 2016 Clark Cup Championship, then was drafted in the second round (52nd overall) by the Philadelphia Flyers.
He chose the college route for his development and tallied 29 points in 36 games as a freshman. Through the first half of his sophomore campaign, he looked like a Hobey Baker Award candidate, helping the Broncos to a top-10 Pairwise ranking while ranking in the top five nationally in goals.
Then Jan. 13, 2018 happened.
“It was the most regular play ever,” Allison says now, recalling a season-ending injury from which he’s still technically recovering. “I tore my ACL and separated my shoulder on a routine play I’ve made 500 times.”
Allison missed the rest of the season after a simple forecheck attempt on his opening shift at St. Cloud State. He says he wasn’t right for about 20 months and that “I don’t know if [the knee] will ever be 100 percent again; you just get used to it eventually.”
That’s even more difficult when you suffer multiple concussions like Allison has. He missed four and five games during two separate stints earlier this season. In each of the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, he appeared in just 22 contests.
Has it been rough? Absolutely. Has he wallowed, considered doing something else, saving his body, making more concrete plans to use his impending sports management degree?
Never.
“It’s your mindset,” Allison said. “If you’re always dwelling on it or get upset or are mad at the world or whatever, it’s not gonna get any better.”
Allison -- now 22 with a more professional haircut but still a happy-go-lucky persona to go with it -- talks about as fast as he skates. This season, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound forward has eight goals and 10 assists as part of a balanced Western Michigan attack.
And as he’s rounded into form during the latter part of the schedule, so has Western Michigan. The Broncos have won or tied 11 of their past 13 games and are in position to lock up home ice for the first round of the NCHC Playoffs.
Western Michigan’s eight seniors haven’t been to the Frozen Faceoff since their freshman year. The program seeks its first NCAA Tournament appearance since then, too.
With top-level collegiate talent often leaving for the pros well before graduation, it’s becoming rare for a large group of players to compete in four seasons together. Western Michigan’s senior class is somewhat countercultural.
“We just kind of all felt that we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to in college hockey,” said McGing, the Broncos captain. “We played on many good teams and fell short.”
They had different reasons to consider moving on. McGing is a biomedical science major with a whopper of a course load (he’s still set to graduate this summer). Defenseman Kale Bennett, son of Colorado Avalanche assistant Ray Bennett, is in the same educational program. Both could have opted to focus solely on finishing their degrees.
Allison and McGing (St. Louis Blues draft pick) also have potential NHL futures to consider. But when it came time to renew leases in the Kalamazoo apartment complex where most of Western Michigan’s seniors live, a collective decision to give it one more go was made.
“I think, first of all, they really genuinely like each other,” Broncos coach Andy Murray said. “They’ve all got unique personalities that usually bring a smile to your face every day.”
Bennett, a 4.0-GPA student, is regarded as the most straight-laced. McGing pointed out Allison as one of the group’s funniest and most laid-back individuals.
Which might be somewhat unexpected given Allison’s status as Western Michigan’s posterboy for battling through hardship. Unless you know the guy personally.
“I think Wade’s probably a perfect example for that,” McGing said. “He’s overcome a lot … and he’s good at bringing the team together and making sure everyone’s enjoying the rink.
“He was an absolutely dominant player … and the way he’s now playing, it’s the Wade Allison that we all know and love.”
Which is why the crowd at Baxter Arena for Western Michigan’s road series Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at Omaha included a fan in a white and purple, No. 19 Tri-City Storm jersey with “Allison” emblazoned across the back. Anthony Rocco and his friend, Doug Kuskie, received an up-close look at greatness during Allison’s two seasons in Kearney.
The hockey diehards from central Nebraska also got to know a player who always took time to chat with their sons and sign autographs after games. So the four of them frequently make the three-hour drive west on Interstate 80 to get a glimpse of their favorite player before his college career ends.
It doesn’t hurt Rocco is a Pennsylvania native and lifelong Flyers fan.
“He’s definitely good with the kids,” said Rocco, a volunteer statistician for the Storm, as well. “When he got drafted by the Flyers, that just made it the whole package.”