Sports

Kihle, Millican to reunite at Northland

By Matthew Semisch

08/19/2014

A pair of Bottineau High graduates and former Bottineau-Rugby (B-R) hockey players are set to continue plying their on-ice trades at the NCAA collegiate level.

Zach Kihle and Logan Millican, both of them 2012 Bottineau High graduates, are to attend and play for Northland College (Wis.) in the fall.

Northland has fielded a men’s ice hockey team each season since 1997. The Lumberjacks belong to the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA), which is made up of NCAA Division III schools from Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Millican is transferring to Northland from Williston State. In the 2013-14 season, he posted 12 goals and six assists for a Tetons team that won the NJCAA junior college national championship.

The Tetons hockey team has been a machine in recent years, winning two national championships in the past three seasons.
Millican isn’t the only former Williston man heading to the Ashland, Wis., school. Former Tetons head coach Seamus Gregory was named as Northland’s new head coach on June 4, and seven of his former players will be reunited with him in Wisconsin.

“Northland was already looking at me before it hired Seamus,” Millican said. “Having that opportunity on the table was exciting enough, but when it turned out that they were bringing Seamus on and a bunch of the (Williston) boys, I had all the reason I needed to go ahead and make the move.”

Kihle played last season for both the Swan Valley Stampeders of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and the Alexandria Blizzard of the North American Hockey League. He enjoyed the most success with Alexandria, though, posting one goal and 20 assists as a defenseman last season for the Blizzard.

Ahead of the move to Northland, Millican said that not only is he relishing the opportunity to continue playing at a four-year institution, but also that he’s excited to be doing so alongside one of his former teammates from their B-R Braves days.

“Ashland’s a while away from Bottineau and even further from Williston,” Millican said, “But it’s going to be really nice to be able to take a little bit of home out there to Ashland with me.

“Zach and I always had really good chemistry on the ice in high school, and it’s going to be fun to be able to put on the same jerseys as him again.”