Sports

Millican: Bottineau's scoring machine

By Tyler Ohmann

03/13/2012

Scoring has been Logan Millican’s game ever since the first time he took the ice.

“I think in his very first game he played, he scored something like six goals,” said Logan’s father Jerry Millican. “We took him to his first ice hockey game, and he said he wanted to do it.”

That scoring prowess grew into something special as the Bottineau High School senior led the state of North Dakota with 40 goals and 64 total points this past season.

“I’ve been coaching here for 23 years and I’d say he is one of the best I’ve coached,” said Millican’s Head Coach David Hoff. “He is probably the best scorer.”

What makes Millican’s scoring ability so special? Hoff said it comes down to a combination of mental toughness and physical aggressiveness.

“He is very aggressive when he has the puck,” Hoff said. “He has that mindset and isn’t afraid to get to the net.”

Logan humbly remarked that the goals come from his linemates.

“It was really good, but I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” Logan said. “It was a good goal to accomplish.”

He gives some credit to Hoff too.

“Definitely coach Hoff, he has always been hard on me, but that’s good,” Logan said. “The players around me, defense, forwards, they’ve always helped.”

The beginnings of a passion

Millican’s journey to becoming one of the best hockey players in the state did not start on the ice, instead it began with some frustrating times on pavement.

“I liked to roller blade, and we started playing street hockey,” Jerry said. “I never let him touch the puck unless he could take it from me, and he usually would get so mad he’d throw his stick at me all the time.”

“Now I’m the one throwing the stick,” Jerry added with a grin.

Then, one day Jerry and his wife Shannon decided to take Logan (then eight and a half) to an ice hockey game. It changed Logan, and a lot of the family’s winter activities.

“My dad took me to my first hockey game ever, and I just fell in love right way,” Logan said. “I loved everything about it.”

“We went skating to open ice, and I was pretty good (at skating), so I wanted to try out hockey, and I just fell in love with it,” Logan added.

Since then Jerry and Shannon financed a blossoming hockey career and spent most of their winter weekends on the road. Jerry admitted that it was expensive, but that it was all worth it.

“It hurt the pocket book sometimes, but we’ve made good friends, my wife and I, through hockey,” Jerry said. “Since he’s started, he’s played on all kinds of different teams, and he’s got all kinds of hockey friends from it. It’s all worth it.”

Jerry admits he is prideful of his sons accomplishments, but also acknowledges that it didn’t come without some sacrifice on the part of the family, and not just financially.

“It is definitely a family sacrifice,” Jerry said. “Most of his sister’s birthdays have been spent at some form of a hockey trip at a hotel room.”

It takes up a lot of time for Logan too, but he doesn’t mind.

“(Hockey) takes up almost all of it, probably like 90 percent,” Logan said. “It’s all worth it, I love playing hockey, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.”

Logan cited his favorite moments in his hockey career thus far as being the Braves’ two trips to state in the past three years. Jerry on the other hand was most proud of Logan’s game-winning goal against Bismarck Century that ended the Patriots 39-game West Region regular season win streak.

“The game-winning goal against Bismarck Century was incredible,” Jerry said. “It was an overtime goal against a team that hadn’t been beaten in like 39 games, and just to knock them off, and have your kid going down the ice with the puck on his stick and you’re yelling: ‘you better not pass the puck you knucklehead. You better shoot.’ Then he just rifles it in there. Watching that, and watching them just destroy Minot, those were the best moments.”

With Logan’s tremendous accomplishments it gives him a certain sense of celebrity that all local stars tend to get, and that extends to Jerry as well.

“It’s kind of funny because people come up to me and are like, ‘hey, aren’t you Logan Millican’s dad,’” Jerry said. “That’s how I’m known around town. I’m not Jerry Millican, I’m Logan’s dad.”

And Jerry doesn’t mind. The pride he feels for his son can be seen in any conversation that one has with him at a hockey game, or even in his office at Theel, Inc.

“You feel like a big baby, because you’re welling up with tears talking about it,” Jerry said. “At state you are watching, thinking this is the last time you are going to see him play, but then coaches come up to him, asking him to play on their team, and you just feel really proud.”

Logan was also decorated with awards after his senior season. It began with being named to the All-West Region team, as well as being awarded with the West Region Senior Athlete of the Year.

It continued with being named one of two finalists for the Mr. Hockey award, and though that didn’t go his way, Logan wasn’t too disappointed. He knew that the winner (Casey Fugleberg) was deserving.

“It wasn’t really that disappointing. The kid that got it (Fugleberg) is a great athlete, hockey player and student too. So he was well deserving of it too,” Logan said.

Logan was also recently named to the All-State team as well.

Despite all of his individual accomplishments Logan feels his accomplishments only go as far as his team’s do. And his focus on game day isn’t about how many points, goals or stats he racks up, it’s about winning.

“It has been that drive to win. I always want to win before anything else,” Logan said. “You can’t do that without a team, teamwork wins games.”

What comes next

After scoring 89 career goals and dishing out 61 assist in 73 games, finishing in the top-five in the state in scoring two years in a row, including sitting at the top this year, one would think that Millican would continue to play hockey.

One would be right, and the phone calls at the Millican house prove it.

“He’s had lots of calls from coaches from Minnesota teams, North Dakota teams, and a lot of Canadian teams, but I would like him to stay below the border,” Jerry said.

Jerry also said he can’t really tell Logan what to do, because Logan makes his own decisions.

“As far as telling him what to do, it’s kind of like telling a rock what to do,” Jerry said. “He’s like his mom, he’s made up his mind, and so far what he’s said he’s going to do, he’s doing.”

Despite that, Jerry has given his son some advice regarding his hockey future.

“I just told him, ‘do what you want to do, but make sure you stay in school,’” Jerry said. “When you want to play hockey that bad, and you are that good, there will be a bunch of doors opening.”

What Logan wants to do is play hockey, specifically college hockey.

“I would love to play college hockey. That is my main goal right now,” Logan said. “I want to see how far I can get, see what level I can get to in college.”
As to where, or when that happens, nobody, not Logan, not Jerry and not Hoff know for certain.
“I’m probably going to have to play a couple years in juniors, develop a little more, and we’ll see from then,” Logan said. “I do know it will be a lot of work, probably more than I’ve done in my life.”

Jerry just knows he would like for Logan to stay close to home for as long as possible.

“I would love for him to stay close to home, and I think at this next level there is a close chance he could stay close,” Jerry said. “But I know that it’s going to be a short deal, and eventually he’s going to have to move away and play hockey at some place bigger.”

Hoff said that he hopes Logan does well at wherever his next stage is, and hopes he can improve like he did from his sophomore to senior years.

“He has always scored at whatever level he played, but when he got here he had to realize that everyone is going to be a little faster and the goalies a little better,” Hoff said. “If he goes on, it will be that mindset of knowing he is a scorer and that everyone is going to be better and faster as well.”

No matter where the road takes Logan in the future, he will always know where it began, and that scoring will be his forte.

That six-goal first game may have identified Logan as a scorer, but even Jerry didn’t know he would leave high school on top. He is just a proud father regardless.

“I’d be just as proud if he wouldn’t have scored any goals,” Jerry said.