Sports

Mr. Hockey: Aide atop state, record books

By Tyler Ohmann

03/04/2014

After a career that spanned five seasons, including numerous school records and topped off this season with a Mr. Hockey win, Harrison Aide has had a career that has left many other hockey players in North Dakota to shame.

However, he would give all that up for one thing—a shot at a state title this year.

“I’d take back all those points just to play at state my senior year,” Aide said. “Mr. Hockey wouldn’t mean nothing, I would rather win two games at state than win Mr. Hockey.”

“It’s a nice accomplishment, but there would be nothing better than playing Saturday night in the championship game,” Aide added.

Of course that state title shot did not come this season as the Bottineau-Rugby Braves were bounced from the West Region Tournament on the final day by seventh-seeded Mandan.

It was also at that region tournament that Aide, who finished the season at 95 points, four shy of Mike Peluso’s state record, said he could have picked up a few more.

“I could have buried it a couple more times for sure, and I didn’t have a very strong regional tournament,” Aide said. “If I would have played a lot better there, and scored like I did in the regular season, I think I would have been a lot closer to it.”

“If we would have made it to state, I would have made a really good run at it,” Aide added.

However, the owner of seven school records, said that beating Peluso’s mark, wouldn’t have meant that much.

“It actually didn’t mean much to me,” Aide said. “Mike Peluso that has it, I mean, he played in the NHL, and 99 points, that’s a lot of points.”

Record numbers

Aide finished his career a couple of weeks ago with some staggering numbers. He broke seven school records, basically every offensive stat there is: goals in a season (54), career goals (144), assists in a season (57), career assists (171), points in a game (seven), points in a season (95) and career points (315).

The season records all came in his senior year, except the assist record, which he earned in his junior season.

That one was previously held by Seth Serhienko, who had 37 points in 2010-11 as a senior, which led all of North Dakota.

Serhienko then went on to play two years at Dakota College at Bottineau and this past season with Iowa State.

Serhienko noticed Aide’s potential long before the records began pouring in for Aide.

“You could tell he was a really good hockey player, and had a lot of potential,” Serhienko said about when he and Aide were teammates in Aides eighth grade and freshman years. “He’s really athletic, he’s talented, he has a really good vision of the ice and he worked hard, he was always at the rink.”

However, the number that sticks out most for Aide’s head coach David Hoff is the career points mark.

“A 315 points in a career is an incredible number,” Hoff stated. “That’s averaging about 80 points a year for four years—it just doesn’t happen.”

Aide began his career with the Braves in eighth grade, where he scored 30 points and helped the Braves reach state.

The next season Bottineau combined with Rugby and Aide got even better by scoring 42 points (23 goals, 19 assists) in his freshman campaign.

As a sophomore Aide scored 57 points, and tied Serhienko’s assist record with 37 helpers, however both his freshman and sophomore years ended with the Braves falling short at regions.

However, in his junior season Aide and the Braves did make it to state as he scored 91 points on his record 57 assists and 34 goals.

This past season he finished with the 95 points on a school-record 54 goals and 41 assists. He attributes the success to skating better than his opponents and shooting harder.

“I think it was my skating that separated me from a lot of kids,” Aide said. “My senior year I shot the puck a lot harder too.”

Another quality that helped Aide was his ability and desire to control the puck.

“I never wanted to let go of the puck,” Aide said. “I wanted to hold on to the puck until the bitter end, until two or three guys came and took it off of my stick.”

“I just loved playing with the puck, and it’s a lot easier playing with the puck than without it,” Aide added.

Both Serhienko and Hoff think that Aide had a distinct ability to make others around him better, a trait that is often linked to great players.

“He’s a great guy to have on the team,” Serhienko said. “He makes everyone around him better, and he developed into a complete hockey player.”

However, Hoff added some other reasons why Aide was so special.

“Harrison has been a very good high school player because of his determination and self-discipline,” Hoff stated. “He is not satisfied just being good, he wants to get better.”

“He just is not satisfied with where he is at, he is always working on something,” Hoff added.

Mr. Hockey

Aide is not the first player from Bottineau to win Mr. Hockey or the Oustanding Senior Athlete award.

Following the 2006-07 season, Bottineau’s Eric Herbel was the first in school history to earn the accomplishment, and it was that one that gave Aide something to shoot for.

“It was a big honor, definitely, and that was my goal from seventh grade year,” Aide said. “When I saw Eric Herbel win Mr. Hockey when I was a seventh grader or sixth grader, I just remember watching him on the ice, and I was like ‘Wow, that is so cool.’”

“One of my cousins was up for Mr. Hockey, and I always thought that was so cool,” Aide added.

When the big moment arrived less than two weeks ago, Aide had some mixed emotions when his name was called.

“I was happy when they announced my name, and relieved,” Aide said.

Another big reason that both Hoff and Aide agreed upon was that his teammates really helped him get where he did.

“He played with a lot of very good players in his career, these guys were able to make each other better with the daily competition in practice,” Hoff said.

This season is a perfect example, as the second leading scorer was Aide’s teammate, junior Luke Amsbaugh, who had 85 points, now third-most in school history.

In fact, Bottineau-Rugby had another in the top ten (Noah Grant, ninth with 43 points) and two more in the top 50 (Cody Bedlion and Andrew Hill).

The final thing that Aide thought propelled him to become Mr. Hockey was maintaining a balance between hockey and the other sports he participated in.

Aide is not only a talented hockey player, but played a big role on the football field in his career, and is a three-time Class B State pole vaulting champion. He also set the state record in his junior season in the pole vault.

All those things he said help make him a better hockey player too.

“Learning team chemistry in football, in track you learn to run faster, in pole vaulting you have to have a pretty good core and I thought that helped me this year, and I was a lot stronger on my skates than I have been,” Aide said.

Hoff too credits Aide’s off the ice training to help him become more successful.

“His off-ice training has been an instrumental part of his success,” Hoff stated. “His core strength is very good. He is very tough to knock off the puck because of his core strength.”

Aide recommends that any young athlete try to find the balance that he did.

“For younger kids coming up it’s good to play three sports, because it’s not always good to focus on one sport like hockey, you want to have a variety of sports,” Aide said. “The more athletic you get, the better you’ll be at hockey.”

The Future

For Aide the future of his hockey career has already begun. He has already been practicing with the Bismarck Bobcats of the North American Hockey League, and even traveled to play with them this past weekend. He tendered with the Bobcats during this year’s hockey season.

He looks forward to playing there more this year, and possibly next season as well.

“It will be different, because I won’t be the go-to guy, but I’m totally okay with that,” Aide said. “It will be fun, because every guy on our team can play hockey, and there is not one weak player.”

Serhienko certainly has high hopes for Aide.

“I think he could play farther than anyone else from Bottineau,” Serhienko said. “If he plays well in juniors I think for sure he could make a USHL team, and if he excelled there it would be Division I.”

Whatever team Aide goes on to play for, there is one thing that is for certain. He will trade all his individual accomplishments for team success, and that is what any coach would love to hear.