ON AIR

Lake Erie Monsters Vice President Jock Callander holds the International Hockey League's all-time scoring record with 1,402 points. His prolific career saw him score 100+ points five different times in the IHL, and he would have scored more if not for spending parts of five seasons in the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins - including being a part of their 1992 Stanley Cup championship team.

Toledo Walleye head coach Dan Watson joins us fresh off the team's thrilling run to the ECHL's Kelly Cup Final. The former Toledo Storm defenseman transitioned into coaching with the Walleye and has accumulated a 347-227-93 record since being elevated to head coach in July 2016. Watson played seven professional seasons in the AHL, UHL, and ECHL and was named the 2004-05 ECHL defensive player of the year with the Long Beach Ice Dogs.

Strongsville's Dylan Duke was a member of the United States National Team Development Program for two years and has represented the U. S. internationally twice, including at the 2021 IIHF U18 World Championships. He was drafted by the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning in 2021 and scored 10 goals as a freshman this past season at the University of Michigan.Younger brother Tyler followed Dylan's footsteps to the USNTDP, is eligible for the 2022 NHL Entry Draft coming up two weeks from now, and will join the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Fall.

Kerry Bowman and Emily Curlett will lead the newly formed Tier I AAA girls program for the Ohio AAA Blue Jackets that is set to begin with a 14U team in the 2022-23 season. Bowman, a former NCAA and pro player, will take the lead as the girls hockey director and 14U head coach. Curlett recently helped the Ohio State Buckeyes to a historic season as they captured the program's first ever NCAA championship, as well as the WCHA playoff title.

The boys sit down with Rob MacKinlay to discuss the non-profit Hockey Players in Business and their upcoming event on June 15. They then dive deep into the Toledo Walleye's run to the Kelly Finals with beat writer Mark Monroe.

Ryan Ward's hockey journey has taken him to Bowling Green, the OHL, and the pro ranks in both the AHL and NHL, working both behind benches and as a video coach. Now, he takes the helm of the Youngstown Phantoms as the sixth head coach in team history. He tells us how he got started in the game, the different roles he held along the way, and looks ahead to a busy summer building the Phantoms roster for the 2022-23 USHL season. We also get a drop-in guest as fantasy hockey owner Tyler Whidden joins us to drink from the trophy he earned as champion of the BHL.

The boys sit down wth Bob Krosky of the Cleveland Barons to discuss the success of the past season and some young talent drafted recently in the OHL. They also catch up with John Malloy to discuss his Gilmour Lancers run to the school's first-ever state championship.

We sit down with a friend of the show Russ Sinkewich to discuss upcoming spring and summer schedules for the Ohio Hockey Project. We are also joined by Youngstown native and current starting goaltender for the ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones Michael Houser to talk growing up in the game, his junior career with the London Knights, making his NHL debut, and his current playoff run with the Cyclones.

John Carroll University head coach Scott Shantery and team captain Brian Russell join the show to look back on the Blue Streaks' run to the championship in College Hockey Mid-America and their upcoming appearance at the ACHA Division I tournament.

Join us as we welcome a panel of media representatives from around the state to preview each of the four OHSAA district playoff brackets leading up to next months state tournament in Columbus. Panel expected to include: Mark Monroe, Toledo Blade; Chris Lillstrung, The News-Herald; Dave Purpura, This Week News.

It's an all-goalie episode! Toledo native Klayton Knapp is a former Tri State Spartan now plying his trade in the NAHL with the Austin Bruins. We had to push his appearance back a week because he was selected to play in the NAHL's Top Prospect event!Freshman goaltender River Ambroz backstopped the Amherst Steele Comets within a goal of the Baron Cup Final with a 45-save effort in a double-overtime victory over Rocky River before Amherst's OT loss to #1 seed Hudson on Saturday night.

The storied program at Bowling Green has emerged from a year-long hiatus and the death of coach Jamie Ruffner to be a Top 10 team in the state with aspirations of a run in the Sylvania District Tournament next month. We will talk to head coach Connor Rogowski about the journey he and his team have gone through over the past three years.

Jon Doehr of the Hobey Baker committee gives us some insight on the award for college hockey's top player, tells us how high school coaches can submit their players for the Hobey Baker High School Character Award, and talks some college hockey in general. Brendan Furry, currently a sophomore for the nationally-ranked Minnesota State Mavericks and part of the 2015 state title team for Toledo St. Francis, tells the improbable story of his development path that switched away from a plan to play for the BGSU club team to a USHL tryout, eventually leading to multiple offers from elite NCAA programs and a key role on one of the top teams in college hockey. A truly amazing story.

Jeff Christian's professional career spanned 21 seasons and included stints in the NHL with the New Jersey Devils, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Arizona Coyotes as well as Cleveland and Cincinnati in the old IHL and the Youngstown Steelhounds of the Central League among other stops in the American, International and Central pro leagues and Europe. He also coached the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL on a memorable playoff run.

Mentor native Joe Sherman joins us in the studio to tell stories from his learn-to-skate days all the way to refereeing the NCAA Frozen Four.

Andy Gerow of University School and Parma's Joe Gaudino give us the outlook for their teams as we preview the Great Lakes Hockey League and the Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League. Gaudino's Redmen opened their season by winning the Normandy Thanksgiving Tournament.

A pair of head coaches of teams that won their first six games of the season - Olentangy Berlin's Tim Pennington and Kevin Berry of Archbishop Alter - join us as we talk about the southern teams in the OHSAA (Capital Hockey Conference & Southwest Ohio High School Hockey League).

The Tri-States Collegiate Hockey League (a.k.a. the "T-Show") is a 10-team league comprised of ACHA Division II schools in and around Ohio - including six in the Buckeye State. We are joined by commissioner Tim Driscoll as we talk to coaches and players around the league about what drew them to the league and their specific schools and preview the 2021-22 season. Guests include: Ohio State head coach Greg Corcoran, Dayton blue liners Charlie Huscroft (Walsh Jesuit) & Matt DiMarco (Cleveland Wildcats), Miami forward Hunter Wallace (Ohio AAA Blue Jackets), Xavier head coach Drew Kariofiles & Musketeers netminder Jack Frambes (Moeller HS)

Zachary Nowak enters his seventh year of coaching with the Kent State ACHA club hockey program and his first year as the Head Coach for the Kent State D1 club hockey team. Zack began his hockey career in the Cleveland area, playing his high school hockey at Lake Catholic. After high school, Zack attend Kent State University and was a star goaltender for the D1 ACHA team. Zack was voted as Team MVP twice (2014, 2015) and named alternate captain his senior year. Through USA Hockey, Zack serves as Mid Am's Goaltending Coach-in-Chief as well as a Coach Education Mentor.

Brett Harkins is from one of Ohio's most productive hockey families. He developed at St. Edward and Bowling Green State University before embarking on a 15-year professional career that brought him around the world, but included stops in Cleveland, with the Lumberjacks of the IHL and Columbus, where he played 25 of his 78 career NHL games. He currently scouts the college ranks for the Boston Bruins.

Strongsville native Alaina Giampietro has starred for the Gilmour Gladiators the past two seasons. Her scoring touch attracted the attention of USA Hockey for the U18 National Festival. She recently committed to play collegiately at The Ohio State University.

Former Columbus Blue Jackets forward Jody Shelley began serving as the club's television color analyst on Bally Sports Ohio in 2014-15. In addition to his broadcast duties, the Columbus fan favorite is also actively engaged in various business and community initiatives for the organization.Shelley retired in 2013 after a career that spanned 16 years and over 600 NHL games. He wrapped up his NHL career with 18-36-54 and 1,538 penalty minutes in 627 games. He also appeared in nine Stanley Cup Playoff games with San Jose and Philadelphia.

Join us for a "very Cincinnati" episode of the Ohio Hockey Digest On Air podcast when we speak with Matt Thomas, the head coach of the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL, new 'Clones broadcaster Andrew Mossbrooks and Jim Mitchell of the Cincinnati Jr. Cyclones - the newest members of the USPHL.

Sophia Bellina has stopped pucks all over the place – for the Cleveland Barons, Gilmour Academy and the Pittsburgh Pens Elite. This past season she took her gear to Indiana to play at Culver Academy for their U18 Girls Prep team.She is keeping her game sharp this summer by stymying shooters in Ohio Hockey Project's Futures Hockey League as she prepares for her next trip – to the Rochester Institute of Technology – where she will begin her NCAA Division I career in the fall.

He may consider himself "just a nobody from Centerville, OH", but Nate Leaman has gone from humble beginnings hockey-wise to being one of the top coaches in college hockey. He tells us about his journey from learning how to skate at 13 to an unlikely junior and college playing career to realizing his passion was not environmental science and volunteering with Shawn Walsh at the University of Maine during their national title run in 1999. After taking "the job nobody wanted" at Union so he could be a head coach, and breathing new life into that program, he led a similar resurgence at Providence College which includes winning the 2015 NCAA Championship. Last December, he guided Team USA to the gold medal at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Tournament – a role he will reprise in 2022...and he openly admits having a soft spot for players from Ohio...

Parma native Alex Nedeljkovic starred for the Cleveland Barons and represented the U. S. at the U18 and U20 levels before going on to great success in the Ontario Hockey League and the American Hockey League. He earned Goalie of the Year honors at both levels and guided the AHL's Charlotte Checkers to the 2019 Calder Cup championship. "Ned" saw significant action in the NHL this season with the Carolina Hurricanes, posting a 15-5-3 record with a 1.90 goals-against average and .920 save percentage. He then started nine of the team's 11 games in the Stanley Cup playoffs (2.17/.920). He is one of three finalists for the NHL's 2020-21 Rookie of the Year.

The Athletic's Aaron Portzline previews what has the potential to be a wild and wacky summer in Columbus as the Blue Jackets juggle a coaching search, free agency and the draft along with negotiations (or trades) with several core players. No shortage of topics for the veteran hockey scribe!

At the risk of beating a dead horse, we will convene a panel of (TBD) high school coaches from various levels of the competitive spectrum to discuss the need for an alternative format for the high school post-season in Ohio. We will try to come to a consensus on a specific format to propose to the OHSAA. Potential guests: Our own Tim Sullivan (St. Edward), Pat O'Rourke (Saint Ignatius), Kyle Botos (Avon), Kevin Fisher (Perrysburg), Tim Pennington (Olentangy Liberty), Kevin Brown (Toledo Whitmer) & Steve Bogas (Mayfield)

The Wooster Oilers and Columbus Mavericks are two of six franchises that have joined the USPHL in and around Ohio in recent years. We check in with Wooster owner Marty Kerr and head coach Jordan Roemer to talk about the Oilers' return to the ice in 2020-21 and their plans for Year Two. Nate Handrahan took over behind the Mavericks bench last year and tells us about the players he has been signing - including many Ohioans - for the upcomign season.

Former Cleveland Baron Andrew Perrott 13U player Andrew Perrott saw his fourth season in the Ontario Hockey League wiped out by COVID-19 but was outspoken in the need for the league to return to play. After heading to Slovakia to play pro hockey, he has returned and is part of a group of junior players organizing a pre-draft showcase in Erie, PA (May 31 - June 13) for 2021 draft-eligible players and players who lost their final season of junior hockey to the pandemic. He is the son of former Cleveland Lumberjack (IHL) player and NHLer Nathan Perrott.

Greg Gutterman is the head coach at Beavercreek High School. The Beavers are the two-time defending champions of the Southwest Ohio High School Hockey League and also host the "POD" Tournament along with Archbishop Alter. The POD Tournament ("POst-District") gives teams in the SWOHSHL - and "White" and 'Blue" teams from around the state - an opportunity to conclude their season in a competitive environment they do not experience in the OHSAA District Tournaments.

It's a landmark episode #50! We'll look back at some of our favorite clips from the podcast and just generally BS about The Year That Was in hockey

We check in with Seanna Conway (Gilmour Girls U16), Darryl Noren (Ohio AAA Blue Jackets U18) and Patrick Metzger (Team Ohio U16 & U18) before they depart for their respective USA Hockey National Tournaments.

Spencer Cox grew up in Westerville, OH and played for the AAA Ohio Blue Jackets before heading to Culver Military Academy. He talks to us about his COVID-impacted development path, which took him through several twists and turns through Tier I and II Junior Hockey this year before he landed with the Chippewa Steel of the North American Hockey League, where he was able to secure an NCAA commitment with the fledgling DI program at Long Island University.

Chris Bergeron has been a fixture in Ohio hockey going back to his time as the captain of the first Miami University team to win a conference championship and go to the NCAA Tournament. He played pro hockey in Toledo and Cincinnati then went on to play an important role in the "Golden Area" of Miami hockey as an assistant coach before breathing new life into a Bowling Green teetering on the edge of extinction. Now in his third stint in Oxford - this time as the head coach of the RedHawks - he has a clear picture of where Miami hockey belongs, but also provides a very candid assessment about where the program is two years into a rebuild.

Joe Battista is a Professional Speaker, Success Coach, Owner of Pragmatic Passion Consulting, and Author of “The Power of Pragmatic Passion: 7 Common Sense Principles For Achieving Personal and Professional Success.” Joe, a former ACHA coach at Penn State and VP of Hockey and Administration for the Buffalo Sabres, was instrumental in securing an NCAA Division I team and a new arena at PSU. He is also currently the Vice President of Business Development and an Executive Coach for the National Athletic and Professional Success Academy (www.napsacademy.org).

Rick Gotkin has been the head coach of the Mercyhurst University men's hockey team for 33 seasons. He is the only coach in NCAA history to take a team to the NCAA Tournament at all three levels, and has guided the Lakers to over 500 wins, six NCAA tournament appearances and five league championships. He is a member of the NCAA Men's and Women's Ice Hockey Rules Committee, has coached several “USA Select” National Festival Teams, has been a featured speaker at many USA Hockey coaching clinics and symposiums, and has served on the Hobey Baker Award Committee, the American Hockey Coaches Association Division I Committee, the US College Hockey Online.com National Poll Committee, the Division I East region advisory committee, and the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine College Hockey Poll.

Ohio High School Athletic Association Executive Director Doug Ute tells us how he navigated a very eventful first six months in office and addresses some of the key issues relating to high school hockey in Ohio, including the state tournament venue and creating a second division of competition. Then we had an entertaining roundtable discussion with the four district champion coaches ahead of this weekend's Ohio "Frozen Four" in Columbus.

Ani FitzGerald was born in Shaker Heights and competed for five seasons at Gilmour Academy, leading the Lancers in scoring four times and leading them to a Mid-Am District Championship and the program's first-ever USA Hockey Nationals. She is a three-time USA Hockey National Development Camp attendee and is currently in her freshman season at Northeastern University.

Cole Bell joined the Ohio Bobcats for the 2019–2020 season as the head coach of the Division I team after spending the previous two seasons as the head coach at the University of Jamestown. In his two years at Jamestown, Coach Bell guided the Jimmies to two National Tournament appearances. As a player, Bell played for Lebanon Valley College at both the NCAA DIII and ACHA D1 levels. During his senior year at Lebanon Valley, he was selected to the ACHA All-Star game.

We will look back at which teams took home hardware in the Baron Cups, Cleveland Cup, Blue Jackets Cup and SWOHSHL tournaments, and look forward to the four OHSAA District Tournaments that will be starting up in four three rinks across the state!

The T-Show may be shut down for the year, but Bowling Green's DII ACHA team is back in action. Head coach Jake Rishel and senior defenseman Bobby Edwards join us to talk about getting the Falcons back on the ice during COVID and Edwards' role in getting the historic Cleveland Heights program back on its feet.

A lifelong hockey devotee, Tony Brown's passion for hockey and broadcasting have taken him from Minnesota to Central New York, West Texas, Omaha, Indianapolis, and the great city of Cleveland. A 2010 graduate of the prestigious S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, Brown's hockey roots stretch deep into his native Minnesota, the undisputed "State of Hockey."Brown is entering his sixth season as the radio and television "Voice" of the AHL's Cleveland Monsters as the team's Senior Manager of Broadcasting/Team Communications.

Dave Starman has been a college hockey goalie, a coach and a scout at various times in his life in hockey, but he is best known as the voice of college hockey and the IIHF World Junior Championships. This season he called more than half of the games in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference's "Pod" for NCHC.tv and Team USA's games at the 2021 WJC for the NHL Network.

Our panel of fantasy hockey "experts" give you tips on how to start up a league, make the one you are in better, or just make your team more competitive this year. Scott Harrington, Tyler Whidden and Skip Snow are veteran fantasy leaguers with connections to a hockey league that is still going after 26 years!

Rob Sangster us in his 8th year as head coach of the St. Charles Cardinals. He played in the Ontario Hockey League with the Kitchener Rangers and the Ottawa 67's, was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks and played for the Columbus Chill at the end of this professional playing career. He is also the owner of The Hockey Training Center in Columbus.

Jeff Svoboda has been the team reporter for the Blue Jackets for since December 2018, providing news, analysis and features about the organization at BlueJackets.com. Prior to that he served as sports editor of the Toledo Blade as well as a staff writer at Buckeye Sports Bulletin, where he covered Ohio State hockey for 10 years. He's also a bad D League goalie on weekends.Long-time listener, first-time caller. For the last 15 years Chris Cogan has been at the helm of the Rocky River Pirates and has seen his teams win numerous Baron Cup titles, GCHSHL Red Division championships and a berth in the 2013 Frozen Four. He is also a local connoisseur of area restaurants' nacho dishes.

Join us as we preview the Padua Holiday Hockey Tournament - the Grand Daddy of Ohio in-season high school tournaments with many of the top teams from the Cleveland (Holy Name, Padua Franciscan, Shaker Heights, St. Edward, University School), Columbus (Olentangy Liberty, St. Charles and Upper Arlington) and Toledo (Findlay, Sylvania Northview, Toledo St. Francis and Toledo St. John's) areas. Tournament director Sean Evans will be with us, along with Dave Purpura from This Week News to help us cover the Columbus entries and Mark Monroe of The Toledo Blade to provide some insight on the Toledo-area contenders.

Bob Turow is commissioner of the United States Premier Hockey League which consists of 600 teams and 12,000 players at various age levels, including five Tier III Junior franchises in the Ohio Hockey Digest coverage area: the Columbus Mavericks, Fort Wayne Spacemen, Lake Erie Bighorns, Toledo Cherokee and Wooster Oilers.

State of OHSAA Hockey Roundtable w/ CHC, GCHSHL, GLHL, NHC, + SWOHSHL

Maumee, OH native Ben Schoen is entering his third season with the Youngstown Phantoms of the United States Hockey League. He recently signed with Penn State with the intention of playing for the Nittany Lions in the Big 10 next season.Chagrin Falls, OH native Curtis Hall played for the Cleveland Barons and Youngstown Phantoms, making the U.S. World Junior team and getting drafted by the Boston Bruins before heading to Yale University.