USA Hockey Magazine

June/July 2013

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Santa Margarita, Calif., steamrolled the competition at the 2013 ToyotaUSA Hockey High School National Championships on its way to the title game against the defending champs Regis Jesuit of Colorado. "They're no different than the kids from Minnesota," he added. "The only difference is when you leave the rink, it's usually 70 degrees and sunny where a player in Minnesota leaves the rink, it might be 10 below. But their love of the game, their passion for the game, it's no different." Johnson himself is a native of St. Paul, Minn., and he played at the state school before embarking on an NHL career that started in St. Louis and ended in Washington. But the bulk of it was spent with the Los Angeles Kings after being one of three players, along with two draft picks, sent from St. Louis in exchange for none other than Wayne Gretzky. It was during those seven-plus seasons with the Kings that Johnson met his wife and his three sons were born. Johnson first got into coaching when his youngest son played in the Mite division, and he later was approached by former Anaheim Ducks general manager Brian Burke and Art Trottier, the director of the Ducks High School Hockey League, to start the Santa Margarita program. Santa Margarita began one year after a sole program, JSerra, made up the league. It has now grown to 14 teams, including two varsity divisions and one junior varsity group. And after having only eight players from the school on his original team, Johnson had in excess of 40 this season with the varsity and JV teams. "It's grown pretty big," said senior captain Branden Vara. "I think it's just through the success of our team. We hype it up at school, and all the guys want to come play because they see the team atmosphere that we have." Not surprisingly, Santa Margarita has dominated play in Southern California. The Eagles went undefeated in league play each of the last two seasons. This season they recorded the hat trick of league champion, California Amateur Hockey Association High School state champion and national champion. "That's a good team," said Regis Jesuit head coach Dan Woodley. "It moves the puck around beautifully." For Vara and Kilkuts, winning the national championship provided the perfect way to cap off their high school careers. They're among four seniors who will be leaving the school, but there's still plenty of talent around for next year, including the two sons of NHL legend Teemu Selanne, Eemil and Eetu, along with their cousin Tatu Hiltunen. "We have a first-class school, so people come here for the academics," Kilkuts said. "On top of it, we have Craig Johnson. He's the best coach I've ever had. I've been playing with him for five years. and he never ceases to amaze me. "I think we surprise every team every time we come out here. Everyone thinks we're a California team. We came out for the first game against Texas and I was talking to one of the kids on the team, and he was saying, 'You guys really surprised us, you came out hard, we weren't expecting that at all.' It's crazy to think that this new of a program can come out and compete like this." N " They're no different than the kids from Minnesota. The only difference is when you leave the rink, it's usually 70 degrees and sunny where a player in Minnesota leaves the rink, it might be 10 below. But their love of the game, their passion for the game, it's no different." – Craig Johnson, Santa Margarita head coach + Check out usahockeymagazine.com for team photos of all the champions from the 2013 Toyota-USA Hockey National Championships USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM Alain Poupart is a freelance writer based in Miami Lakes, Fla. june/july. 2013 29

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