Lucas Punkari
With two seasons under his belt with the Shattuck-St. Mary’s Sabres, Fort Frances native Mark Loveday already is getting ready for what could be an even further springboard in reaching his goal of playing in the big leagues.
The 14-year-old received an invitation on the weekend to take part in the 2011 USHL combine for 1996 and 1997 birth years, which will be held Aug. 4-7 in Chicago.
“It’s an exposure camp more or less to help get your name out there for the teams in the league for further down the line,” Loveday explained.
“My goal now is to train really hard during the summer to make sure that the combine goes well, and also help me towards my goal of playing in D-I hockey,” he added.
Over the last few seasons, the USHL has been a springboard for a number of players to boost their NHL draft stock. as well, with John Carlson, Max Pacioretty, and Kyle Okposo among those drafted in the first round during the last five entry drafts.
“It’s a great league and it’s also a really good way to achieve a scholarship into a D-1 school,” Loveday stressed.
“To be able to say that I have an invite to the combine is pretty exciting,” he remarked.
“And it shows that I’m good enough to try and achieve my goals, and also gives me a lot of confidence in the long run.”
Loveday also got a boost in confidence with his performance this year with the Bantam Tier I program at Shattuck’s, finishing the regular-season campaign with a 23-1-4 record and 1.86 goals against average.
“I had a really slow start when the season got underway, which is something the whole team had, as well,” he admitted.
“But halfway through the year, I really started to pick my play up, I had better sight and rebound control, and something just started to click and my play just started to all come together,” he recalled.
The 6’1”, 185-pound netminder also had some tough competition from his partner between the pipes as Ojai, Calif. native Blake Weyrick split time with Loveday during the regular season, compiling a 24-4-1 record with a 1.58 goals against average.
“We have a good friendship off the ice, but once we get out on the ice, it becomes a competitive battle between us,” Loveday noted.
“We push each hard to try and match one another, but we also try and help each other get to play our very best, which is a lot of fun,” he added.
The Sabres capped off their season last week at the USA Hockey Tier I championships in Hackensack, N.J., where they were ousted in the quarter-finals by the Cleveland Barons 4-3 in overtime on Saturday.
“We were up by a score of 3-1 heading into the third period, but something that we struggled with all year as a team was keeping the lead, and they scored with three minutes left and just over a minute to go to tie the game,” Loveday said.
“In the overtime, we couldn’t bury the puck on our power play, then we got a bad penalty called against us for too many men on the ice.
“They were able to find the back of the net just as the penalty expired on a point shot through traffic.
“It wasn’t a good way to end the tournament, especially because we thought we were the better team of the two, but it’s over and done with now and we have to move on,” Loveday reasoned.
Loveday only saw action in one game during the tournament—a 6-3 loss to the Long Island Gulls in the Sabres’ final round-robin contest on Friday—but said the score was not indicative of how he played.
“Even though I got scored on five times, my coaches and my teammates all said that I played really well,” he noted.
“I tried my best to deal with whatever came my way, and I tried to weather the storm, but in the end it came down to them outworking us when it came to getting the loose pucks and the goals that they scored came on some really nice chances,” he explained.
Despite not faring well at the nationals, it was another successful season for the Sabres’ Tier I squad, finishing with a 49-7-5 record and a pair of tournament victories in Denver and their home event.
“If I could compare us to another team in the style that we play, I would probably say it would be similar to the [Detroit] Red Wings,” Loveday said.
“We like to play a puck possession game rather than a dump-and-chase style, and we always like to move the puck around and make quick plays.
“We always have a positive energy, as well, as we give each other a pat on the back and give each other a helping hand, so it’s a great environment all-round,” he lauded.
It also was a big year for Loveday off the ice, too, as he entered the world of high school this past fall.
“It’s a whole different step up from the eighth grade to the ninth grade, but in the first term I was able to adjust to it really well, with a lot of A’s and only one B,” he noted.
“In the second term, we started to get into the deep part of the season and had a lot of travelling as a result, so I found it a little bit harder to find a balance and I ended up only getting B’s.
“B’s aren’t all that bad considering the amount of travelling that we did,” he reasoned. “But in this term with hockey now being over, I’ll be able to step it up notch with my studying and improve those grades.”
Once his school year concludes at the beginning of June, Loveday will make his way back home to Fort Frances, where he’ll not only prepare for the USHL combine but also for his return to Shattuck come September.
“After that loss to Cleveland in the quarters, I didn’t like the feeling that came with that at all,” Loveday stressed.
“I’m going to use that feeling this summer to push myself in training to try and make the U16 team that goes to nationals next year, so I’ll be hitting the weight room pretty much every day.
“And if there’s ice, I’ll try to skate as much as I can.
“And I’ll also try to hang out with my buddies as much as I can, as well, as I haven’t seen them for a couple of months, so that will be a lot of fun to see them again,” Loveday added.
