Dells Ducks Hockey

 By Tom Robinson

Special to USAHockey.com

Aidan Verbeke and the Dells Ducks were unknown

quantities when the Minnesota Junior Hockey League

began its 2011-12 season.

The Ducks have played just one season, but they

already have their first league Most Valuable Player

award winner.

Verbeke, a player who had to find a team when

none seemed interested in finding him, made sure of that.

“He was a player who called me before the last tryout

to see if he could come try out for the team,”

Ducks coach Shaun Falzone said. “He was a

player that I didn’t know anything about.

“He said he was looking to play juniors and no one

had called him. He was interested in seeing if he could

come try out for the Ducks.”

Falzone said “yes” and, despite some early reservations

when the 5-foot-8, 120-pound forward showed up, he is

happy he did.

“He is a bit tinier,” Falzone said. “I was a bit nervous to

see how he could do in the more physical portion of the

game.

“We knew he had the skating ability and the skill to

shoot and the stick-handling. We were sort of wondering

at the start how he would handle getting the body

thrown at him and if he’d be a physical player.”

Falzone found that Verbeke has both the ability to make

himself hard to hit and the willingness to mix it up as needed.

“He definitely can handle it,” Falzone said. “He puts himself

right into it.”

Verbeke, a 19-year-old from Elmwood Park, Ill., played

at Fenwick High School. Defenseman Tyler Pecka, who

played at rival New Trier, was also a big part of the first

Dells Ducks team.

Pecka was the other Ducks player to receive postseason

recognition, landing a spot as a second-team all-star.

“Tyler was one of our very first offers,” Falzone said.

“He played for the Illinois state champions last year.”

Pecka, from Northfield, Ill., averaged a point per game

with 10 goals and 31 assists.

Verbeke piled up the points with 37 goals and 39

assists in 48 games to finish as the league’s third-leadin

g scorer.

The MVP award recognizes that he succeeded in his

attempt to bring more to the team.

“Just as important as scoring goals is being able to

help your team win in the third period, doing the little

things like winning face-offs and getting pucks deep,”

Verbeke said in an online video interview produced by

the team.

Verbeke delivered from beginning to end.

When the team made its debut in exhibition play in

September, he scored seven goals in five games.

Verbeke had back-to-back hat tricks in late January

as part of an eight-game stretch in which he had 13

goals and 12 assists while producing three of his four

hat tricks.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” said Verbeke,

who led the team to a 20-24-4 record. “I got a lot of nice

passes and set-ups.”

When the playoffs rolled around, Verbeke’s line, which

also includes Billy Warren and Cody Kromeich, was on

the ice for all four goals the team scored. He assisted

Kromeich for all three goals in a 6-3 loss to Hudson,

then scored the only goal in a season-ending 2-1 loss

to the Hudson Crusaders.

“Billy Warren has very good skills and is not very physical,

but has good hands, good speed and knows how to move

the puck very well,” Falzone said.

Warren and Verbeke played together most of the season.

At the end, Falzone combined them with Kromeich because

of his physical toughness and willingness to battle in front

of the net, where he was for his playoff hat trick.

“We are kind of similar players, which is always good,”

Verbeke said of Warren. “We know where each other

are on the ice a lot of times without even seeing or

calling each other.”

Falzone said he would love to have Verbeke back for

another year, but if a new team on a higher level is

once again in order, it might not be up to Verbeke to

find one.

“Aidan might be one of our players who gets to move

up a little faster with the way he plays,” Falzone said.