Cloquet-Esko-Carlton senior hockey players Tyler Johnson and Reid Ellingson recently competed in the Great Eight Hockey Festival in St. Paul. Both are seniors at Cloquet High School.
Johnson, who has committed to play hockey at Colorado College next year, was one of 12 forwards selected to the team. As a junior he was selected as the Player of the Year by the Duluth News Tribune, but a broken collar bone at the midway point of the season put the forward on the sidelines until the semifinals of the Section 7AA tournament when he returned to score the game-winning goal to put Cloquet in the title game against Grand Rapids.
Unfortunately, Johnson broke the collar bone in the second period of the first game in the Great Eight. Without Johnson, and playing without the services of Patrick White of Grand Rapids, the Section 7 team lost their first two games of the tournament.
CEC goaltender Reid Ellingson was also a starter for the Section 7 team. Ellingson is currently set to play junior hockey in Chicago. However, there has been recent interest by some top level Division I schools both in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and in Hockey East.
Earlier this season Ellingson became the third CEC goaltender in history to win the Frank Brimsek Award, which is given annually to the best senior goaltender in the state of Minnesota. Adam Laaksonen and Josh Johnson are also previous winners of the award.
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Pine Journal sports reporter Kerry Rodd can be contacted at: kdrodd@aol.com .
