Sitting in his Esko home Tuesday night, hockey-loving Justin Ketola reluctantly turned the television station away from the NHL playoff game between Pittsburgh and Washington.
"It's all I really know," said Ketola of his favorite sport.
Ketola’s hockey career entered its next phase last month when the former Cloquet-Esko-Carlton goaltender signed to play Division I hockey next winter for American International College in Springfield, Mass.
Ketola, 20, last played between the pipes for the Lumberjacks his junior year during the 2012-13 season. He then forwent his senior year to play for Omaha AAA in Omaha, Neb., where he received his high school diploma and was then drafted by the Brookings, S.D., Blizzards of the North American Hockey League in 2014.
After a couple months in South Dakota, the 5-foot-10, 170-pound netminder with a right-handed glove and left-handed stick shifted eastward to Long Island, N.Y., to play for the PAL Junior Islanders of the United States Premier Hockey League.
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Making an immediate impact for the Islanders, Ketola was the Goaltender of the Year in 2014-15, winning 16 games. This past season, he posted 21 more wins. His 37-13-0 record over the last two years was the best in the USPHL over that span.
"Justin was one of the few goaltenders in all of junior hockey over the last two years that you count on to steal a game," Islanders coach Dan Marshall said in a press release. "His 55-save shutout against the [New Jersey] Hitmen comes to mind, but it wasn't uncommon for him to have to make 40 or 50 saves in a game."
Ketola said he began playing hockey at age 4, and by age 8 became a goaltender. He said Tuesday that he loves "everything" about the sport and is pumped to begin the next phase of the game.
"I'm pretty excited - it'll be a good time," said Ketola, who will train all summer in Esko before departing for Massachusetts in August. "Guys are going to be a step faster and shoot the puck a little harder, but it'll be fun. This is something that I've always wanted to do."
Ketola isn't the only D1 player to come through a hockey-driven town within the state of hockey. In fact, a pair of good friends and former CEC teammates are also within the ranks, including Westin Michaud at Colorado College and Karson Kuhlman, who signed with the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
Ketola added that playing hockey at the highest level collegiately is an awesome opportunity. Although admittedly a fan of the Midwest, he's enjoyed his time on the East Coast, as well.
"There's too much traffic for me, really," he said with a laugh.
Much like the traffic in front of the net that he commonly steers aside.
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"I suppose," he chuckled.
A fan of the the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, Ketola was asked if he'd one day make it to the pros - just like former Cloquet standouts Jamie Langenrbunner, Corey Millen or Derek Plante to name a few.
"That'd be awesome," he said, "but that's a long ways away."
Yet if he keeps shoving aside pucks, who knows what the hockey-aficionado may accomplish.
"It's my favorite thing to do," Ketola said of hockey. "It's a dream come true."
