skip navigation

Sharing a journey

11/17/2017, 9:15am CST
By Andrew Vitalis - Let's Play Hockey

Jack, Nick and Ryan Poehling aren’t taking for granted the opportunity to live, study, train and play hockey together


Ryan Poehling

When Lakeville’s Ryan Poehling was selected in the first round of the 2017 NHL Draft, the two yelling the loudest were his brothers, Jack and Nick. The two smiling the longest were Ryan’s parents, Tim and Kris. They were probably snickering a little bit, too.

Ryan Poehling’s journey almost didn’t happen. As Ryan tells it, when he was young he wasn’t necessarily a fan of learning how to skate. His mom, who had already helped Jack and Nick (and later brother Luke), did what mothers do – she gave him some extra motivation.

“He wasn’t very good at skating so he really didn’t want to do it,” Tim said. “While the boys were in school, Kris would take him out to the rink and he would say, ‘I don’t want to skate.’ She would take him to the far end of the rink and say, ‘Well, you better come inside then.’ He learned how to get across the rink and get inside. 

“It’s a fine line. Sometimes that story comes off as a crazy hockey parent story, but it wasn’t that at all. It was more of the fact that the other boys were in school and he was at home; just getting him out of the house and it worked out that way. I think that happens with a lot of kids. Hockey can be a fairly intimidating sport because learning to skate for the first time is kind of like learning to walk. You have to stick with it for a little bit to get that part down.”

“I would just sit down and cry and my mom would tell me, ‘If you want to be done, you have to skate off the ice,’” Ryan said. “She did that for two or three months. When I finally learned to skate, I enjoyed it. I thank her when I can.”

It’s just one of many stories the Poehlings share around the dinner table from time to time.  That and so much more.

There is a lot to reflect on these days. Jack, Nick and Ryan now star as sophomore forwards for second-ranked St. Cloud State. Yes, even though twins Jack and Nick are two-and-a-half years older than Ryan, as luck would have it, all three started their Husky careers at the same time when they suited up as freshmen for head coach Bob Motzko during the 2016-17 season. 

Prior to skating into the NCHC as a trio, Jack and Nick starred for the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers while Ryan, a then-high school junior, dominated Class AA hockey for Lakeville North. When they finally reunited last year, it marked the first time that they had skated on the same team since 2014-15 when they helped propel Lakeville North to an undefeated season and a Class AA title. 
 


Jack Poehling

After Jack and Nick left for juniors, Ryan played one more season of high school hockey before making the decision to leave the high school ranks after his junior year, opting for the challenge of college hockey as a 17-year-old. Not surprisingly, there to help with the transition every step of the way were his older brothers.

“When you’re 17, it’s completely different, living away from home when you are supposed to be a high schooler,” Ryan said. “It does wear on you a little bit, so I think my brothers did a tremendous job helping me through that.”

“They look after each other,” Motzko said. “I remember in a game last year, one of them got hurt and when one came off the ice, one of the brothers followed him right off the ice to make sure his brother was OK. You just don’t see that, but it’s going to happen with these guys. There is a special bond between those brothers and hockey players and they have each other’s backs at every moment.”

That “bond” is truly where the story begins, and ends. It’s what put them on the radar in the first place. It’s what sets them apart on and off the ice. It’s what makes Tim and Kris smile, far more than any of the goals or assists their sons have compiled, or will compile, during their hockey careers.

For those who have witnessed the “bond,” each person describes it a little bit differently. For Jack, Nick or Ryan Poehling, they simply can’t describe it. Tim remembers his sons having that same bond when they were younger. Whether it was a pond hockey game, relaxing at their cabin getaway or a game of golf, they have always supported each other in everything they have done. Whatever they did as parents, if Tim and Kris had the ability to bottle their parenting secret and sell it, the formula would become a best-seller in seconds.

“I don’t think you can really describe [the bond], it’s just something that has developed over the years,” Jack said. “I think it just comes along with being with each other 24/7.”

“We know we are always going to have each other’s back, we are always going to be there for each other,” Nick said. “It’s kind of like having your best friend with you all of the time, but multiplying that by 10 because they are your brothers and you know them that much more.”

“We have always been close as a family,” Tim said. “I don’t know if there is anything I can point to that we tried to do more than anything else. We just tried to teach the boys to be good people, good to each other, to their friends, to anyone and everyone really. I do get a lot of comments from people on how the boys are so nice and there is always a story that goes along with it, how they saw them somewhere and went up to them and talked to them or a younger kid wanted a picture with them or something and how polite they are. You see what happens on the ice, but it’s what happens off the ice, that’s what makes us most proud. Hockey ends for everyone at some point and those other traits and characteristics are things that you carry with you your whole life. We are very lucky that they have stayed grounded and they are good kids.”


Nick Poehling

They are pretty good hockey players, too. Each one has made their own special mark on a team that has stormed out of the gates to kick off their 2017-18 season, capturing the No. 2 ranking in all of college hockey.  Despite being swept this past weekend by Denver, the Huskies are one of the top-scoring teams in the nation and an early favorite to capture the national championship. And while statistics don’t always tell the whole story, you can’t argue with them either. Simply put, when all three of the Poehlings score in a game, the Huskies win.  

Take last season for example. SCSU went 2-11 when the trio of brothers were in the line-up and none of the Poehlings registered a point in the game. When all three of them scored against an opponent, the Huskies were 2-0. This season, all three of the Poehlings have scored at least one point in the same game twice. When that happens, St. Cloud State is 2-0. There have been two games this year when none of the Poehlings have registered a point. That was this past weekend when the Huskies were swept by the Pioneers 4-2 and 5-1. This season, Ryan already has nine points in nine games, while Jack and Nick have scored five goals and three goals, respectively. Whenever the Poehlings step onto the ice, they turn heads, and when they are together on the ice, they break necks.

“Their work ethic and compete level is at an extremely high level, every day in practice and in every game,” Motzko said. “The twins typically play together, but if you go back to last year, all three of them were on the same line. They have a true connection with each other. They know exactly where the other one is going and they find each other. We are all getting used to it still. They know where one is going to be, they know how to get the puck to each other and support each other. It’s eerie how they have a telepathy like that when it comes to how they play the game.”

“We push each other far more than any other teammate pushes us,” Jack said. “When we are on the ice together, we push each other way more than I have ever been pushed by someone else.”

“There is a sense of always knowing where they are on the ice,” Nick said. “It also helps because we all push each other. If we see one of us not doing something right or slacking a little bit, we can nudge each other a little harder than what you would do with another teammate. They aren’t necessarily going to be hurt by it; they know we are just trying to make each other better.”

Ultimately, that might be the best way to describe their relationship. They know that no matter what, whether it’s on the rink or in life, the Poehlings always have, and will, put the other one first. While they continue to pave their way through all of the twists and turns the game throws at them, hockey is a just a few of the chapters in the book they are continuing to write.

Character, work ethic and family define them much more than the statistics attached to their bio. They live together. They play together. They learn together.

“I think hockey has really helped them develop into young men,” Tim said. “There are a lot of things in hockey that help you develop life lessons. You just have to suck it up and move on. They have all been good players growing up, but at some point it becomes pretty competitive. You need to learn how to deal with failure, you need to learn how to deal with someone evaluating you and maybe saying, ‘Look, you are not good enough to be in this position or this place.’ There are two routes people can take when things don’t go their way. They can blame people and talk about how they got screwed, or they can accept that it happened.

“If you are going to play hockey, you need to go through that process. If the parenting is correct, I think the kids can learn a lot from it and really help them in life. In today’s society, sports can be a venue for kids to learn that, but unfortunately sometimes it goes the other way and then everyone hears about those negative stories. It’s about kids who go through the process and become better people and take a lot of life lessons from the game.”

“We definitely don’t take it for granted,” Ryan said when asked about sharing his journey with his older brothers. “We have to realize that it’s not every day that people can wake up, live with their brothers, go to the same school and play for the same hockey team. These are relationships that you build with people that will last a lifetime and to have those relationships with your two older brothers, guys you have looked up to your entire life, it’s something special. It’s honestly a blessing all three of us can do this and I’m glad we can realize how special it is.”

“I think 10 or 20 years down the road we will look back and be like, wow, that was an amazing time in our lives,” Jack said. “We are making memories right now that will last a lifetime. When we won the state tournament, it never really sunk in and it still hasn’t, but when we have kids and we go to the state tournament, we will look back and think about how great of a time it was. When looking at our career right now, I don’t think we have stopped and looked at what we have done, but I think that’s because we aren’t really satisfied yet. We never really are satisfied, which is one of the reasons why we have gotten to this level because we always keep working.”

In the end, it all comes back to that smile they shared on draft night. After watching their boys grow into men, on and away from the ice, Tim and Kris Poehling have scored the goal of their lives. Hockey gets the assist.

 

Andrew Vitalis can be reached at lphprep@yahoo.com

Photos: St. Cloud State University

Top Stories

Tag(s): State Of Hockey  News  Andrew Vitalis