USHL

The United States Hockey League (USHL) announced Monday its Players of the Week for Week 30 of the 2021-22 season. The season’s end brought a trio of Western Conference winners as Tri-City Storm defenseman Mitchell Miller earned his third Defenseman of the Week while Fargo Force forward Tyler Rollwagen and Waterloo Black Hawks netminder Emmett Croteau earned their first Forward and Goaltender of the Week awards, respectively. 

USHL veteran Rollwagen earned his first Forward of the Week honor after a five-goal week (5-0-5) led the Force to four of a possible six points. The Bloomington, Minn. native was held off the scoresheet in a Tuesday night loss to the Tri-City Storm before Rollwagen recorded a hat trick on Saturday night in a 5-3 home win over the Sioux Falls Stampede. The University of Nebraska-Omaha commit started his goal-scoring night with a third period powerplay goal before picking up his second of the game just 2:53 later, which served as the eventual game-winning goal. Rollwagen capped the scoring with his second powerplay marker of the night in the final 100 seconds of regulation. The next night, Rollwagen put up another pair of goals in a 4-2 win over the Stampede, this time on the road. Rollwagen’s fourth goal of the weekend was his third on the powerplay to open Saturday’s scoring before he capped the scoring later in the game. Rollwagen finished the regular season with 29 points (15-14-29) in 58 appearances, bringing his career total to 70 points (29-41-70) in 158 appearances with the Force and Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. 

Miller’s third Defenseman of the Week award this season came as the blueliner registered a five-point weekend and helped the Storm cap off a record-tying season. On Tuesday, Miller scored a powerplay goal before adding an assist on the man-advantage later in the first period before rounding off the night (1-2-3) with an assist in the third period of an 8-3 win. On Friday night, the Sylvania, Ohio native found an assist and shorthanded goal on the final two goals of the game, respectively. The defenseman finished the season with 83 points (39-44-83) in 60 games and led defensemen in all three categories while finishing third in the league in points. 

Croteau backed the Waterloo Black Hawks to a pair of wins in the final weekend of the season, recording a 1.80 goals against average and 0.929 save percentage while stopping 39 of the 42 shots sent his way. The Bonnyville, Alberta native made 16 saves on Friday as Waterloo bested the Des Moines Buccaneers 6-3 and followed it up with a perfect 23 saves in 40 minutes of work on Saturday as part of a Black Hawks duo that turned in a 4-0 shutout victory of the Buccaneers. Croteau, in his second season with the Black Hawks, finished with a 16-16-3-0 record in 35 appearances while collecting a 3.00 goals against average and 0.899 save percentage. This season’s wins, goals against average and save percentage all improved upon a rookie campaign in the 2020-21 season that ended in the Clarkson University commit being named to the USHL’s Second Team All-Rookie roster.