Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 October 2013 15:56
By Kevin Hartzell
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
Just before my journey to Norway, I played racquetball up in International Falls with Brady Hjelle and Jake Youso. Jake and Brady are former teammates with the Broncos of I-Falls. Jake was getting ready to leave for college. He is a junior and plays a regular shift at Holy Cross. Brady and I were about to embark on a journey across the ocean to a land known by many Minnesotans as their ancestors emigrated from there. Brady also shares a name (Hjelle) that many Norwegians will recognize as one of their own. Our paths have crossed already a couple of times in the land of the Norske.
I have had an amazing adventure this past week. It started with our Lillehammer team travelling four hours south to play in Tonsberg, one of the southernmost and oldest cities in Norway. Tonsberg is considered a great summer vacation wonderland. It is located on the southwestern side of the Oslo Fjord.
The trip to Tonsberg from Lillehammer was absolutely beautiful. I just stared out the bus window at the neverending mountainous scenery. Injecting itself into these mountains are waterways that make up the Oslo Fjord. It is spectacular scenery. The bus travels through many tunnels which are carved through the mountainous hillsides. The tunnels are amazing pieces of technology and in their own way spectacular.
As beautiful as the trip to Tonsberg was, it still paled, in my opinion, to the five-hour trip north we took later in the week to Trondheim. Trondheim is straight north of Lillehammer and home to Rosenborg Sports Klubb. The Rosenborg Sports Klubb hosts several sports teams under one roof so to speak. Included in their klubb is one of the premier soccer teams in Norway. Within their Klubb they also field hockey teams at all youth levels. The klubb also has girls’ and boys’ handball, a popular sport over here.
Klubbs over here provide an umbrella of services to their members funded by sponsors and other fees which fund training opportunities and facilities with professional coaches for all their athletes. At the top of their develop ladder are professional teams in soccer and hockey that represent them on a national level.
The trip north to Trondheim started out on a modern highway along the Gudbrandsdalen river with mountains standing watch over each side. The mountains got higher and steeper with each passing mile, or I should say, “kilometer.” We passed a couple of ski resorts along the way, including one which hosts the World Cup Downhill and Super G in early march of each year.
Then it was an accent up and through the main mountain range on a road that narrowed significantly. The road became a series of curves through what was now a pretty rugged terrain. It looked more like high prairie land in a scene one might expect in the mountains of northern Arizona. Near the top of the mountain pass there was a sign pointing in the direction of Hjelle setervegen, Hjelle Mountain Road. It was fitting to see this name as this was going to be the goalie we were facing in just a few hours.
A mountain plateau near Hjelle Mountain Road
The trip up and through and then down and out of the mountains was breathtaking. Entering Tronheim you see a seaside mountainous city sitting on the inner turn of the Trondheim Fjord. The natural beauty never waned, though one could tell by the increasing traffic level that we were entering a city. Trondheim is the third largest city in Norway and even though it is on the west coast of Norway, it is at a point in Norway where the country is very narrow and less than an hour’s drive straight east will get you to Sweden.
The descent into Trondheim
Rosenborg Sports Klubb has a long and proud tradition of strong soccer and hockey teams. The past several years they have experienced a number of problems fielding a strong premier team on the hockey side and have recommitted to getting some higher-end talent within their organization. Thus they went out and acquired for themselves a world-class goaltender from Minnesota and a 2013 All-American with a great Norwegian name in Brady Hjelle.
Brady was part of a trio of Minnesota natives who excelled last year as premier goaltenders in the NCAA. Achieving All-America status is quite an achievement. Brady was a dominant goalie in his hometown of International Falls before heading off to the USHL and the Cedar Rapids Roughriders. His initial college commitment was back to northern Minnesota and the UMD Bulldogs. He played there for two years before transferring to Ohio State where he would anchor their team for two years. In the USHL he posted two years as the starter at Cedar Rapids with over a .920 save percentage – that is not an easy thing to do in the USHL. His two years at Ohio State again saw Brady achieve over a .920 save percentage and earn All-America honors. I saw him play close to a half dozen times in his college career and saw outstanding play each time.
I was somewhat certain that we would see Brady in the AHL. For goaltenders, opportunities at each level can be and often are limited. At each level of the development chain, getting “that chance” is always the first challenge. For whatever reason, the AHL/NHL did not come calling for Brady. The AHL is the training ground for future NHLers and while I see Brady with tons of talent, the current trend in NHL goaltenders has been for bigger and bigger bodies. Brady is not small at 6-1, but he is becoming increasing smaller by the size and trends of the goaltenders in the NHL.
As Brady and his agent began to come to the realization that the AHL may not present the needed opportunity to play, they began a search for teams looking for a quality goalie. Rosenberg came calling.
With Rosenberg, Brady is looked upon to play every game which he has done so far this year. His stats thus far are not of the loftiness of his junior or college careers. His team in Rosenborg is not as deep as some others in the GET Liagen and he is facing more quality shots than maybe in his past.
“This league is a lot better than people probably understand back home,” Brady told me before our game in Trondheim on Oct. 17. “The teams are pretty good and every team has some pretty high end talent.”
Hockey aside, Brady is in one of the better cities in the league. “I love it here,” he said. “It is a great lifestyle. Trondheim is a beautiful city. I love the people. With most everyone being able to speak English and their friendliness, it makes life pretty good here. Maybe the only real challenge is the driving and understanding the local rules … the tolls have fooled me a couple of times.”
He said that with a laugh. I don’t know if that meant he missed paying a toll or is paying more now for missing earlier! I know there are traffic cameras in many areas that charge tolls and monitor speeds, so driving can be tricky.
This night I thought Brady played well and really battled. As hard as he battled, Lillehammer was the better team, generating many more scoring chances en route to a 5-1 win. The last goal was scored on an empty net.
I watched as Brady lined up with his team immediately after the game for the handshake and saw the disappointment in his face after the hard fought battle. I felt almost the same sadness as I do when our own goalie son falls short after a hard fought battle. I know Brady will continue to battle to provide Rosenborg with a rock solid goalie each and every outing.
