Goalie pulls out all stops
Warhawks' Kohn player of year
Arrowhead's offense put on quite a display at the state tournament, but the season-long steady play of goaltender Nick Kohn is one of the main reasons the Warhawks won their first championship.
Kohn, who led the state with seven shutouts in the regular season (nine overall), has been chosen as the Journal Sentinel area player of the year.
He also set school records for victories, shutouts, save percentage (.943) and goals-against average (1.18).
"Goaltending is crucial in hockey," Arrowhead coach Carl Valimont said. "When you get a good goalie, you can go a long way. The playoffs showed he was a pretty stingy goalie. We did give him some help around the net, but he made a lot of great saves. He was able to play the puck like a third defenseman.
"In the 10 years I've coached at Arrowhead, I never had a goaltender be a captain because they never fit the mold. This year he was one of our tri-captains and deserved it."
After Kohn broke his right leg playing lacrosse in May, he worked out with his brother at 7 a.m. four times a day in the summer. He also spent numerous hours on the ice to prepare for his second season on varsity.
"What a lot of goalies don't have is quickness from side to side," Valimont said. "His scrambling in the crease, what we call it in hockey, is as good as anyone I've seen. Another strength was his ability to play the puck and the other thing, frankly, is stopping the puck.
"To have a 1.18 save percentage is darn good in a 26-game season."
The Warhawks (21-5) entered the playoffs on a four-game winning streak, as Kohn allowed a total of just two goals during the stretch. In three playoff games, he gave up four goals.
Kohn then made 18 saves, including seven in the third period, in a 4-0 victory over Onalaska in the state quarterfinals.
He had 41 saves, including 23 in the final period, of a 6-2 semifinal victory against Superior, before tallying 22 saves in a 5-1 victory over Fond du Lac in the state final.
"It finally did sink in when we were cleaning out our lockers," said Kohn, who hopes to play junior hockey next season. "It almost brought a tear to my eye because of what the team accomplished. We did it as one whole unit, no individuals."
Coach of the year: Valimont, Arrowhead. The Warhawks not only won their first state title, they became just the second team from the area to claim a championship.
Arrowhead finished with a 10-game winning streak and its losses were to some of the better teams in the state: Fond du Lac, Appleton, Catholic Memorial/Pius, Janesville and Middleton.
"Our whole coaching staff, led by Carl, was phenomenal," Kohn said. "They know the game and know how to teach it to the kids. His message and overall principles are what led us and gave us the right direction to go where we did."