Cowlthorp continues to learn as career progresses

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This article was published 16/02/2022 (1552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After four seasons playing college hockey in the United States, Carter Cowlthorp is learning that his education isn’t over as he embarks on a professional career.

Cowlthorp, a 25-year-old Boissevain product, is in his first pro season in the ECHL after four years playing at Norwich University.

“It is a bit of an adjustment coming from school,” Cowlthorp said. “It’s nice that hockey is the main priority here and that’s really all you have to focus on.

“I lived off campus for the majority of my university career so that’s not too much different for me but going from 20 to 30 games a year in college to 72 in pro, that’s definitely something to get used to.”

Cowlthorp grew up in Boissevain, which has become a reliable producer of terrific athletes over the years in a variety of sports that include hockey and baseball.

His theory is that the nature of life in a smaller community has combined with success building on success.

“Being from a small town, there’s not really a ton to do other than in the summer play baseball and in the winter play hockey,” Cowlthorp said. “It’s something to keep busy. At least for me growing up, there was a good group of guys my age and older than me, and you just get a group together and play ball or hockey or golf and do something.”

He added he also had some great coaching early on as he took a unique path to pro hockey.

Cowlthorp actually played high school hockey for a couple of years before heading to the Southwest Cougars for the 2013-14 season.

He said the dream of playing junior never changed.

“I think it was still in the back of my mind,” Cowlthorp said. “I was playing high school but we had a pretty good group of kids who were playing so it was still pretty competitive. For me, I definitely thought I could play at the AAA level so it wasn’t like I was completely shut down from playing junior after.”

In his one season with the Cougars, he scored 11 goals and added 20 assists in 43 games.

“It was pretty crucial for me,” Cowlthorp said. “I played high school hockey the two years prior and then made the jump to Southwest my last year. Being able to play with better players and maybe getting a little better coaching and stuff like that, I think it really allowed me to grow my game.”

A season later, in 2014-15, Cowlthorp began his three-year career in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League with the Virden Oil Capitals.

He said head coach and general manager Troy Leslie, along with his brother Chad, the team’s assistant GM and director of player personnel, had a big impact on him.

“They were huge for me as well,” Cowlthorp said. “It was my first crack at junior hockey obviously and we had Troy Leslie there and Chad as well. I came in my first year and played more of a fourth-line role but we had a really solid team and I learned a lot from guys who were older than me and had been there for a while.

“I had Troy for all three years, which was nice, and I think he learned to trust me a bit, and I think I grew as a player, and by the end of my three-year stint there, I was a much better player at 20 than going in at 18.”

He went from 11 points and 63 penalty minutes in 43 games as a rookie, to 16 points and 97 penalty minutes in 48 games in his second season. In his 20-year-old season, Cowlthorp led the Oil Capitals in goals with 24, tied for the points lead with 52 with Mack Hardy and was third on the team with 116 penalty minutes.

“It’s definitely always been part of my game,” Cowlthorp said of the penalty minutes. “I like to play with a bit of an edge. I think that was a big thing my first couple of years and my 20-year-old year I was maybe playing more of an offensive role but I definitely still kept a little bit of grit in my game.”

As he played junior he began to consider the next step, and a terrific post-secondary opportunity actually came to him at an MJHL showcase.

Cowlthorp’s friend David Robertson was already playing at Norwich University, so when a scout from the school approached him, he was certainly interested.

“When I talked to them, I kind of already knew from (Robertson) it was a good place to be and a strong school for hockey and everything else,” Cowlthorp said. “When I talked to them, my mind was kind of already made up that I wanted to go there.

“I talked to other teams, but just having that connection there was huge for me.”

The private military school is in Northfield, Vt., a community of 5,900 people located midway between Montreal to the northeast and Boston to the southwest.

The Cadets are a perennial powerhouse in the New England Hockey Conference at the NCAA Division III level.

It was a big transition for Cowlthorp, who was moving 2,600 kilometres from home and heading back to school for the first time in a couple of years.

“You play junior hockey for three years and haven’t really picked up a book in three years,” Cowlthorp said. “You figure it out pretty quick, it’s the atmosphere you’re in. You pick it up from guys who already there. Time management is huge. You’re there to play hockey, it’s a huge priority but you also have school to worry about too.”

Cowlthorp proved to be a strong student despite the time off, earning NEHC all-academic team honours during each of his final three seasons.

On the ice, Cowlthorp had a near miss in his pursuit for a championship in 2019 when Norwich lost the Division III national title game to Wisconsin Stevens Point 3-2 in overtime.

“It was awesome,” Cowlthorp said. “It was kind of funny that year because we were definitely a very strong team but I wouldn’t say that we were exactly expected to go that far. We all knew we could but I wouldn’t say we were highly touted. It was a great run, and sad we lost in overtime in the final.

“It was tough because we go the next year and I would say we had an even more solid team and on a really good run and then everything gets shut down because of COVID.”

It certainly wasn’t an easy time for Cowlthorp and his teammates. The Cadets played just eight games in the 2020-21 season due to the pandemic after also losing the end of the previous campaign.

“It was tough for sure, especially last year,” Cowlthorp said. “We were all at school and I think we were probably one of the few teams which treated it as a normal season so we still practised every day, and did play some games, which was nice, but obviously the tournament was cancelled early so we knew that wasn’t going to go on. “It definitely takes a toll on you when you know you’re in your last year and it’s basically over.”

Still, he received some national attention last March when a goal he scored against Connecticut College on Feb. 28 was featured on ESPN as one of SportsCenter’s highlights of the day.

Cowlthorp and all the seniors had an extra year of eligibility added after the lost season, but the business student already had his degree and decided it was time to move on.

He finished his college career with 15 goals and 13 assists in 78 career games over four seasons for the Cadets, with a plus-minus of +21.

Cowlthorp was home in Boissevain during the summer — there was a chance his competitive career was essentially over — when he was approached by the Knoxville Ice Bears of the Southern Professional Hockey League.

“I wasn’t 100 per cent certain if I was going to pursue playing hockey again or not,” Cowlthorp said. “I got a couple of calls from Knoxville to come there, and after thinking about it for a while, I was sitting home for a couple of months and realized I missed it so I decided to give it another go and head down to Knoxville.

“It was a really good spot to be to start off my pro career.”

The centre contributed a goal and three assists in his first eight games with Knoxville, and on Nov. 12, he was loaned to the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays.

In 32 games with the Stingrays, who are based in North Charleston, S.C., he has seven goals and four assists.

“It was a jump for sure,” Cowlthorp said of the move. “The pace of play and the players themselves — it was really good hockey in Knoxville too — but it was definitely a step up.”

He added all the levels he’s moved on to — from high school to U18, from U18 to junior, from junior to college, from college to pro, and then from the SPHL to the ECHL — have their unique challenges.

“Hockey-wise, it was probably getting up to play here in the ECHL,” Cowlthorp said of the biggest jump. “As far as lifestyle and everything like that, college was a huge adjustment. Coming to the ECHL or maybe my first year of junior, that was probably a big transition for me too.”

Naturally, each step up the ladder also places more expectations on him to fine-tune his game. He said his play continues to evolve as a result.

“I think a big thing just playing throughout the years is I’ve learned a lot about the game itself,” Cowlthorp said. “I had a really, really good coach (Cam Ellsworth) at school. I think I’ve done a lot over the past years to round out my game as far as defensively and having a lot more awareness of certain situations in the game itself.”

In pro, where you’re always good as your last game, that puts a premium on consistency and playing the right way. Cowlthorp hopes to show all those cumulative lessons have paid off and he’s skating where he belongs.

“The big thing for me is that I want to be able to play in this league and stay here and prove that I can play in this league,” Cowlthorp said. “It doesn’t really matter where you are, you want to do well and succeed and look to move forward.”

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