Green looking forward to joining Wisconsin-Stout

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This article was published 23/06/2022 (1345 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As his junior hockey career was winding down this winter with the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Winnipeg Blues, goaltender Dawson Green had a decision to make.

Having already reached out to a number of post-secondary programs and being personally contacted by various schools, the 21-year-old Brandonite was looking at various options for where to go next in his hockey career.

In the end, Green committed to the University of Wisconsin-Stout Blue Devils, where he’ll compete in the NCAA Division III ranks and study mechanical engineering.

“I wasn’t interested in taking anything else,” Green said. “Mechanical engineering is something I’ve been looking at getting into as a career for a while now and the fact that I can be a lot more hands on with the program there was something that really stood out for me.

“I also got to chat with a few guys on the team about how they transitioned from playing junior hockey to studying at UW-Stout, and they told me that the school has a great setup that makes things pretty easy. During my campus visit … I could also tell that the coaching staff is very organized and that they really know what they are doing.”

Now that he knows he’ll be making his way to Menomonie, Wisc., — a community of 16,264 that is roughly an hour east of St. Paul, Minn., — Green is going to be busy over the next couple of months.

While that will include the normal on-ice practices and workout sessions that go with any summer for a hockey player, he’s also preparing to resume his studies.

“I’m sure it will take a little bit for me to get used to that,” he said, “but I’m pretty excited about having the chance to further my education.”

Green will enter the world of college hockey after putting together a strong final campaign in the MJHL.

After being acquired from the Neepawa Titans in August, Green compiled a 23-17-1 record with a 2.90 goals-against average, a .912 save percentage and two shutouts for the Blues on his way to being a finalist for the league’s Ed Belfour Top Goaltender Trophy.

“It just felt nice to have a normal season again and not have everything get stopped due to COVID,” Green said.

“It was a little different to go from being in a small town like Neepawa to the big city, but everyone on the Blues were extremely welcoming and they made me super comfortable right away. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to play my final season or for a better place to help me prepare for college.”

This season also marked the first time that Green had been the full-time starter for a team since he helped the Brandon Wheat Kings capture the Manitoba AAA U18 Hockey League championship in 2019.

During his two years in Neepawa, he split goaltending duties with Ethan Petersen, Michael Davis and Thomson Phinney.

“It (being a starter) was something that I had really worked towards over the last couple of years,” Green said. “The team trusted me in that role and I had a great line of communication with the coaches and my teammates.

“I also went into the year with a lot of confidence and I think my experiences in Neepawa helped me out a lot. Having spent some time in the MJHL, I wanted to share what I had learned to the younger guys, along with leading by example and working hard every day.”

The only drawback to Green’s season was the fact that the Blues’ run at the Turnbull Cup came to an early end.

After finishing third in the East Division and posting the sixth-best record in the MJHL with a 29-22-1-2 mark, the Blues were knocked out of the playoffs following a six-game battle with the Winkler Flyers.

Green started all of the games in the quarterfinal series — where he recorded a 3.40 gaa and an .897 save percentage, and was one of three goaltenders to post a shutout in the post-season as he turned aside 28 shots in a narrow 1-0 Game 2 triumph.

“We all thought that we would go a lot farther than we did,” Green said.

“For the guys that are coming back to the Blues, I think they all realized that you can’t hold anything back when you get to the playoffs. There’s no room for error and you need to be ready to go on every shift … otherwise you are going to be done early.”

While Green’s final junior season didn’t result in a championship, he was able to cross something off of his hockey bucket list on Oct. 16.

During a 3-0 home triumph over the Selkirk Steelers, he became the first goalie to score a goal in a MJHL game in nearly a decade as he fired a puck into an empty net.

“I remember that night like it was yesterday,” Green said. “I had always talked about scoring a goal and to do it with my friends and family there watching was pretty awesome.

“I had tried shooting the puck from my end of the ice a few times in my career, but it would come to a stop before it got to the net or it would go off of a skater. I was confident that I could score if I had the chance and it all worked out.”

Now that he found the back of the net, Green is hoping to light the lamp again as a member of the Blue Devils.

“I’m not sure if the chance will ever present itself again, but I’m still going to try it,” Green said. “To be able to score a goal in both junior and college hockey would be pretty awesome.”

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