Lewadniuk at home in ECHL

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/01/2011 (5599 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

And Aaron Lewadniuk thought the road trips with the Brandon Wheat Kings were long.

The 21-year-old forward with the ECHL’s Ontario (Calif.) Reign recently returned from a four-game in five-day trek that included two games in Victoria, B.C., and two in Anchorage, Alaska with a changeover in Seattle for good measure in between.

Throw in a home date back in California two days before the trip started and Lewadniuk has already logged a ton of miles in his first season of professional hockey, although he admitted the flight to Alaska had its advantages over the marathon bus trips he was used to in the Western Hockey League.

"It’s just real neat, you know, flying around for once instead of taking the bus," Lewadniuk chuckled on Monday, a day after getting back from Alaska where he rang in the New Year with his teammates. "But I gotta say I do miss that old bus. … There’s something about it, there’s just nothing quite like it."

After wrapping up his junior career with the Wheat Kings’ appearance in the Memorial Cup final last spring, Lewadniuk signed a free-agent deal with the Reign this season and made his way to California after going to training camp with the American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose.

He’s found he’s in a whole different world from what he’s used to, but so far so good as Lewadniuk entered the Reign’s home game last night sitting second on the team in goals (10) and tied for third in points (15) in 29 games, numbers good enough to earn him an invitation to the ECHL all-star game, Jan. 26 in Bakersfield, Calif.

Lewadniuk has also learned that the minor pros have come a long way from the "old-time hockey" immortalized in movies like "Slap Shot."

"When I first came out, I thought it would be more kinda goony hockey, but as I’ve been playing here it’s real fast and there’s guys getting called up (to higher levels) and down all year," he said. "… I’m just happy that I’m keeping up and putting up some decent numbers."

Formerly the East Coast Hockey League, the ECHL shortened its moniker as the circuit branched out across North America. The Reign, an affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings, are in their third year of existence and despite sitting last in the overall standings at 10-19-0-1, the club is a bona fide hit in California, leading the league in attendance at more than 6,200 fans per game.

"It’s definitely an eye-opener," said Lewadniuk who has also gotten in some star gazing, excitedly noting that he snapped a photo with Cesar Millan — aka The Dog Whisperer — in the airport when he arrived home from Alaska. "Some people don’t know what hockey is or they don’t know what ice hockey is. The fans here are great. I don’t know if they know what they’re cheering for sometimes, but it’s a nice change and hockey’s getting a little bigger down here now, so it’s travelling from word of mouth. I obviously miss home, but it’s got its perks living out here and playing out here as well."

One of those perks is being able to conduct interviews while sitting on a balcony enjoying the sunshine while his former Wheat Kings teammates are scraping their windshields back in Brandon. Lewadniuk keeps close tabs on this season’s Wheat Kings, speaking regularly with defenceman Darren Bestland — who was traded on Wednesday night — and hopes that better days are ahead for both his current and former clubs.

"We’ve had a little bad luck with injuries and that," he said. "But as the season’s going on we’re getting a lot better and I think we’re going to start picking up some wins and get on a win streak here."

» rhenders@brandonsun.com