Ex-teammates now competitors in NAHL

WENATCHEE, Wash. — They played youth hockey together, spent time in each other’s homes when they were kids. They even won third place in a state tournament as Bantams.

But Brandon Burrell and Sean McNeely aren’t teammates anymore.

Burrell’s Wenatchee Wild and McNeely’s Alaska Avalanche will wrap up their first-round West Division playoff series this weekend at Town Toyota Center, their friendship set aside, each trying to end the other’s season.

“It’s always exciting to play against your buddies,” McNeely said.

In addition to Burrell and McNeely, two other players off that third-place Bantams team, from Brooklyn Park, Minn., are also in the NAHL. Steve Zierke plays for the Fairbanks Ice Dogs, and Brandon Brodhag plays for the North Iowa Outlaws.

The four are no strangers to playing against one another. After Bantams, all four went on to play at different high schools.

“We split up. I went to Osseo High School, (Burrell) went to Park Center and we played against each other for three years. Brodhag played two years at Champlin Park, then at Elk River, and Steve Zierke went to a private school, Benilde St. Margaret’s,” McNeely said. “We joked about if we would have stayed together we’d have had a pretty good team. I tried to talk Burrell into open-enrolling at Osseo, and he tried to talk me into coming to Park Center. It was a lot of fun.”

McNeely is a couple of years older, and he and Brodhag were the first to reach the NAHL.

“Before I was done with high school, Sean was already playing (in the NAHL), and so was Brodhag,” Burrell said. “Zierke and I are the same age, same graduating year. We both got drafted by USHL teams and both got released. That’s when we found out we’d be playing (in the NAHL).”

The fact that they’re on opposing teams hasn’t stopped their families from getting together to watch the playoffs.

“Our parents know the owners at the (local) VFW, and they put the game up on a big projection screen Friday,” Burrell said. “It was his family, aunts, uncles and my family, friends — stuff like that.”

The next night, the party shifted locations.

“Saturday they went to the Burrells and did the same thing,” McNeely said. “They’re pretty into it.”

McNeely’s Osseo team won the battles when they were in high school, but Burrell’s Wild had the upper hand during the regular season, winning 11 of 14 meetings with the Avalanche. But the real bragging rights will go to whoever wins two games this weekend to take the series, which is tied 1-1 after two games.

Burrell said that while it’s not all that strange to see McNeely in a different-colored jersey, the setting is a little unusual.

“It’s just weird seeing him in a place like this,” Burrell said. “It’s strange, but it’s nice to see him.”

The Avs stayed in Wenatchee this week rather than returning to Alaska, but Burrell and McNeely won’t be spending any time together off the ice.

“I can wait until I get home to hang out with him,” Burrell said. “We’re definitely going to hang out this summer, share our hockey stories.”

They’ll probably find time to play a little hockey as well.

“We hang out all the time,” McNeely said. “Even last summer we’d get together and play tennis, or we’d rent ice and play … good times back in Brooklyn Park.”

Corey Voegele is a sports reporter for the Wenatchee World in Wenatchee, Wash., and the beat writer for Wenatchee Wild hockey.