Former Avs, Hawks forward to skate for Concordia College

WASILLA — The Alaska Avalanche may have finished a mere 16-38-8 during the season, but the Avs are now 4-0 in the offseason.

The Wasilla-based North American Hockey League franchise announced this week that Sean Ranum has committed to play hockey at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., this fall.

Now all four Avalanche players from the 2007-08 squad who were vying to make the jump to the collegiate game have signed with college hockey programs.

“At the end of the day, that’s the main thing we’re trying to do,” Alaska president and general manager Jamie Smith said on Friday. “trying to get these guys placed, get these guys into a school.”

Ranum joins Dusan Sidor (Division I Alaska Anchorage), Teddy Zierden (Division III Wisconsin-River Falls) and Michael McCurtain (Division III Wisconsin-Eau Claire) as members of the Avalanche who will move on to the college level.

Ranum, a native of Minnesota, who capped his high school career by helping the Houston Hawks win a small school state championship during his senior year, said he’s excited to return to his home state to play

hockey.

“I’m pumped to go to school there,” Ranum said Friday. “It’s close to where I grew up. It’s a familiar area.”

Ranum said Concordia, a school at which several members of his extended family have attended, was his first choice during the recruiting process.

“I have a lot of cousins who went there and they loved it,” Ranum said.

Ranum tallied one goal and eight assists during his second season of junior hockey last year. Although the 6-foot-2 and 175-pound winger was never known as a scoring machine during his junior career, Smith said, more importantly, Ranum found his role as the hard-nosed forward who does the little things to help his team have success.

“He’s the all-around guy who every team wants,” Smith said. “He’s the consummate team player and is consistent as anyone as far as work ethic goes.

“He’s one of those guys who’ll do anything for you.”

Ranum skated in 48 games for the Avs, and was one of the top penalty killers for his team.

“He’s like the human missile out there,” Smith said. “He goes around and blows things up.”

Smith, who also coached Ranum at Houston High, said after the Avs acquired Ranum in a trade with the Junior B Twin Cities Northern Lights of the Minnesota Junior Hockey League during the 2006-07 season, he worked with Ranum to help the player establish his role as the blue-collar talent on the team.

“With Sean, his biggest improvement was the fact we gave him a role,” Smith said. “He figured out what his role was at this level.”

Ranum said that’s exactly the type of play he wants to take to the college game.

“I talked to the (Concordia) coach about that, and he’s all for it,” Ranum said. “You’ve got to have role players

too.”

Ranum, a lifelong hockey player, said he’s always wanted the opportunity to play college hockey.

“Since I was little,” he said. “My main goal was I always wanted to play Division I. That’s not always the case though, so I’ll take the second best.”

Even though Ranum’s name was not regularly featured on the score sheet, he said he always believed he has what it takes to play on the college

ice.

“Most of the junior players, if they can put in the effort, they can go play somewhere,” Ranum said. “I expected to go to that level. I expected to push myself to that level.”

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.