Jayden Kurtz watched through a pane of plexiglass as his high school hockey career came to an end on a Saturday night in late February at Bloomington Ice Garden.

“We knew we had the team to do it but unfortunately it doesn’t always go your way,” the Rogers senior defenseman said. On Feb. 21, Kurtz was in the penalty box for the end of the Class 2A, Section 6 semifinal game against Wayzata. His Royals, Minnesota’s No. 1-ranked team at the time, saw their chances of reaching the state tournament shrivel with a 5-2 score blinking overhead.

Kurtz hoped to go further than last year’s first-round state tournament loss, but his hockey career is far from over. Kurtz, regarded as one of the top 100 hockey players in North America by NHL scouts, was already feeling reflective and itching to move on after the immediate sting of losing lowered to a simmer a couple of days later.

He finished his season as assistant captain with 13 goals, 25 assists and a one-way plane ticket to Chicago. Kurtz was already packing a suitcase to help the USHL’s Chicago Steel in a playoff push.

The Mr. Hockey finalist’s senior season may have ended prematurely, but his hockey career was only getting started.

Born with hockey sense

“I was pushing that little chair around,” Kurtz recalls, laughing lightly at the childhood memory.

He was 3 years old the day his dad bought him his first pair of hockey skates. Even gripping the plastic skating aid, wobbly, at the Andover Community Rink, he was hooked.

“Hockey’s been my whole life,” Kurtz said. “I played baseball and football growing up, but I’ve been playing hockey my whole life.”

There are certain hockey players who are born with a supernatural hockey sense that can’t be taught with Xs and Os drawn on a white board. Kurtz is one of them.

“Jayden came in as a lanky freshman, a little awkward, but his hockey sense has always been there,” Rogers head coach Dave Brown said. “When you watch him in practice, he just makes so many little, tiny plays, whether it be with his stick, his passing, his scoring ability.”

Kurtz had ended his freshman year racking up 114 points on the Rogers Bantam AA roster and securing a third-place Bantam state tournament trophy in 2023. By his sophomore year, he was already making an impression on the varsity roster.

“He’s a hockey nerd,” Brown said. “Any pregame meeting we have when we talk about last night’s NHL or college games, he always is three steps in front of others in terms of just being a rink rat and a hockey nerd. I mean, he still goes to Bantam AA games to watch younger guys who he’ll never play with.”

By his senior year, Kurtz’s strict schedule — Mondays are track days, Tuesdays through Thursdays are weightlifting days and Fridays are recovery days paired with a scrimmage. Most days are ice days — and his commitment to never missing a Wild game paid off.

In early November, he was asked to come to Geneva, Ill.,, for a cup of coffee and a few shifts with the Chicago Steel.

“I learned so much,” Kurtz recalled. “It’s just such a different game down there. It’s bigger, faster, stronger guys, so it’s definitely an adjustment. But I think I adapted well.”

He’ll join the junior hockey team with one eye on the ice and one on his future, whether that be college or the NHL.

“Obviously in the next months the NHL stuff will be getting more serious and will be in the back of my head,” Kurtz said. “But just going down there and playing my game and staying in the present moment and not worrying about any of the outside noise is my goal.”

NHL material

In January, Kurtz stood in front of his locker room stall in the Rogers Ice Arena when his phone pinged with a text message from his adviser: He was named the 77th-best hockey player in North America in the NHL Central Scouting’s midseason rankings. He was NHL draft material.

“It’s a super cool feeling to be thought of like that, but I’m just trying to get better every day and try to go as high as I can in the draft just like any other kid would want to do,” Kurtz said. “Obviously there’s a little pressure. There’s always people watching. You just got to keep staying consistent and keep working hard. And then make the college teams, and then hopefully, if I’m lucky enough, I can end up there.”

At 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds with “just as good defensive plays as offensive plays,” according to Brown, it’s not surprising that the defender made the Top 100 and is listed as a Mr. Hockey finalist.

“Some would say he is by far the best player in the state,” Brown said. “The best hockey players add to their arsenal every day. Jayden adds something to his arsenal every time he touches the ice.”

When it came time to hone Kurtz’s game ahead of the draft, Brown fell back on what he learned working for the Fargo Force and Waterloo Blackhawks.

“You try to have skills drills and game plans that translate to the next level,” Brown said. “I don’t want my players to be good high school players. I want to have a successful team, but more importantly, I want to develop these kids for what’s next in their life.”

The skill gap from high school to the USHL, college hockey or the NHL is a gaping one, and talented players can’t always make the leap. But Brown is confident Kurtz, the fourth Rogers player listed on the NHL Central Scouting rankings in four years, is prepared.

“We’ve had one drafted and two not drafted, and I think that kept him extremely motivated,” Brown said. “At the end of the day, Jayden is a winner. Jayden wants to win in practice, and he wants to win in games.”

“He didn’t come back to high school his senior year to be in the spotlight or go through the motions. He came back his senior year to really elevate his game, his team and he does that on a consistent basis,” Brown added.

Kurtz’s winning mentality, right-handed shot and sharp eye on the ice may be the formula to launch him to future hockey star status. But if he walks on the draft stage in June, he won’t hold an air of superiority.

He will likely still be brimming with last night’s NHL breakdowns.

He will watch Bantam AA boys play and think back to holding up the third-place Bantam state tournament trophy — still his favorite memory in his hockey career.

Even as he slices up the ice with ease, he will recall, with a huff of laughter, pushing a plastic chair with jelly legs.

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Hockey Across Minnesota

Minnesotans in the NHL

Sam Malinski’s first contract with the Colorado Avalanche made him a pro.

His latest deal signaled he’d become an established NHLer.

Malinski, who’s from Lakeville, signed a four-year, $19 million extension with Colorado on Jan. 27 after earning regular reps on the blue line of the NHL-leading Avalanche.

After helping Lakeville South advance to the semifinals of the state tournament in 2017, Malinski played in the USHL and North American Hockey League before joining Cornell University. As a freshman, Malinski tallied 16 points in 25 games on a 23-2-4 Cornell team that was rolling, winning nine in a row, before the pandemic halted the season. Still, Malinski was at his best in 2022-23 when, as captain, he had eight goals and 18 assists and was named to the ECAC First All-Star Team.

Colorado signed Malinski as a free agent, and he made his NHL debut Nov. 13, 2023, at Seattle during a break from the minors where he suited up for the Colorado Eagles in the American Hockey League.

He finally stuck with the Avalanche for good last season: Malinski skated in all but six games in the regular season and was in action for five of Colorado’s first-round playoff games against Dallas before the Stars eliminated the Avalanche.

This season, Malinski, 27, was in every game leading up to the Olympics, skating consistent minutes on a back end led by Cale Makar, a two-time Norris Trophy-winner as the league’s top defenseman.

Already, Malinski has set a career high in assists and points, and his plus-30 rating coming out of the Olympics ranked fourth in the NHL among defensemen.

College Spotlight: Wisconsin-River Falls women flying high

A hockey success story with a Minnesota flavor is playing out again about 12 miles east of the border.

Wisconsin-River Falls, the two-time defending NCAA Division III women’s hockey champion, began another season of banner-hanging on Feb. 21 when the top-ranked Falcons defeated No. 9 Wisconsin-Eau Claire 6-3 to secure the WIAC regular-season title, their sixth in a row.

River Falls has become the dominant team in Division III, and its only loss came Nov. 22 in a 3-0 setback at Eau Claire, a team the Falcons have defeated twice since. Under coach Joe Cranston, the Falcons boast an 81-4-2 record over the past three seasons, and they’re doing it with a roster that features one Wisconsinite, one Californian — and 24 Minnesotans.

The most prominent of those Minnesotans is senior forward Megan Goodreau, a former Centennial High School standout who leads Division III in goals (30), assists (36), points (66) and power-play goals (14). She would seem to be a shoo-in for the Laura Hurd Award, given to the top player in Division III.

Goodreau gets plenty of help, too. Freshman forward Sophia Hess of Cold Spring, Minn., is tied for second nationally with 50 points on 24 goals and 26 assists. Senior goalie Jordan O’Kane from Alexandria, Minn., is sixth nationally with a 1.10 goals-against average and has a 0.941 save percentage with five shutouts. The Falcons are averaging a nation’s-best 5.36 goals per game, and their power play is tops at 45.5%.

Next for the top-ranked Falcons (24-1) is the WIAC tournament and a semifinal matchup against Wisconsin-Superior on Feb. 27-28. The final is March 7 at the highest remaining seed. The Falcons are No. 1 in the NCAA Percentage Index, and they have the inside track to host the NCAA Frozen Four at Hunt Arena for the third consecutive year.

— Randy Johnson

Top 25

Boys: With Rogers out, Minnetonka returns to No. 1

Girls: Hill-Murray took home the Class 2A title

This week’s apple

It’s a big two weeks for boys hockey. Find out here how to watch it all.

Thank you for reading Hockey Across Minnesota (HAM). Email me at olivia.hicks@startribune.com with story tips or message me on X or Instagram. See you at the rink!