Rink-rat Ahcan shines early for RoughRiders

CEDAR RAPIDS - In Iowa, you go outside and shoot hoops with your brothers in the driveway. In Minnesota, you lace up a pair of skates and go play hockey with them in the backyard.

At least that's the way it always was for Jack Ahcan.

Perhaps that's why the first-year defenseman for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders is such a good player. The 18-year-old from Savage, Minn., has an unquestioned passion for the sport, one born from all those hours spent shooting pucks with younger brothers Roman and Grant.

'I think I started playing when I was 3,” Ahcan said. 'I had this little slide that I would push around. We had a rink in our backyard. My dad (Tim) would flood it every day in the winter. It was good.

'Me and my brothers, we would build up the snow banks and check each other into them. Stuff like that. We'd have a blast. We've always been kind of rink rats out there.”

Roman Ahcan is a junior in high school and Grant an eighth-grader. They hope to follow in the footsteps of their bro, a finalist for the prestigious Mr. Hockey award last season at Burnsville High School.

Jack Ahcan came to the United States Hockey League this season and has a goal and five assists in seven games. The RoughRiders host Sioux Falls on Saturday night at approximately 7:15.

'I think I've adapted really well,” Ahcan said. 'I thought it was going to be really tough, but I feel like I've just hopped right in and adapted. These guys have been great to me. It's just been a great experience.”

Ahcan has speed, skill and playmaking ability. RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson said his skating edge work is as good as he's seen in a player he's coached.

Then there's the internal drive, something that separates him from other players.

'I love the way he competes, first of all. He just plays so hard,” Carlson said. 'For me, I like when guys compete. He just competes, he's a warrior. Some people make the major mistake of talking about skill first in this game. Obviously, he's got the skill and the skating ability.

'But, for me, it's the way he competes, his competitive nature and things that allow him to be a really good player in this league and have a chance to be a really, really good player beyond this league.”

Ahcan (pronounced ah-shawn) has committed to St. Cloud State. The original plan was for him to play two USHL seasons before heading to college, but that timetable might be adjusted considering his early play.

The one knock against him is his size. He's only 5-foot-7 but a sturdy 175 pounds.

'If you've got a killer mentality like he has, it doesn't matter if he's 4-feet tall,” Carlson said, bluntly.

'You grow up and everybody is like ‘Oh, you're small.' Whatever,” Ahcan said. 'My dad always told me to ignore it. It's kind of like a little burning passion inside of me. When somebody tells me that, it doesn't matter. It kind of gets me going. That's always been a real helpful thing for me, knowing that you don't have to be that big anymore. You can always outsmart the other team, be a fast player out there. It's motivation.”

So is being the best player he can be.

'I think it's more a love of the game. Respecting the game, working hard,” Ahcan said. 'That's pretty much what it's all about. You don't want to disrespect the game and kind of cheat the system or anything like that. I have a lot of passion for this game. Even for this team, Coach always says he wants us to want to be a RoughRider. That's just kind of how it goes around here, and hopefully a lot of the other guys have that, too.”

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