USPHL Premier 2023-24 Midwest Region Players Of The Week

Week of Jan. 12, 2024

Games of Jan. 1-9, 2024

Summaries by Joshua Boyd / USPHLPremier.com

Great Lakes Division

Forward: Ronan Keenan, Nashville Spartans

The fifth-year USPHL veteran continues to illustrate the value of so much experience with performances including six goals and three assists for nine points in just four USPHL Tampa Showcase games. Playing where his career began at the USPHL Elite level, Keenan’s top performance saw him put up a hat trick and two assists to help break a 5-5 tie against Columbia for an eventual 9-5 win. He had goals in each of the four games as well and added one more assist. On top of all this, he also restarted the team’s bus when it was experiencing mechanical issues! 

Defense: Sean Karaman, Nashville Spartans

Karaman (‘03/Brentwood, Tenn.) had a busy week, especially offensively, putting up four goals and three assists for seven points, including a 2-2-4 line in the aforementioned game against Columbia. Karaman joined the Spartans in December, bringing most of two seasons of Tier II experience with him, including 30 NCDC games going back to last year. 

Goaltender: Austin Nowak, Toledo Cherokee

Nowak (‘04/Toledo, Ohio) joined the Cherokee out of the local Northview High School, and he’s been a fantastic addition to his hometown squad. In the USPHL Tampa Showcase, he registered 63 saves on 66 shots for a .955 save percentage and a 2-0 record. This included the highlight of a 29-save shutout against Tampa. The Cherokee were the only team to beat the hosts. Nowak is on a four-game winning streak and is 9-3-0-0 on the season with a .917 save percentage. 

Midwest East Division 

Forward: Ryan Jaros, Battle Creek Kernels 

Jaros (‘03/Portage, Mich.) keeps getting better it seems every weekend. Already the Kernels’ all-time leading scorer with 64 points over their two seasons, Jaros put up a goal and six assists for seven points in the team’s two-game split against the Decatur Blaze last weekend. His 1-5-6 against the Blazers on Jan. 6 was a career high, which is saying something for a player who has twice before registered five points in games this season alone. 

Defense: Ludovick Janvier, Fort Wayne Spacemen 

Janvier (‘05/Repentigny, Que.) was among the top players throughout the Tampa Showcase for the Hitmen, posting 17:28 of ice time per game, the leader among the Spacemen defensive corps. He registered five assists at the event, which all came against the Palm Beach Typhoon in a wildly entertaining back-and-forth eventual 7-6 Spacemen victory. Since joining in late November, Janvier already has 10 assists in eight games. 

Goaltender: William Ferland, Fort Wayne Spacemen 

It takes a lot to play two games in one day as a junior goaltender, but Ferland (‘05/Mirabel, Que.) was more than up for the task. He stopped 36 saves on 39 shots in two games, both of which were wins for the Spacemen. This included skating out in relief duty and picking up a win against Palm Beach with 11 saves on 13 shots. He then stopped 25 of 26 against the Columbia Infantry. For the season, Ferland is now 8-1-0-0 with a 2.13 goals against average. 

Midwest West Division

Forward: Easton Parnell, Isanti Outlaws

Parnell (‘03/Cambridge, Minn.) enjoyed a productive start to 2024 by putting up three goals and two assists for five points. The fourth-year Premier now has 166 points in 135 USPHL Premier games and remains the all-time leading scorer for the Outlaws and their predecessors the Rum River Mallards. He has four goals in his last three games, including three on the power play in consecutive games. For the season, he leads the Outlaws with 49 points in 29 games. 

Defense: Dmytro Pankovsky, Isanti Outlaws

Pankovsky didn’t just put up the points from the blue line in their split weekend last weekend, with a 2-1-3 line in two games, but he was on the ice for better than half of each game. He averaged a team-leading 31:05, and he tied for the lead in hits with three over the weekend. Pankovsky (‘04/Brooklyn, N.Y.) is now in his fifth USPHL season going back to his 16U days with the former New York Aviators all the way back to 2019-20. He has a total of 123 USPHL games worth of experience in the regular season, and another eight playoff games, with seven points in various postseasons. 

Goaltender: Joey Gag, Minnesota Moose

Gag (‘03/New Ulm, Minn.) had a great start to the 2024 season as he kicked it off with a 31-shot shutout against the division-leading Hudson Havoc. In his next game, he stopped 33 out of 35 for a win against the Isanti Outlaws for his 20th career win, just nine off the Moose’s all-time record. He currently has an 8-3-0-0 record with a .914 save percentage.