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Cougars' Billiar a regular at the rink
Senior involved with everything from varsity to youth hockey
MANKATO — A hockey rink is practically home for Dan Billiar.
When the senior forward for the Mankato East/Loyola boys hockey team isn’t practicing or playing games for the Cougars, he can often be found helping out peewee players or refereeing youth games. He has also helped work on the rink at the Schulz farm in Madison Lake.
“He probably logs more hours (in an ice rink) than just about anybody,” Cougars coach Aaron Anderson said. “He likes being involved in all those different ways.”
You just might call Billiar cold-blooded.
“I spend a lot of time up here,” he said in an interview before practice this week at All Seasons Arena. “I help with the youth teams. I like being on the ice with the team.
“I shoot a lot of pucks at home in the garage. On Wednesday nights I play with the men’s league teams at the Schulz’s.”
All of that time has helped Billiar become one of East/Loyola’s top scorers. In three seasons of varsity hockey, he has compiled 56 goals and 31 assists for 87 points, including 33 goals and 45 points last season. Before the high school season started, he played in Minnesota’s Elite II fall league along with teammate Taylor Ries.
“One thing that separates Dan from a lot of kids is that he is very driven,” Anderson said. “He wants to get stronger. He wants to get bigger. He wants to play hockey after high school. A lot of kids say they want to do something, but, with Dan, he says something and he does it.”
While junior-hockey or a small-college team may be in Billiar’s future, he said he’s focused on the season at hand.
During Billiar’s time on varsity, the Cougars have never had a winning season. He and 14 other seniors on the roster hope to change that this year.
“I don’t think we should be below .500 at all,” Billiar said. “We should be able to put up a good game every night. ... It’s our last year; we want to go out with a bang and make it special.”
The Cougars don’t have to rely only on Billiar to do that.
Their senior class returns two 30-plus point scorers in Ries (11 goals, 31 points last season) and Ryan Willaert (15 goals, 33 assists), as well as two more double-digit scores in Bo Borchardt (8, 13) and Zach Westerlund (7, 12). Janne Wiiala, an exchange student from Finland, and Zach Hermer are also expected to contribute up front.
“The way I look at it, legitimately, we’ve got seven guys who are goal scorers,” Anderson said. “We have depth.”
On defense, seniors Seth Allan (8 points), Griffan Kozitza, Alex Finke and Paul Samlaska return.
“(Allan, Kozitza and Finke) all played some forward before,” Anderson said. “Seth Allan is going to be a really good defenseman.”
Anderson said he has three options in goal: Senior Mike Sargent, junior Dylan Meyer and sophomore Lucas Weihe. Sargent and Weihe split most of the action last season.
“Our plan is to take this team as far as it can go,” Billiar said. “We should be able to compete at a high level every game and not get outworked.”
The Cougars will open the season at 2 p.m. Saturday when they host Portage Collegiate Institute at All Seasons Arena.
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