It proved to be quite the birthday bash for Troy Stecher.
The smooth-skating Richmond Minor Hockey almuni turned 22 on Thursday and proceeded to help the University of North Dakota win their first NCAA championship in 16 years.
The Fighting Hawks capped a memorable campaign with a 5-1 win over Quinnipiac on Saturday in Tampa. It was their third straight trip to the Frozen Four and the program’s eight national title.
Stecher was also named a Second Team West All-American. He was North Dakota’s top scoring defenseman with eight goals and 21 assists in 42 games, to go along with a plus-23 rating. His 29 points was a career high and tied him for sixth place in the nation among blueliners. He became the first North Dakota defenseman to earn All-American honours in five years.
The NCAA championship is the latest accomplishment in Stecher’s decorated career that began with being part of a talented 1994 age group coming through Richmond Minor.
His last game in a Blues uniform was the Bantam Tier One provincial championship game when Richmond fell to Abbotsford. That team featured several players who went on to play in the Western and B.C. Junior Hockey Leagues.
Stecher then played a year of Major Midget with the Greater Vancouver Canadians where he earned team MVP honours and impressively jumped to the BC Hockey League where he enjoyed three outstanding seasons with the powerhouse Penticton Vees.
It was highlighted but the 2011-12 campaign when Penticton captured RBC national junior “A” championship and Stecher was named the Top Defenseman of the playoffs with 15 points in 26 games.
A year later, he was team captain and honoured as the Top Defenseman in the BCHL’s Interior Conference. Stecher also twice played for Canada West at the World Junior Challenge.
He originally was taking his colligate career to the University of Nebraska but later de-committed and agreed to a full-ride scholarship offer from North Dakota after visiting University of Western Michigan as well.
Having been passed over in the NHL Draft, Stecher is considered one of college hockey’s top free agents and is expected to generate interest from a number of NHL teams, including the Vancouver Canucks. The pending offers will impact a difficult decision on whether he returns to North Dakota for his senior season.
