The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Thursday, December 19, 1991
 
EX-PADUA STAR GOING TO EUROPE: Holzinger named to U.S. junior team
By Don Friedman
 
     Bowling Green State University freshman center Brian Holzinger has
received a Christmas present any young hockey player would cherish.
     He is one of 22 players named to the U.S. team for the World Junior
Championships.  Holzinger, who played high school hockey at Padua, and his
teammates left last night and will spend the next two weeks playing
international competition in Europe.
     The U.S. team's first game in the eight-nation tournament for players
20 and under is against Finland in Fussenkaufbeuren, Germany, a week from
today.
     The team recently completed a four-day minicamp in Albany, N.Y.  Its
first stop in Europe will be Zurich, Switzerland, where it will play
exhibition games with the Swedish National Junior team Sunday and Monday
before moving on to Germany.
 
[I think he messed up with the "Fussenkaufbeuren," and I believe he DID
mess up with the "Swedish" team in Switzerland.]
 
     Holzinger was one of the nation's top college recruits last year.  A
sixth-round draft choice of the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres in
June, he has six goals and four assists in his first 12 games at BGSU.
     "This is a great thrill to play with so many good players," Holzinger
said Tuesday night from Albany.  "I think we have five first-round draft
picks on the team.  I'm looking forward to the tournament.  I think it will
be a real challenge to play with the top players in the 20-and-under age
group."
 
[Who are the 5 first-rounders on the team?]
 
     The minicamp in Albany involved two two-hour practices and several
meetings each day.  "It's been nothing but hockey, hockey, hockey since
we've been here, but that's fine with me," Holzinger said.
     "I went to the Olympic Festival in St. Cloud, Minn., last summer.  We
knew we weren't going to make the Olympic team, but we also knew they were
looking at us for the Junior Olympic team.  The actual tryout for this team
was at Lake Placid, N.Y., in early August."
     Holzinger learned by mail early this month that he had made the squad.
     The tournament ends on Jan. 4 and Holzinger said he expects to be home
in Parma on Jan. 6.  "The (the BGSU coaches) are giving me four days off to
spend some time with my family," he said.  "I'll miss the Mariucci Classic
(in Minneapolis on Saturday and Sunday) and two league games against the
University of Illinois-Chicago.  **End Article**
 
     I know the daughter of Holzinger's lawyer ("Because he's not allowed
to have an agent yet," she says.)  I know he wasn't on Padua last year,
because I would have recognized him at the local tourney.  Padua has had a
history of turning out fine players, and have a potential superstar, Ron
Czech, on the team this year.  It will be interesting to see where he goes.
Anyway, she said that last year Holzinger played for the Jr. Red Wings
while Don Friedman said in an article earlier this year that he played in
Kalamazoo.  Who's right?
--
[log in to unmask] (Eric Rickin)
Go: Penguins, Red Wings, Junior Barons, Thunderbirds, and Crunch
 
University of Michigan Class of 1996 (?)