Fairbanks defenseman Erickson makes NCAA D1 commitment

October 4, 2019

Lucas Erickson made his college commitment during the same week the Fairbanks Ice Dogs are finishing a season-opening, four-week North American Hockey League road trip.

 

The 20-year-old Ice Dogs defenseman committed to play NCAA Division 1 hockey for St. Lawrence University, a member of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC).

 

Erickson visited the St. Lawrence campus in Canton, New York, last weekend after the Ice Dogs swept the Janesville Jets — 5-3 on Friday and 6-0 on Saturday — in a Midwest Division series in Janesville, Wisconsin.

 

The Saints also have a new head coach in Brent Brekke, a former Miami (Ohio) associate head coach and Clarkson University assistant coach who was a finalist two years ago for the then head-coach vacancy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

 

“I loved the direction the coaches are taking with the team,” Erickson said by phone Thursday, a day before the Ice Dogs’ weekend division series against the Minnesota Magicians in Richfield, Minnesota.

 

“The facilities that they’re putting in there were obviously great, and I loved the small campus and the feel of it,” said Erickson, who is planning to work for a degree in economics with a minor in business.

 

Erickson, 6’2/210 lbs. native of Woodbury, Minnesota, is in a five-way tie for third place in team scoring for the Ice Dogs with a goal and four assists in six games this season.

 

He contributed 12 points (two goals and 10 assists) in 40 games last season for Fairbanks, which reached the championship game of the Robertson Cup National Tournament in Blaine, Minnesota. He contributed four assists in 10 postseason games.