Extra attacker goals.  Wild comebacks. Penalty shots.  Hat tricks.  Five-point games.  Great storylines.

If you've got a ticket to a St. Scholastica game, you're probably going to get your money's worth.  Certainly if their games continue as they have through the opening portion of the season.

No player exemplifies this excitement more than Brandon Millin and his story leading up to last weekend at Lake Forest. 

In the Friday night contest, Millin brought the Saints to within a goal of the Foresters by lighting the lamp early in the third period.  Later, with goalie Tyler Bruggeman pulled, Millin assisted on a tying goal by Justin Krabben with just a couple seconds remaining.  Lake Forest would win the game in overtime.

In the Saturday tilt St. Scholastica came out flying, with Millin posting a game for the ages.  He was done wtih his hat trick before the midway point of the hockey game.  He would later bank a couple assists to complete the rarely-seen five-point night.  The Saints cruised to an 8-2 victory and assured a little more pleasant bus ride back to Duluth.

A seven point weekend for Millin, against a team in Lake Forest that has been very good over the past few seasons.  He notched most of his points against the reigning NCHA Player of the Year and All-American: Leo Podolsky.  And the fashion in which Millin and Saints won the game might be just the thing that instills confidence for the 15th ranked team in the nation to take their game to the next level.

To understand the magnitude of the weekend Millin put together, you have to know a little about his past.  Millin was - IS - a goal scorer.  He was recruited as a goal scorer by head coach Mark Wick and the plan has always been for him to find the back of the net.  Millin is built to score goals.  He did it in junior hockey.  He has a snap shot that is just short of folk-lore amongst the team, a shot you can't teach and that most other players in the league would do many things for.  He's a strong skater.  Millin has all the tools to score.  Not to check, not to be an aggitator ... to score.

But hockey is a strange sport, particularly college hockey.  During his freshman and sophomore years, he didn't score much.  Two goals, five assists during his freshman campaign; two goals, seven assists last year for a surprising nine points.

Millin has spent many hours pondering why it has taken him so long to burst onto the scene and he is very candid about it.

"Coming from juniors, you never expect to play Division III," said Millin, an exercise phisiology major.  "Someone would be lying if they said they wanted to play D-III.  Definitely my first year, I underestimated the skill level not just on my team, but across the league." 

Another tough part of Division III hockey: scoring slumps feel like forever when you only play 25 regular season games.  An eight-game scoreless streak can last a month and a half.  Lots of time to question youself: Will I ever score again?  Will another player take my spot?  Am I even meant to play at this level?

"The hardest thing was staying positive, staying confident and believing in yourself," said Millin.  There were a lot of times where you weren't sure if you had it at this level ... Once you clear your head and realize you are the player you think you are, you were brought here for a reason, that's when things can open up for you and things start to happen."

Things happened last weekend for the kid from Port Moody, B.C. 

"We expected him to put up some numbers eventually," said Wick.  "Some guys just take a little longer to adjust to the college game and get some breaks.  He certainly got them (last) weekend)."

"I think it's been a long time coming for me to produce at this level," said Millin.  "From that aspect, it was pretty rewarding ... A weekend like that won't happen every weekend, but it would be nice to get my name on the scoresheet regularly."

If he keeps playing - keeps shooting - like he did last weekend, it sure appears Millin will continue to be all over the box scores.  He didn't just score average goals last weekend; he scored entertaining goals.  Meaningful goals.  The ones that actually make SportsCenter's Top Plays (which is hard to do playing the sport of hockey).  The highlight of the weekend came on a lazer from just in front of the Lake Forest bench that beat Podolsky top-shelf short-side.  Even the home crowd was amazed.

"He just wired that one," said Wick.  "Beating a goaltender in this league, let alone (Podolsky) from that spot ... He can do that."

Millin is well on his way.  A lot of players would have thrown in the towel after two years of battling other players on the ice and the questions swirling in their heads.  Millin is a veteran now, having persevered through a tough time in a college hockey player's career.

"It's been an interesting first two years," said Millin.  "But this third year has started off great and I just hope it continues because this is the player I've always believed I am."



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MORE FROM MILLIN:
On the significance of last weekend's lopsided win over Lake Forest:
"You see the top teams across Division III hockey and when they get a chance to put up a lot of points, they usually do ... It was nice to win 8-2, but it was even better to see how we bounced back after the overtime loss Friday, to see the guys rally and get a couple points.

On what the team has learned from scoring extra-attacker goals late in games:
Playing with a sense of urgency ... "I know our team is trying to play like that on a more frequent basis.  It's never good to wait until the last couple minutes of the third period to bring that out of us ... if we can play with that intensity and urgency for 60 minutes, I think we'd be a lot more dangerous than we are right now."