Not a lot of kids played hockey when Patrick Khodorenko was growing up in Walnut Creek, California. The nearest rink to Khodorenko’s house was about 25 minutes away.

But his dad had played the game, and Patrick fell for it, too.

“Playing with friends was one of the big reasons I liked hockey,” he said. “You have your school friends and your hockey friends. I just always liked the hockey players more than the kids at school. Hockey was my escape.”

Now a 5-foot-11, 204-pound forward for the U.S. National Under-17 Team, Khodorenko was third on the team with 33 points in 55 games this season. He scored six of his 13 goals in the final games as everything began to click.

“Honestly, my linemates helped a lot,” Khodorenko said. “We really started to click together. After I got the first couple, I felt more confident with the puck. This season was all about getting used to it. After you get the first couple, you will start to get into the groove of things.”

Khodorenko’s journey to get to Ann Arbor, Michigan, has been a long one.

As he advanced through the sport, he spent a year traveling back and forth to Southern California for better competition.

“I still lived in Northern California, and I would travel every weekend on a plane — it was an hour flight — to Southern California to play for the LA Selects,” Khodorenko said. “I was kind of used to being away from my parents.”

That helped when he moved to Detroit to play for the Honeybaked organization in his bantam major year, and later to the National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor. The one thing he couldn’t prepare for was the weather.

“It’s been three years, so I’m getting used to the snow,” he joked.

On the ice, Khodorenko has faced a steep but satisfying learning curve.

“The first month was pretty rough,” he said. “I was still in a state of mind of midgets, but obviously it got better.”

Playing with some of the best players in the country and against older players in the United States Hockey League presented a different type of gameplay.

“For me, the toughest part was the speed of the game and learning that you do not always try to make an extra or pretty pass,” Khodorenko said. “I learned this year, you have to get shots on net. You have to take what is given to you.”

With his first season wrapped up, Khodorenko knows what he has to work on this summer.

“I plan to work on my speed and quickness,” he said. “I want to work on making quick starts and transitioning faster and shooting the puck — essentially being more accurate.

“I have a skating coach during the summer. We probably work out three times a week. I train with a bunch of different guys down in Anaheim. I’ll stay down in Anaheim and train.”

Although the U17s struggled at times this season, Khodorenko is optimistic going into his U18 season.

“We had a tough year, only won six games in USHL,” he said. “We want to win a lot more than that. We had several close games and a couple of overtime loses.”

There is one game that still sticks with him: the 3-2 loss to Russia in the Four Nations Tournament championship game at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.

“That was a, ‘Wow, we lost to them. I can’t believe it’ [moment],” Khodorenko said. “It makes you wonder if you are not that good, but we still have time to get them.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

Favorite NHL Team
Detroit Red Wings

Favorite Movie
The Hangover

Favorite TV Show
Modern Family

Favorite Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio

Favorite Music
U2

Favorite Website
Wikipedia

Favorite Pump-Up Song
"Dream On" by Aerosmith

Favorite Home-Cooked Meal
Pelmeni (Russian Dumpling)