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Latvian star next in line from Shattuck-St. Mary’s
World juniors player hopes U.S. prep school readies him for NHL

RANDY SPORTAK, QMI Agency, Dec 23 2011

CALGARY – Sidney Crosby is on the list.

So are Zach Parise, Jack Johnson, Drew Stafford and Jonathan Toews, just to name a few.

Teodors Blugers would love to join that special crew of NHLer’s who have come from the Shattuck-St. Mary’s hockey factory in Minnesota.

It’s what drew the Latvian forward from Riga to it.

“The schooling’s nice, but the hockey, that’s what my decision was based on,” said Blugers, the 17-year-old centre who was wearing the captains ‘C’ for the Latvian squad.

Blugers, the 6-foot, 175-lb. Grade 12 student who says “call me Teddy” when he introduces himself, decided four years ago he wanted to improve his hockey skills in North America.

Having attended English schools his whole life in Latvia — honestly, you’d guess he’s grown up on this side of the Atlantic — he began to look for a place while in Grade 8.

“I went and toured a couple of East Coast prep schools and toured at Shattuck,” he said.

“I heard about all the alums who came out of there and decided it would be the best place to go.”

In an incredible twist of fate, Blugers would have been coming to Calgary regardless of whether he was skating for Latvia at the world juniors.

The Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep team will be in the Stampede City after Christmas, participating in the World Sport School Championship tournament hosted by the Edge School, which also includes the national Under-17 teams from Finland and Slovakia.

Team Latvia is in the pool that also includes Russia, Sweden, Slovakia and Switzerland, and will play its round-robin portion in Calgary.

Latvia lost 7-1 to the Czech Republic Tuesday before beating Denmark 5-1 in a pre-tournament tuneup Thursday night before 2,000-plus fans in Brooks, Alta.

In the other Southern Alberta matchup Thursday, Russia beat the Czech Republic 5-3 despite being outshot 43-21 in Lethbridge.

It will explain the Shattuck kids cheering the Latvians during games at the Saddledome.

“It’s kind of weird how it’s turned out we’re both here at the same time,” said Blugers, who leads the Shattuck-St. Mary’s team in scoring with 45 points in 29 games this season.

“I know some kids from my team are coming for sure, because their parents got tickets for our games, but I don’t know if all of them can.”