By Warren Kozireski —
In just his second year with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Dennis Gilbert already secured a spot on the top defensive pair on a team that upset two higher ranked teams to win the Northeast Regional and a spot in this year’s Frozen Four.
Add that Division I’s culminating event was held at Chicago’s United Center, where he hopes to eventually lay NHL hockey as a third round draft pick of the Blackhawks, and you have quite the experience for a 19-year old.
“It’s pretty special to lay in what could be my future building,” Gilbert said the day prior to the semi-final. “The big thing for me and for my team is to make the game small; to take it off this big stage and bring it back down to the ground floor.
“It’s very special for me to be a part of that (the Blackhawks) one day hopefully, but right now I’m just trying to do whatever I can to help the team I’m playing for right now—Notre Dame—be the best that we can be and in doing that it’s going to help my personal game and advance me to that level someday.”
Gilbert played Amherst Youth hockey before two seasons with St. Joseph’s in Buffalo. After one year competing in the Ontario Junior League with the Buffalo Jr. Sabres, he moved to the Chicago Steel of the USHL where he got a taste for the Chicago hockey scene.
In his freshman campaign with Notre Dame, the 6’2 200 lb. he scored twice and added eight assists over 37 games, but this season he blossomed with 22 assists and was named Hockey East’s Best Defensive Defenseman and a Third Team All-Star.
(Read the rest of the story in the upcoming May issue of NY Hockey OnLine Magazine)
