Local roots are part of the Ohio Blue Jackets DNA

April 4, 2025 | via Justin Felisko (USA Hockey)

ARTICLE: Local roots are part of the Ohio Blue Jackets DNA

Nicklas Radich walked out of the raucous Ohio Blue Jackets (OH) locker room at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex drenched in sweat, but proudly wearing the team’s sparkling black and blue player of the game robe.

The Blue Jackets have been giving out a Glue Guy award after every game this week at the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier I 18U National Championship, and Radich certainly was a well-worthy choice on Friday afternoon.

Radich aggressively cut toward the net and slammed home a feed from Colin Dustin to give the Blue Jackets a 3-2 overtime victory over the Long Island Gulls (NY), cementing a trip to the Tier I 18U National Championship semifinals on Saturday afternoon.

“I just crashed the net, and Dusty gave me a nice little saucer pass, got a rebound, and then banged it home. It was unreal,” a still somewhat in disbelief Radich said.

“This is the tightest team I've ever been a part of. We all grew up together playing hockey, since we were like 8 years old. Going in with the underdog mentality, we knew we could get it done. We knew we could beat anyone, so it feels great.”

The Blue Jackets entered this week as the No. 11 seed in the 16-team field, and they are the lowest seed remaining ahead of the semifinals.

Regardless, the Blue Jackets are an extremely close group with 20 homegrown players. Only two of the 22 players on the roster hail from outside of Ohio.

That is something the program is extremely proud of, says Nate Handrahan, head coach of the Blue Jackets Tier I 18U team.

“It's a huge component to what we do from the top of our organization down,” Handrahan said. “Our core philosophy is let's develop our own. Let's develop internally, let's develop Central Ohio and within the MidAm (Mid-American District). We have one kid from outside our district and some of our kids have been playing in our organization for nine years and to see them get rewarded with this is awesome.”

Drew Huffnagle got things started for the Blue Jackets with a power-play goal 6:41 into the second period before Long Island’s Tanner Terranova tied the game at 1-1 with his own power-play goal less than four minutes later.

Cohen Hoening made it 2-1 Ohio with 4:50 remaining in the second period and Matthew Dabrowski tied it back up for Long Island with a power-play goal 2:28 into the third.

Ohio outshot Long Island 37-27, and Tyler Haley earned the win in net with 25 saves.

“These guys have worked so hard throughout the course of the year and done everything we've asked them to do and continue to meet challenges, face them, learn, and grow,” Handrahan said. “This whole week we haven’t played our best hockey at times, but we learned and grew from it. Seeing how our team responds when we get up against the wall, they’re a pretty tough bunch, and that's what makes them so good.”

The trip to potentially organization’s first national title is only going to get steeper with a matchup against Shattuck-St. Mary’s on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Shattuck-St. Mary’s is the No. 1 seed at the Youth Tier I 18U National Championship and is coming off its own 3-2 overtime thriller against the Northern CT Nor’easters Friday thanks to Alexander Donovan’s game-winner 6:44 into OT. Shattuck overcame a 2-0 deficit to remain a perfect 4-0 at nationals this year and is looking to win its third consecutive 18U national title.

The Blue Jackets are aware of who is next up, but this is an opportunity they have been working for since last April, Handrahan explained.

“We started writing our story back in April last year,” Handrahan said. “I asked the guys to have a vision and believe in what we asked them to do. They bought it and they were eating it up.”

Radich, a Columbus, Ohio, native, concluded, “We are so pumped. This is what we have been working for all year. We are just so excited.”