Blake Pietila (born January 27, 2000) is an American professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

for the

Kalmar HC Kalmar HC (or Kalmar Hockey Club) is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Kalmar, the capitol of Kalmar County. For most of its history, the team was consigned to the lower levels of professional hockey in Sweden, however, since 2016, the ...

of the

HockeyAllsvenskan HockeyAllsvenskan (previously Allsvenskan and SuperAllsvenskan) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league, and the second-highest league in the Swedish ice hockey system, after the Swedish Hockey League, SHL. Since the 2009–10 season, t ...

. He was named to the

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during his collegiate career with

Michigan Tech Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Uppe ...

in 2023.

Playing career

After beginning his junior career with local Michigan teams, Pietila committed to

along with his twin brother, Logan. Because he wouldn't begin his tenure until the fall of 2019, Pietila continued his junior career in the interim. He joined the

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders are a Tier I junior ice hockey team playing in the United States Hockey League (USHL). Before moving to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1999, the team was based in Mason City, where they were known as the North Iowa Huski ...

in 2017, first sharing the net with Jiri Patera. After a mediocre first season, Pietila took control of the cage in his second year and led the RoughRiders to an excellent regular season though they flamed out in the second round. Once he arrived in Houghton, Pietila found himself relegated to spot duty as he acclimated to the college game. He appeared in 6 games as a freshman while Matt Jurusik served as the team's starter. With

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

causing a severe disruption in the country, it was unknown as to whether Pietila would get a chance to win the job as a sophomore. After a delay, the college hockey season began in 2020 and with last season backup, Robbie Beydoun, having transferred to

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, Pietila was the incumbent in goal but had to battle senior transfer Mark Sinclair for the job. Despite the ongoing Covid problems, Pietila ended up playing the majority of the minutes and posted outstanding numbers for the Huskies. At the end of the season Tech had a chance to earn an NCAA tournament appearance, however, the team ended up losing the last 4 games and were left out of the tournament. For his junior season, Pietila played all but one game and, though his numbers declined slightly, Tech had an even better season. Pietila set a program record with 7

shutout In team sports, a shutout (North American English, US) or clean sheet (Commonwealth English, UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketba ...

s during the season but his exploits couldn't help the Huskies overcome Minnesota Duluth in the tournament as his team was unable to score. In 2022–23, Michigan Tech had trouble scoring all season. As a result, the team relied even more heavily on Pietila but he up to the challenge. While breaking his program with 10 shutouts during the season, Pietila was named as the CCHA Player of the Year and a first team All-American. He led his team back to the tournament, however, the Huskies were completely dominated by

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

and set a record for futility by losing 0–8, the largest shutout defeat in NCAA tournament history. Pietila returned for a fifth season and was named as an

alternate captain In ice hockey, the captain is the player designated by a team as the only person authorized to speak with the game officials regarding rule interpretations when the captain is on the ice. At most levels of play each team must designate one captai ...

, an exceeding rare honor for a goaltender. While his numbers weren't quite as good as they had been previously, he got stronger as the year went on and led the team back to the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive year. He finished his college career as the all-time leader in wins (76) and

s (24) for Michigan Tech. At the conclusion of his collegiate career, Pietila embarked on his professional career to end the 2023–24 season, by signing as an undrafted free agent to an amateur tryout contract with the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL on April 5, 2024.

Career statistics

Awards and honours

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pietila, Blake 2000 births Living people People from Howell, Michigan Sportspeople from Livingston County, Michigan Ice hockey people from Michigan AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans American ice hockey goaltenders Cedar Rapids RoughRiders players Michigan Tech Huskies men's ice hockey players