Tucson Roadrunners forward Miloลก Kelemen has received a warm welcome during his first year of North American hockey.
The Zvolen, Slovakia, native has played in all 15 games for Tucson this season, racking up 11 points.
Off the ice heโs also popular. On Nov. 11, a handful of fans waved Slovakia fans for pretty much all of the Roadrunnersโ game against Coachella Valley. His fiancรฉ, Alexandra Krahulcovรก, had met the fellow Slovaks living his Tucson and they got them tickets.
โI really appreciated them coming,โ said, who will lead the Roadrunners (9-5-1-0) into a two-game series at Ontario (9-5-1-0) that starts Saturday.
After five seasons in the Slovak league and one in the KHL, Kelemen played for Mlada Boleslav BK in the Czech Republic. In May the 23-year-old signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Coyotes.
โHeโs transitioned so well for us. Heโs arguably been one of our most consistent players this season, and obviously it couldnโt happen to a better teammate,โ Roadrunners head coach Steve Potvin said. โThis guy shows up every day with the intention of getting better and heโs one of those guys that really takes his role seriously and understands what he needs to do to play his best game.โ
Kelemenโs six goals are second on the team. On Nov. 19, he picked up his first professional hat trick in a win over San Jose.
โThat was a quick hat trick (in) North America. It took me about 16 years to do that,โ said Tucson forward Adam Cracknell. โSo Iโm happy for him. Hard work pays off: (With) that guy, you ask him to do anything and he does it.
โHe got rewarded for his work heโs put in this season and he always gets his chances by his work ethic. You see him get rewarded like that; huge for us and huge for him.โ
Kelemen, like Cracknell (Canada) and Roadrunners defenseman Ronald Knot (Czech Republic) played in the 2022 Olympics. His Slovakia team took home the bronze medal.
โI think itโs a dream for every player to play in the Olympics,โ Kelemen said. โWe won the bronze medal with Slovakia so it was a good execution for me.โ
Potvin hopes the Eastern Europe to Arizona pipeline keeps going.
โ(Coyotes Director European Pro Scouting & Development) Brett Stewartโs been a guy over there thatโs done a really nice job for us,โ Potvin said. โHeโs been in the game a long time and obviously we trust his knowledge.โ