Hall of Fame Members

A Manchester native, Lauren Slebodnick staked her claim as one of the best goalies in Cornell women’s hockey history, as well as one of the best netminders to come out of New Hampshire.

Slebodnick grew up in Manchester and played youth hockey for the Manchester Youth Hockey Association, the NH Junior Bruins, the NH Wildcats and NH Top Gun, before graduating to the East Coast Wizards and Cushing Academy.

At Cushing, which she attended from 2006 until 2010, she collected a number of awards and was recruited by Cornell, one of the top programs in Division 1 women’s hockey.

In her first two years at Cornell she shared the goalie duties, playing 16 and 17 games, respectively, and posting save percentages of .942 and .924. Both seasons the Big Red reached the Frozen Four, losing in the national semifinals in those years to Boston College and Minnesota, respectively.

As a junior, she set the program’s single-season record for wins (24) and helped the Big Red reach the eight-team NCAA tournament, something the team achieved all four years she was there. In both her junior and senior seasons Cornell dropped one-goal contests to Mercyhurst in the tournament quarterfinals.

She received a number of individual honors. As a junior, she was named to the All-ECAC Hockey third team and the All-Ivy League second team. As a senior, she earned Ivy League honorable mention honors. She was also a two-time selection to the ECAC All-Academic team.

Slebodnick also represented her country in international play, playing on the U-18 Women’s National Team in 2009 and the U-22 Women’s National Team in 2013. She was an alternate for the U.S. Women’s Team that competed in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

From 2008-13 she was invited to attend the Warren Strelow National Goaltending Camp overseen by USA Hockey.

After Cornell, she played two seasons professionally with the Boston Pride of the National Women’s Hockey League, including the league’s inaugural season in 2015-16. She helped the Pride win the Isobel Cup during that first season.

She serves as the head goaltending coach for the new Division 3 women’s program at Western New England University, and served as the assistant director of women’s development for Puckstoppers Goaltending in Exeter.

She has also served as the head goaltending coach for the East Coast Wizards and Boston Shamrocks.

• Played 11 professional seasons in Europe with teams from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Scotland.
• Top scorer on MRYHA traveling teams and the mite, squirt and pee wee levels.
• Attended Manchester Memorial High School from 1981 to 1983. Led the team in scoring during his junior season.
• A hat trick vs. Berlin in the state semi-finals put Memorial High School into the 1983 state finals.
• Attended Lawrence Academy in 1984 and 1985. Led his team in scoring both seasons.
• Honored as an All-League player during both seasons at Lawrence Academy.
• Attended the University of Vermont from 1986 to 1989. Led the Catamounts in scoring during three of his four collegiate seasons.
• Named team MVP twice during his collegiate career.
• Ranks fourth on the Vermont all-time scoring list.
• Earned All-ECAC honors in 1988 and 1989.
• Honored as an All-American in 1989.
• Played 11 professional seasons in Europe with teams from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Scotland.
• Currently an assistant coach at St. A’s.

Kent Carlson’s career took an upward track from his starring role as a defenseman on Concord High School’s 1977 and 1979 state championship teams to his selection as an ECAC 2nd Team All-Star in 1983 and on to his 113 game NHL stint with the Montreal Canadians, St. Louis Blues, and Washington Capitols. He also stared at New Hampton Prep and St. Lawrence College. Kent also the fist American born player to captain the Montreal Canadians top farm club the Sherbrooke Beavers guiding them to the AHL’ S Calder Cup in the 1984-85 season. Carlson overcame serious injuries to his arm and back, undergoing spinal fusion surgery in 1986, before returning to professional hockey for three more productive years. Carlson is one of New Hampshire’s greatest athletes as voted by Sports Illustrated.

Born in Toronto, Ken will long be remembered for becoming the first Canadian recruited to play for the UNH Hockey team. His UNH career was from 1958 to 1962. He captained the Wildcats his senior season and still holds the UNH record for goals in a game with 6. He served as the President of the Wildcat Athletics Council from 2001-2003.

New Hampshire has been Ken’s home since college. He taught and coached at Concord High for two years.

Ken was the founder and president of the Granite State Hockey League. He played forward for the Concord Shamrocks, Concord Coachmen, and the Eastern Olympics. He later played in the Capital City Hockey League for 12 years. Ken still competes in the Laconia Legends of Hockey League.

Ken is also highly regarded for his officiating. He became a member of the National Ice Hockey Officials Association in 1962 and he wore the stripes until he retired in 1991. He officiated nine NH High School State Championships, two NCAA Division II Championships, several other ECAC Tournaments and the Beanpot Tournament.

Ken is a member of the UNH Hall of Fame, the Capital City Hockey League Hall of Fame and the Lakes Region Legends Hall of Fame.

Ken Cail’s boyhood dream was to own the voice coming out of the radio, calling the play-by-play. As far back as his grade-school days, he envisioned himself describing the action and often called the play-by-play while his friends competed at driveway basketball and backyard Wiffle ball.

His radio work life now has grown to be 38 years long, and for 35 of those years his sonorous sound and rich descriptions of the action have reached countless hockey, baseball and basketball fans.

His career ceased being a fantasy in 1970, at age 16, when he wrote a letter that quickly put him in the radio booth, although not behind the mic. Before he sat down to write that evening, he earlier had been at the old Boston Garden watching the then-Boston Braves of the AHL. Looking up into the radio booth, he noticed that legendary play-by-play man, Bob Wilson, had only a technician with him. Wilson, then heard live over WBZ-AM, was the unmistakable Voice of the Boston Bruins as well as the Boston Braves. Ken suspected that night, and rightly so, that Wilson didn’t have a statistician beside him. So, he wrote and offered his services.

“That was on a Saturday night,” Ken recalls. “On Monday, after school, I was out in the yard. My dad called me in. ‘Bob Wilson is on the phone,’” he said.

And so the dream began. That very next Friday, teenager Ken became Bob Wilson’s Boston Braves statistician-albeit for no pay.

By 1971, Ken’s not yet a senior at Melrose High School (Class of 1972)-had moved in beside Wilson as his statistician for Boston Bruins games. That same year, Ken also began a seven-season gig as public-address announcer for the then-Manchester Yankees, later to be the New Haven Yankees. The team then was the Eastern League Double-A affiliate of the NY Yankees.

Wilson, impressed with Ken’s innate skills and confidence, later assisted with the segue that in 1973 put Ken into the WBZ studio as a producer for Calling All Sports host Guy Mainella, as well New England Patriots broadcaster Gil Santos, and talk show giant, Jerry Williams.

Ken, meanwhile, enrolled at Leland Powers School of Radio Broadcasting in Boston, and in 1975 first went on air doing WBZ fill-in sportscasts while the World Series raged in Boston.

When Jerry Williams, in 1976, went off to WTIC in Hartford, Ken went south with him. One year later, though, Ken was back in New Hampshire, this time in Manchester at WGIR-AM doing, among other things, The Evening Talk Show. He became a nine-year on-air fixture. During that period, he also began doing hockey play-by-play for local high school games.

In 1986, he moved over to WFEA-AM/WZID-FM in Manchester, doing regular news broadcasts as well as regular play-by-play of high school hockey games.

Beginning in 1998 and lasting up through the end of the 2007 season, Ken also was the public address announcer, on-air broadcaster and public relations man for the Nashua Pride baseball team, which originally played in the Atlantic League and later the Can-Am League.

Then the Manchester Monarchs came to town. And in 2001, fans began hearing Ken’s voice at first over WGIR-AM and later over WGAM-AM. Today, he still is The Voice of the Monarchs, and for nine seasons hasn’t missed a single broadcast, which, including playoffs, totals more than 800 consecutive games. Also, in 2008, Ken became The Voice of the Lowell Spinners, the Single-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

Ken, today across a calendar year, combines four radio jobs: his June-to-September broadcasting of 76 Spinners games, his Octoberto- April broadcasting of 80 Monarchs games; his radio play-by-play of Southern New Hampshire University basketball games; and his five-day-a-week broadcast of the Morning Talk Show with co-host Peter St. James on WTPL-FM in Concord.

Ken lives in Manchester. He has two daughters: Amanda and Melissa.

In Katie King’s athletic life, her major accomplishments came in threes: three-time hockey Olympian (1998, 2002, 2006), three medals won (Gold ’98, Silver ’02, Bronze ’06) and three consecutive years as Ivy League Hockey Player of the Year (Brown University ’95, ’96, ’97.)

Her penchant for living her athletic life in threes started back at Salem (NH) High School where she graduated in 1993 as a three-sport varsity athlete, excelling in softball, basketball and field hockey. If there had been an ice-hockey program back in her SHS days, there’s no telling how many school and State records she might still hold today.

That doesn’t mean Katie came to hockey late in life, though. She was at it early on, playing against her brothers before moving onto an organized boys’ youth hockey team.

When she enrolled at Brown University in the fall of 1993, she was a seasoned veteran. Among her numerous awards for her outstanding collegiate play was the Eastern College Athletic Conference Player of the Year for the 1996-97 season. Overall, in her collegiate career, she played 206 games and scored 206 points (123 G/83 A.) How’s that for consistency and dependability?

Among her international hockey achievements are: six-time member of the US World Championship team (’97, ’99, ’00, ’01, ’04, ’06); recipient of the Bob Allen Women’s Player of the Year at the annual USA Hockey Congress in Colorado Springs; scored a hat trick in the 4-0 win over Finland (’06) to capture the Bronze medal; tied in Team USA’s overall scoring at the ’98 Olympics; ranked third in scoring (’01) for the US Women’s National Team with 57 points (29 G/28 A) in 39 games.

Currently, she ranks second in the history of women’s ice hockey in America with 265 points (146 G/119 A) in 210 games.

Before announcing her retirement, Katie led the 2006 Olympic Team in scoring.

She is co-author of a book called Gold Medal Ice Hockey for Women and Girls.

Currently, she is an Assistant Hockey Coach at Boston College.

And just for the record, she compiled a 44-0 record as a softball pitcher at Salem High School and had six perfect games, leading SHS to four Class L titles. She also captained the field hockey and basketball teams.

Katie King – Class of 2007

Please welcome Katie King

Growing up in Londonderry with four brothers and sisters, the rule in Kathleen Twomey’s home was that the kids could play on no more than one travel team a year.

So when she wasn’t on a travel hockey squad, which was always her first choice, Twomey played every sport she could at Trinity High School in Manchester, enjoying plenty of success. She won state championships in soccer and basketball, and also ran track and cross-country.

It wasn’t until she arrived at St. Anselm College that she turned all her attention to hockey. By the time she wrapped up her four-year career there, she held school records for goals (75) and points (124).

“Going from playing five sports in high school to just focusing on hockey was when I grew the most,” she said.

She had high hopes for her college career, but to graduate as the program’s all-time scoring leader wasn’t something she was sure she’d ever accomplish.

“I think everyone dreams of that,” she said, “but I didn’t even know how much playing time I’d get. I spent a lot of time practicing by myself.”

Twomey put on a pair of skates for the first time at the age of 2, joining her older brothers in the family’s backyard rink. She played youth hockey with the Manchester Regional Youth Hockey Association, Manchester Flames, Chelmsford (Mass.) Lions and the Hooksett-based Lady Monarchs. When she was in middle school, her Chelmsford team won a national championship.

After scoring 24 goals and 33 points in 27 games as a freshman, she had her most productive year as a sophomore, putting up 25-17-42 totals as the Hawks won the ECAC Open championship; in the title game against Sacred Heart she scored two goals and set up another in a 6-3 win. “One reason I loved hockey so much at St. A’s was that the girls I played with were awesome,” she said. “We played so hard and had a great time.” Twomey was named ECAC East Rookie of the Year and second-team All-Conference as a freshman in 2005-06, and ECAC East Player of the Year the next season.

Twomey counts Lenny Rowe, who coached her with the Chelmsford Lions, and former St. Anselm coach Dave Flint as her biggest influences. As a high school senior, she was named MVP of the annual Make-A-Wish game pitting the best girls from New Hampshire against those from Vermont.

After college Twomey got into coaching herself, serving as co-coach for the Trinity/Bishop Brady girls club team for a season and the Hudson-based Northern Lady Cyclones for another two.

Karl ‘Red’ Adams

He learned how to skate on Long Pond, lacing up the skates for what was a six-mile roundtrip glide.

Red Adams grew up in Concord and fell in love with the game of hockey at the age of five. He played in the youth hockey leagues during the early 30s and later suited up as a forward for the Concord High School Crimson Tide from 1936-39, winning two – albeit unofficial – state championships.

Red took his talents a bit further north for the 1939-40 season, playing for Tilton School. In a memorable game against the Sacred Heart junior team from Concord, Red played the entire 45 minutes, potting a pair of goals and assisting on a third for the winners.

In the fall of 1940, Red enrolled at the University of New Hampshire, where he played freshman hockey and baseball. As a sophomore, Red made varsity, finishing fourth in the scoring race with 19 goals and 25 points for the 4-10-0 Wildcats. UNH’s next highest scorer was Ed Carlson, also of Concord, with eight points. The highlight of the season for Red came when he scored a hat trick against Boston College, the 1942 league champions. During that same season, Red was selected to the All-Tournament team at the Lake Placid tournament.

Said UNH Coach Tony Dougal following the tournament: “He is the most valuable player on this team, and even though he scored more points than any other man on this team, he’s a great team player.”

The subsequent two seasons were difficult for Red and UNH hockey. The ‘Cats played just two games in 1942-43 because the UNH athletic committee tried to abolish the sport before being persuaded otherwise by the student body and players. However, Red still led the team in scoring, potting four goals and five points in those two contests.

A bad lung kept Red away from the school for the next 18 months, however, upon his return there was no hockey played at UNH that season.

Red went on to play for Sacred Heart from 1944-1952. On January 8, 1952, his final year with the team, Red scored a pair of goals in a 19-second span to give the Hearts a 5-3 lead through two periods against the United States Olympic team. But the U.S. wouldn’t be denied, winning 8-6 in front of 600 fans at the old Pleasant Street rink.

Red was also an outstanding pitcher and bowler, playing in the Sunset League at the age of 13 and winning the city bowling championship in 1961 at the age of 40.

Red continued playing hockey in the industrial leagues in both Concord and Manchester until the age of 53 when he finally decided it was time to hang up his skates.

The arc of Julie Sasner’s career meant that she was already retired as a player and in the coaching ranks when the U.S. team was selected for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, the first that would award a gold medal in women’s hockey.

But that doesn’t take away from a stellar career at both levels – as a standout at Harvard and on the U.S. women’s national team, and behind the bench, where she built programs from the ground up at Cornell and Wisconsin, and served an Olympic stint of her own as an assistant coach in Salt Lake City in 2002.

The Durham native, who grew up playing with her older brother and his friends on the pond next to their home on Bagdad Road, and later for the Oyster River Youth Association, is the fourth woman to be inducted into the New Hampshire Legends of Hockey Hall of Fame as a player.

“To follow (Olympians) Katie King and Tara Mounsey and Tricia Dunn-Luoma – the women in there are pretty accomplished women,” said Sasner. “It’s nice that they’re going to reach back even farther.” Sasner never had an official affiliation with UNH, her backyard school, but its influence was a heavy one.

Under Coach Russ McCurdy, UNH was a pioneer program in women’s hockey in the late 1970s, and is still the all-time winningest program. Sasner and her ORYA teammates would make the short walk to watch these top players practice and play.

“I think it was a pretty unique situation, that I got to look up to female hockey players,” said Sasner. “We got to go to all the games. It was great when they played Concordia and Providence and Northeastern and Colby. We even got the UNH players to tape our sticks.”

While playing club hockey, Sasner was also an accomplished athlete in other sports at Oyster River High School, captaining the soccer team twice, the basketball team three times and the tennis team twice. She was the school’s first female 1,000-point scorer in basketball and was a state 18-and-under singles champion in tennis.

“She could have played collegiately in any of the sports she played and was the best player on nearly ever team she was on,” said former Oyster River athletic director Dave Nichols.

At Harvard, Sasner was a four-time All Ivy League selection, and Rookie of the Year as a freshman. She left as the program’s all-time scoring leader (78 goals, 133 points) and was later named to the first U.S. women’s national team.

After five years coaching a fledgling Cornell program she was hired to start a program at Wisconsin. Two years later, USA Hockey picked her as an assistant coach for the U.S. women’s national team and she was part of the staff in Salt Lake City that reached the gold-medal game, falling to Canada and settling for silver.

“I’m not one for pomp and circumstance,” she said, but to be able to take part in something way bigger than my little self was so special.”

A young hockey player’s idea of Heaven on Earth is to have his own full-sized rink operating year-round in the backyard. Jon Leonard knows. He spent nine years between ages 8 and 17 skating in Heaven. The rink, though, wasn’t exactly out in his backyard and it wasn’t his alone. It was the Souhegan Skating Center in Merrimack, which his parents co-owned with another family while they all lived in nearby Bedford.

“The family business had a profound impact on me,” he says. “It still does to this day, and will for the rest of my life. The Sou, as we called it, was a place to play hockey, to work, to have fun and meet people. I grew up there.”

And grow up he did, into an exceptional hockey player-a high school MVP, a three-time college All America and finally a pro in Sweden.

In addition to his long hours spent at The Sou, he played at all levels in the Manchester Youth Hockey Association, and as a Squirt went to the finals of the Mini 1-on-1 competition. Later, he skated for Cardigan Mountain School, excelling on the ice and at soccer and lacrosse. He was hockey captain, too.

Then, he enrolled at Trinity Pawling School in Pawling, NY where he again was hockey captain and an MVP. Varsity soccer and lacrosse also remained part of his athletic life.

At Bowdoin College (class of 1987), he was an outstanding defenseman who earned All-America honors in 1985, 1986 and 1987, one of only three Bowdoin hockey players ever to be selected for three seasons. In 1984, he was named ECAC Rookie of the Year, and then in 1985, 1986 and 1987 named an All-New England defenseman. He was team captain his senior season and his name, too, is frequently found on the list of Bowdoin hockey records held by defensemen. At Bowdoin, he also played varsity lacrosse for three seasons.

During Jon’s varsity hockey career, Bowdoin won the 1986 ECAC title after having been a runner-up in 1984. The team also reached the ECAC semifinals in 1985 and 1987.

Jon, in 1987, was selected in the NHL’s Supplemental Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins but had already decided to sign a contract with Vita Hästen, a Division I professional team in Sweden. In nine pro years, he played 291 regular-season and playoff games, scoring 25 goals and 42 assists.

Since the 2002-03 season, he has been coaching in the Vita Hästen youth program.

Currently, Jon lives in Norrkoping, Sweden. He has one son, Desmond, and is employed by a Swedish company as a programmer consultant.

John M. Normand

Johnny Normand is the consummate Berlin, New Hampshire hockey player – long on heart, rich in talent, plenty of accomplishments for his efforts and possessed of a stout reputation as one of the best in the City’s history.

His interest in hockey first began in the cellar of the Normand homestead where a family friend and coach, Don Huot, played ball hockey. John later laced up his skates for the first time at St. Joseph’s School and later became a player on Berlin’s first Pee Wee travel team. The rest is history.

During his four years as a BHS Mountaineer (1970-71 through 1973-74), he accumulated a long list of achievements. Among them are: A State Championship 4-3 overtime win against Hanover (’74) sparked by his game-winning goal just 16 seconds into the overtime; twice nominated Athlete of the Month by the Union Leader newspaper; played on a line that still holds the State schoolboy record for single-season scoring; had a career scoring mark of 86 goals/92 assists; led BHS to a record of 69-30-1 during four years; was team Co-Captain his junior season; and Captain and MVP his senior year.

In the spring of 1974, he began play with the Berlin Junior Maroons, joining the team for its final 17 games in which he scored 23 goals and 16 assists. The Maroons won the league title. His next two seasons for the Maroons brought more successes. He twice led the New England Junior Hockey League in scoring (42 G/59 A in 45 games) (79 G/75 A in 48 games) and twice was selected to the US Junior All-America team, marking the first time one player was selected twice. He was named Athlete of the Month by the Union Leader in 1975, and again in 1976, this time by the widest-ever voting margin in the Award’s 16-year history.

His career at the University of New Hampshire (1976-1980) brought more successes. John played in 102 games scoring 29 goals while assisting on 34 more for 63 points.  UNH was an ECAC Runner-up in 1977, and the ECAC Champion in 1979. Twice, too, UNH was an NCAA Frozen Four finalist. His senior year, he was voted both the Unsung Hero Award and the Warren Brown Memorial Award as the Top Defensive forward.

His post-college play was with the Concord Budmen (1980-84), and in 1981 Concord beat Berlin for the New England Hockey League title. In his four years with the club, the team record was 61-26-3.

For 23 years, he has worked with youth hockey youngsters in Concord, Exeter, Dover and with the Seacoast Spartans, which won State and Regional bantam and midget titles.

Recently, John completed his 5th season as Assistant Coach at Winnicunnet High School in Hampton. Also, he has patented a dry-land training stick and is currently negotiating with several companies. He views this invention as potentially his “greatest contribution to the sport.”

John M. Normand – Class of 2007

Please welcome John Normand

John J. ‘Tarzan’ Healy

Whenever there’s a conversation about the forefathers of Concord hockey, the name “Tarzan” always comes up.

“Tarzan” was John Healy and he left an indelible mark on several hundreds of youth hockey and high school players in the community, both for his officiating and for his coaching.

He was a lifelong resident of Concord and in 1978, after 30 years of dedicated service, John retired from officiating. During that time, he was a commanding presence on the ice, known for his fairness and broad knowledge of hockey and its rules. In 1962, he served as President of the National Ice Hockey Officials Association and earlier had designed that group’s crest, which today is still worn by referees and linesmen in 30 of the NIHOA Chapters. He also served as Referee-in-Chief of the Granite State Hockey League between 1962 and 1966.

From its 1959 inception at White Park, the Concord Youth Hockey Association had the benefit of “Tarzan’s” leadership and commitment and he was the choice to become the CYHA’s first President. He had two tenures on the Board: first from 1959 to 1966; then again from 1969 to 1971.

From 1959 to 1978 as Head Coach of the entire CYH program, he coordinated all house and travel team coaches. He also served on the Everett Arena Board of Directors from 1964 to 1966 while the facility was being planned and later while it was being constructed.

His coaching extended beyond the city’s icehouse and for the 1975-76 season, he served as Assistant Varsity Coach at St. Paul’s School, working with Head Coach Jim Stohrer.

As a player in the 1930s, John was captain of the local Millville Bruins. In the 1940s, he starred for the local Sacred Heart team, while also playing for the Boston Olympics of the Eastern Amateur League. To get himself back and forth to Boston, he rode the milk train.

A 1938 graduate of St John’s High School, John received the nickname of “Tarzan” while he was a member of the Concord Police Department. A towering presence, he was known to be a physical force when subduing unruly patrons at local drinking establishments. When someone smilingly used the name “Tarzan” to describe him, it seemed a fitting nickname and remained with him his entire adult life. There were some who never knew that his given name was John.

John J. “Tarzan” Healy Class of 2007

Please welcome Debi Healy Hauser, accepting for her late father.