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Szpakowski rediscovers passion with Panthers

Daniel Szpakowski just wanted hockey to be fun again. After two tough seasons playing Junior A in northern Ontario that failed to bear the fruit of the scholarship to a U.S.
Daniel Szpakowski
Daniel Szpakowski is the all-time leading scorer for his Junior B team, the Port Moody Panthers.

Daniel Szpakowski just wanted hockey to be fun again.

After two tough seasons playing Junior A in northern Ontario that failed to bear the fruit of the scholarship to a U.S. college he so desired, the Coquitlam native headed home to reassess his life goals and maybe rediscover his joy for the sport he’s played all his life.

Szpakowski found the latter when he signed with the Port Moody Panthers Junior B team. He’s embarked on the former by beginning business school at Simon Fraser University.

Szpakowski, 20, said once he accepted his dream to head south wouldn’t be realized, he decided to shift his hockey focus from aspiration to passion; the game would no longer be a means to an end, but just an end in itself. He said last season — his second with the Panthers — may have been the best he’s ever had. Earlier this season he set the team’s record for most career goals and he’s got his eye set on the team’s career points record.

That’s come even as he’s juggles his first-year business courses at SFU and a part-time job as a skating instructor for the city of Port Moody.

“I’m pretty packed,” Szpakowski said of his busy schedule that’s also giving him a taste of adult responsibilities.

Szpakowski admits this isn’t the way he saw his hockey career playing out when he was tearing up Coquitlam Minor and then a year at the Burnaby Winter Club Hockey Academy. Some of the players he shared a dressing room with there have gone on to professional careers, although none has attained the NHL.

Szpakowski set his sights more modestly: use his hockey to get an education. His pilgrimage to Red Lake, Ont. to play in the Superior International Junior Hockey League was supposed to make that happen. 

Instead, Szpakowski got sick and the team struggled. Vague scholarship opportunities appeared, then vanished. 

Szpakowski got disillusioned. He was at a crossroads. He could uproot to another league to keep chasing his dream, even as his window to achieve that diminished. Or he could head home to regroup.

“It was a little somber,” he said of the realization.

Now 20 years old and sleeping again in his childhood bedroom in his parent’s Ranch Park home, Szpakowski said he’s looking forward instead of behind. His Panthers’ scoring record is a little badge  he’ll be able to hold on forever of his path in hockey.

“It’s been a challenge,” Szpakowski said of that path. “It hasn’t been easy.”

• Szpakowski scored twice in the Panthers’ 6-4 loss to the Richmond Sockeyes on Saturday at the Port Moody Arena.

The Panthers had a 4-2 lead more than halfway into the second period when Arjun Bach’s power play marker as Tyson Goryniuk sat out a penalty for slashing sparked a run of four straight goals by the visitors.

Kevin Allen had a goal and two assists for the home team, who also lost to Mission, 4-1, on Monday.

The Panthers travel to Abbotsford to play the Pilots on Friday, then host North Vancouver on Saturday at 8 p.m.