Adleman named Division’s Star of the Week after first-weekend performance

The North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) Tuesday announced its Divisional Stars of the Week presented by Bauer Hockey for the week ending Sept. 18 and 2020 Medford Area Senior High graduate AJ Adleman is one of those stars.

Now in his second season with the Oregon Tradesmen, Adleman was named the Central Division Star of the Week by not allowing a goal in two games. Adleman relieved goaltender Tyler Fromolz in the third period of the team’s seasonopening 4-1 loss to the host Peoria Mustangs on Friday and stopped all eight shots he faced in 20 minutes.

Adleman then shut out the Mustangs in Oregon’s 3-0 win Saturday with 33 saves. Not only that, he notched a rare goaltender assist on the team’s second goal, a power-play goal by Dillon Schmidt midway through the second period.

Among the other nominees for the Central Division’s weekly award were Rochester Grizzlies forward Luke Sawicky, who earned the second star. Honorable mention went to Rochester forward Riley Dueber and Milwaukee Power forwards Max Ersad and Bryce Garber and Power defenseman Colin March.

Adleman is in his third season of hockey in the NA3HL. He was traded from the Helena Bighorns to the Tradesmen and back to his home state last December. Under new head coach Eric Fenton, the Tradesmen are playing in the league’s six-team Central Division, which includes Peoria, Rochester, Milwaukee, the St. Louis Jr. Blues and the Wausau Cyclones.

The team is at Rochester, Minn. this Friday and Saturday before hosting St. Louis Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 in its first home series of the season. The Tradesmen will be at Marathon Park in Wausau to face the Cyclones Dec. 29-30.