In the Spotlight
Jan. 23, 2001
By P.J. Slinger
He was considered one of the best hockey players in Minnesota during his senior season at Hill-Murray High School.
Yet Brandon Sampair of Mahtomedi, Minn., still thinks it was just a fortunate situation he was in at the time.
"I was a freshman on a team with two all-state players, my brother (Jessie) and Nate DeMars, and we had some success, so I think that's how people started noticing me," he said.
One of those who noticed him was St. Cloud State coach Craig Dahl.
"We knew about him all through high school and he led his team into the state tournament," Dahl said. "We saw that he was an honest player and he had offensive skills and we thought he would make a pretty good Division I player."
Sampair, now a senior with the Huskies, scored 100 goals and had 128 assists in those four years at Hill-Murray. He was all-state, all-conference and all-metro. He was named to the State All-Tournament team three years. And as a senior, he was a finalist for the coveted Mr. Hockey Award in Minnesota.
Yet he wondered if he'd be able to play Division I hockey.
"I wasn't a real high-profile player," Sampair said. "I talked to Alaska (Anchorage), but I wanted to go to Wisconsin. But by then they had all their guys picked, so when St. Cloud asked me, I was surprised and very excited."
Dahl said getting Sampair directly out of high school, without going to juniors, was a chance the Huskies decided to take.
"That's a big jump straight out of high school," Dahl said. "He's not a world class skater, but we thought he could develop into a good player. Unless you have that world class athlete, not many are going to do much their freshman year. We saw that he was willing to put in the time and effort. Now he is one of the best players in the league."
All Sampair wanted was a chance.
"When you go Division I, it's whether that DI team gives you a chance," he said. "It's up to the coaches to put their trust in you. I was by no means the best player in the state."
But when he got to college, Sampair was pretty confident he would be a good DI player, too. That is, until he actually began playing for the Huskies as a freshman. He had just eight points in 27 games that season.
Dahl said those high hopes are typical of incoming freshmen, and Sampair was no different.
"That was a typical feeling, but he had the temperament to be motivated by that (lack of productivity), and not let himself be defeated by that," Dahl said.
"I wanted to make a big impact my freshman year, but I didn't have much success early and my confidence went into the tank," Sampair said. "I didn't know what to expect my sophomore year. My goal was just to play more than on the fourth line."
He reached that goal rather easily and had his breakout season with the Huskies, scoring a team-leading 15 goals, including a team-high three short-handed tallies. He was named St. Cloud State's Most Improved Player.
And he only got better. As a junior, he was named assistant captain and finished tied for third on the team with 42 points, which included a five-assist game against Minnesota in the WCHA Final Five tournament. That was an NCAA high for the season.
This season, Sampair is team captain and has been just as productive offensively. Right now Sampair is leading the Huskies on a school-record nine-game winning streak and has the team in a battle for the top spot in the WCHA. St. Cloud State is just two points out of first place (North Dakota) and tied with St. Cloud and Minnesota for second place. However, the Huskies have two games in hand over UND and Minnesota and one in hand over Colorado College.
This season, Sampair has 5 goals and 21 assists for 26 points, which puts him tied for 11th in the WCHA. Sampair said he's a little disappointed his goal-scoring numbers, though.
"I was snakebit for a long time, but I'm climbing out of that now," he said. "I just could not put the puck away. And it's not that I'm looking for the points or the glory, but as a senior and a captain, I don't want to let the team down. When we're up or down by a goal, it great to tie the game or put the game away."
But Sampair has been instrumental in his team's success with all of his assists, however.
"As long as we get into the NCAAs, I'll keep passing if they'll keep scoring," he said.
Sampair said the NCAA tournament is the ultimate goal for the Huskies this season. And after getting a taste of the 12-team field last year, Sampair has even higher hopes this season.
"In the backs of our minds this year is to try to get one of the top four seeds (in the NCAAs) to get that first-round bye," he said. "It's not one of our main goals that we think about every day, but I think knowing that we can do that really makes us practice that much harder every day."
And seeing the success of North Dakota's national championship team last year, Sampair has similar goals.
"Last year (near the end of the season) we beat North Dakota the first night and with like eight seconds to go (the second night) they tied us, and then they went on to win the national championship," he said. "That was like, 'Wow.' Obviously they played better there than they did against us, and we didn't have a good showing against BU (Boston University in the first round of the NCAAs). But we figured if North Dakota could win it, and we beat them, that we would have a chance, too."
For now, Sampair concentrates on the WCHA race, and realizes that his four-year collegiate career is quickly winding down.
"There have been a lot of ups and downs in college hockey," Sampair said. "You just gotta learn to balance them out. But it's been a blast. There's only 2 ½ months left and it's wild how quickly it goes by. As a freshman when you don't play so much it seemed to take forever. But when you play a lot, things go by a lot quicker."
As for Sampair's future?
"When I'm done here, I'm just gonna wing it," he said. "Who knows, maybe
it's time for the real world."
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