Sports Spotlight on Adam Knochenmus | Video

Scott Westerburg | 12/26/2012

After a slow start to the season, the Bobcats have won nine of their last thirteen and find themselves in second place in the Central Division. A major reason the Cats have been on a roll lately is the leadership of veterans like Adam Knochenmus.

Last fall Knochenmus barely had time to settle in with the Alexandria Blizzard when he got the news it was time to pack up and head farther north.

"I went into the office to talk to the Alexandria coach and he told me I had been traded to Bismarck. I had some mixed feelings right away just cause I had to leave all my teammates, but I knew I was coming to a good program that was doing really good, so it was pretty awesome."

Bobcats Head Coach Layne Sedevie was interested in Knochenmus long before last season. He took notice of Adam in high school and refers to him as a "bull on ice."

"I want what he does to carry over. I want it to be contagious out there. You see him and the reason we aren`t scoring a bunch of goals, we have good skill, but we don`t want to pay the price to get to the net. That`s not a guy that doesn`t want to get to the net. He`ll will the puck in the net, whether it`s head first, it doesn`t matter. He`s going to find a way to score that goal," he said.

Knochenmus` hockey pedigree includes growing up in one of the Meccas of high school hockey in the upper midwest: the small town of Roseau, Minnesota.

"It`s pretty awesome. You see all the pictures in the warming house of the Roseau Memorial Arena. It gives you chills of all the guys that have went through, and not only are the pictures of guys who played pro or division one, but they`re all guys that went to division one and were selected All-American and it goes all the way across the top. It`s pretty awesome the tradition we have in such a small town."

"It speaks volumes for their program. If you`ve been to Roseau and the state championships and the amount of unbelievable hockey players that have come out of that town. I think it`s something that`s special that they have," Sedevie said.

After joining the Bobcats early last season, Knochenmus immediately became an impact player and helped the Cats win the division and reach the national tournament. However, the Robertson Cup experience left something to be desired as Bismarck won just once in three tries.

"Last year was a disappointment just cause of the team we had and how good we actually were, but I think this team has the makings to do the same thing."

For Knochenmus, this will be the last chance he has to play junior hockey.

Knochenmus and the Bobcats are home this Friday and Saturday against Coulee Region. They will also host Minot on New Years Eve.

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