Devils Take a Shot on the Prince of the Upper Peninsula
Devils prospect Blake Pietila is the latest prodigy to emerge from one of America’s most secluded—and hockey-mad—locales: Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
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Blake Pietila skates with the Albany Devils during an AHL playoff game in May. Pietila’s family has essentially dominated the hockey scene in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for years. Photo: Graig Abel/Getty Images
Pietila’s travels didn’t make major headlines. But they did cause quite a stir around America’s most remote hockey mecca.
Pietila, a fifth-round pick of the Devils in 2011 who made his NHL debut and scored his first NHL goal last season, is being watched closely by fans across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a solitary strip of land known for its long winters, colorful history and hockey.
“They’ve got snow until May up there. The winters are long but the summers are nice for a couple of months,” Pietila said. “A little bit slower lifestyle. Less people. A little more isolated.”
‘The winters are long but the summers are nice for a couple of months. A little bit slower lifestyle. Less people. A little more isolated.’
Bounded on the north by Lake Superior and on the southeast by Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, the strip of land known as the U.P. is tethered to mainland America only by 200 miles of Wisconsin’s northern border and a 5-mile-long bridge to Michigan.
According to the Northern Michigan Land Brokers, the U.P. contains 29% of Michigan’s land, but only 3% of its total population. It enjoyed a mining boom in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but the closing of those mills and mines saw large pockets abandoned, leaving behind a series of ghost towns.
The constant, apart from an enduring logging industry, has been hockey. And one family has recently dominated whatever chatter is able to make it across the U.P.
“It’s a popular name up here,” said Mel Pearson, a former player and current head coach at Michigan Tech University, the Division I program at the epicenter of the U.P.’s hockey heritage. “They have a long history and strong ties to hockey, whether at Michigan Tech or the high school or senior men’s level.”
The Pietila name has been a fixture at Michigan Tech for decades, but it became synonymous with the school in 2011. With Blake skating alongside his brother, Chad Pietila, and cousin, Aaron Pietila, the program became competitive for the first time since its heyday in the 1960s and ’70s, when the Huskies won three national championships.
A graduate of the vaunted U.S. National Team Development Program, Blake sparked the program’s resurgence, which culminated in his senior season in 2014-15. That year, with Blake serving as captain, Michigan Tech earned its first NCAA Tournament berth in 34 years. (Pietila’s teammate, Tanner Kero, later signed with the Chicago Blackhawks.)
Blake Pietila, right, with Blake Hietala, plays for the Michigan Tech Huskies in 2013. Photo: Dennis Pajot/Getty Images
Two of Pietila’s cousins, Reid Sturos and Tyler Heinonen, currently play at Michigan Tech, whose secluded campus sits about 500 miles north of Ann Arbor. Two younger cousins, one of whom is also named Blake Pietila, have committed to the school.
That’s just the latest chapter in the family’s indelible local hockey legacy. “Hockey is kind of the big thing up there,” Blake said. “Hockey is throughout the family. There have been a ton of players.”
Another cousin, Phil Pietila, played at Michigan Tech in the early 2000s, while Blake’s older brother, Mark, played at nearby Finlandia University. Lars Helminen, a relative by marriage, also played at Michigan Tech, while his brother, Dwight Helminen, attended the University of Michigan and briefly played in the NHL. Another relative, Jim Storm, went from Michigan Tech to the NHL, and a distant cousin, Ben Johnson, was drafted by the Devils in 2012. (Johnson’s contract was terminated in September after he was found guilty of sexual assault.)
Several other relatives, including Blake’s father Bob, have played for the Portage Lake Pioneers, a historic senior squad “founded as the first professional hockey team in the United States,” according to the team’s website. It now welcomes amateurs who pay to play. Blake’s cousins, brothers Ted and Jay Pietila, currently play for the Pioneers.
‘The thing that sticks out the most is just having the hockey rink in the backyard. We’d be out there on weekends sun-up to sundown.’
“The thing that sticks out the most is just having the hockey rink in the backyard,” said Phil Pietila. “We’d be out there on weekends sun-up to sundown.”
With the previous generation of Pietilas featuring 12 siblings, including 10 brothers, and the current generation accounting for more than 100 cousins, those backyard games could boast two full rosters’ worth of family members.
“Great memories,” said Chad Pietila, Blake’s brother and former Michigan Tech teammate. “You’d try to compete with the older kids. I’m sure it made everybody better.”
If Blake Pietila can earn a coveted NHL roster spot, he’ll have a unique hockey-mad region and one very large family celebrating. He’s already planning his return to the place that molded him as a player.
“My parents are in the process of building a camp on the lake up there,” he said. “I’m sure once that gets done I’ll be spending more time up there. I’m always excited to go up there.”
