New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Cheshire hockey all in the family
Yes, visiting Germany or Latvia for a month in the summer is a cool experience for the sons of a former NHL player. Yet it was the chance to play on a team with his brother for the first time in his life that was an opportunity too special for Nik Vasiljevs to pass up this winter.
Still, who knew what COVID would bring? Who knew if there’d even be a season?
What Vasiljevs, the senior captain at Cheshire High, did know was he wanted a chance to play with his freshman brother Evan. And when the Rams, who started 0-5, were hurting for offense, he went to coach Anthony Giusto.
“Nik’s been our two-year captain, leading scorer the last three years, an allconference player, pretty much our best player since he was a sophomore,” Giusto said. “And Evan is following right in his footsteps.
“You never know with brothers, right? Sibling rivalry and things. Nik is Evan’s biggest fan. When we were struggling to score goals early in the season, Nik came to me and said, ‘Let’s try Evan on my line.’ That tells you a lot about a senior, not only to look out for his younger brother, but the hope to guide him along and share the success with him.”
The Rams have won their past four games and have their shot at No. 1 seed Lyman Hall on Wednesday night in the SCC/SWC Division II semifinals. Evan had his first hat trick in an 8-4 win over Guilford, while Nik had three goals and six points in the 7-5 win over Branford.
The league championship game is Saturday and with no state tournament in 2021, win or lose, this week
is it for Nik at Cheshire.
“We’re playing for the seniors,” Evan said. “It has been a really short season, so getting the most out of it is everything. It’s great playing with Nik. He has helped me a lot. The whole team has helped me. Obviously, I wouldn’t be able to get the amount of points without him.”
Nik, who wants to play Division III college hockey, was considering playing junior hockey instead of high school this year. He will play for the New Hampshire Avalanche next season. Justin Stergos of Cromwell and Nick Maringola of Cheshire currently are on the Avalanche roster.
“Nik went up there this past year to skate with them,” Giusto said. “He was offered a spot. When we weren’t sure what would happen, he was debating it. Talking to his mother (Stephanie) the last few years, they were really looking forward to this one season to play together. That definitely drove him to stick around.”
“Having Evan on the team gives me a boost,” Nik said. “It helps everybody. It has been a really nice time. My mom really wanted us to have that one year where we got to play on the same team. I think she would have had a meltdown if we didn’t have that chance.”
Don’t worry, Stephanie. There are thousands of moms and dads — raise my hand — throughout the state who have gone through similar emotions with their high school and college athletes.
“They have a great family,” Giusto said. “The boys’ mom and her mother come out to every game. She’s like our team photographer.”
“She’ll be in the corner of the rink taking pictures,” Nik said of his grandmother LaVerne Pawlak. “She loves it. That’s her hobby.”
Herberts Vasiljevs watches the Cheshire games from Germany on LiveBarn or video.
“Some of my closest friends know my dad played in the NHL,” Evan said, “but I don’t think a lot of kids around school know. I don’t go around telling everyone.”
Herberts was born in
1976 in Riga, Soviet Union, now Latvia. Stephanie grew up in Suffield. They met when Vasiljevs played for the Beast of New Haven in the AHL during the 1997-98 season. Herberts would go on to play parts of four
NHL seasons with Florida, Atlanta and Vancouver before returning to play in Europe. Herbert’s father, Haralds, a noted Latvian player and coach, moved to Germany in the early 1990s as a coach.
Herberts returned to Europe to play the 20032004 season in Russia before he settled back with Krefeld Pinguine in Germany for 12 seasons until he retired in 2017. He played for Latvia in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Olympic Games. It was in Krefeld, a city of 225,000, close to Dusseldorf where the boys learned to play hockey.
“We’d go to my dad’s games at night after practices,” Evan said. “We’d go as close to the ice as we could. I wish I paid attention a lot more. We used to fool around a lot.”
“It’s funny, the boys’ styles are very different,” Giusto said. “Nick is a very dynamic forward, very fast, creates offensively with his speed. Evan is the exact opposite. He’s a methodical player. He doesn’t have the flash Nik has, but he’s a great player, looks to set up his teammates, has great vision on the ice.”
A number of hockey ties were made during their time in Germany. They’re good friends with Tim Stutzel, the February NHL Rookie of the Month. Said Giusto, “Nik grew up playing with him and knows the family very well. They had a little draft viewing when he got drafted (third overall by Ottawa in 2020.)”
Nik said his mom’s brother had a house in Cheshire so they would live there in the summer and return to Germany and play hockey while his dad’s season was going on. He grew fluent in German.
“When my parents got divorced, we settled in Cheshire since sixth-seventh grade,” Nik said. “We still can hold conversations in German, but our language skills have declined.”
Before COVID, Nik said Herberts would come pick the boys up in Connecticut and return to Europe with them for the summer.
“We’d stay for a month or a month and a half and have some good times with my dad,” Nik said. “The summer before COVID we visited my grandparents in Latvia.
“My mom says I skate like him. We obviously look up to our dad, but we want to play our own style. We do try to imitate his breakaway moves.”
Mom and dad have to be thrilled the bond between brothers has made this short season so long on worth.
“As a team we’ve rolled with the shots,” Nik said. “We’ve had multiple games canceled. In a very short amount of time we’ve had so many battles. Our 0-5 start, not scoring a lot of goals, having a quarantine. It’s been tough, but the last 4-5 games we’ve really bounced back and are ready to take on Lyman Hall.
“And getting to play with Evan? It is an awesome feeling.”