Like father, like son

This time 30 years ago during the 1984-85 season, the UMD Bulldogs were on their way to a third straight NCAA tournament. This year, they’re destined for another NCAA berth and while much has changed since 1985, two names remain the same. Senior defenseman Derik John­son and sophomore forward Domi­nic Toninato are second generation Bulldogs who are having as big of an impact on the current UMD team as their fathers did some 30 years ago.

Derik’s father, Jim Johnson, spent four seasons anchoring the Bulldog blue line and was the senior captain of the team during the 1984-1985 trip to the Frozen Four. Jim went on to enjoy a 15 year career in the NHL and is now an assistant coach with the San Jose Sharks.

Dominic’s father, Jim Toninato, also spent four seasons with the Bull­dogs as a center. Jim played along­side Johnson during the 1984-1985 Frozen Four season and graduated the following year.

Thirty years later the Johnson- Toninato connection would be reborn, and look to make a Frozen Four run of their own.

“It would be pretty special to do that,” Dominic Toninato said. “We have a good team that’s capable of doing that if we play the game that we can play. It’s a whole new season now and anything can happen.”

The path that brought these two to the North Shore, however, couldn’t be more different.

Dom spent his entire life in Duluth, and the countless hours playing out­doors at the Portman hockey rink in Eastside Duluth and attending all of the UMD home games at the DECC with his dad created a natural love for the Bulldogs. Toninato worked his way through the ranks of pee wee, bantam and eventually varsity hock­ey at Duluth East before receiving the offer to follow in his dad’s footsteps at UMD.

Derik, on the other hand, learned the game of hockey in an area of the country that isn’t exactly known for creating Division 1 hockey pros­pects-- Scottsdale, Arizona.

“(My dad) grew up in the state of hockey and I grew up where people asked if you play ice or roller hockey,” said Derik.

From being trained by his NHL veteran father starting at age 4, to captaining the Penticton Vees of the British Columbia Hockey League, it was a long road before Derik Johnson earned his UMD scholarship.

Both current Bulldogs acknowl­edge their fathers’ bias towards the Bulldogs, but their reasons for com­ing to UMD go beyond family ties.

While Derik Johsnon grew up around NHL rinks idolizing his father’s play, Dominic Toninato is paving his own way, not having the opportunity to watch his father dur­ing his playing days.

“I wanted to write my own chap­ter,” Dominic Toninato said. “ I had the option of wearing (my dad’s) num­ber 21 following my freshman year, but 19 is my number.”

For the younger Johnson, it was the combination of his father’s past expe­rience with the club and the over­all prestige that UMD has earned through the years that ended up being the deciding factor.

“He obviously had great memories here and he told me about those and the great friends he made while play­ing here, so it did have a little bit of an impact,” Derik Johnson said. “Just the overall perception of this school having really good teams and com­peting for national championships on a yearly basis definitely factored in to my decision making.”

The decision for younger Toni­nato and Johnson has helped the No. 6 Bulldogs have nearly guarantee themselves a trip to the NCAA tour­nament and perhaps another trip to the Frozen Four just as their fathers did some thirty years ago.

 BY JAKE PRYZTARSKI 

Statesman Correspondent