When Patriks Berzins went into the transfer portal, he said that he was contacted by 12-15 schools. He went through the task of thinning the field and ended up committing to play for the St. Cloud State men's hockey team in the fall.
There were a couple of key factors that came into play for Berzins, a 21-year-old goalie from Sabile, Latvia. One of them was that Huskies head coach Brett Larson was straight up with him.
"That was something that I really liked from the head coach because there was never any promises made," Berzins said. "Coming to the States, I experienced that a lot where coaches made promises and they never came through. Coach (Larson) said I could come in and if you get your opportunity, you just prove yourself. Whoever is playing best is going to play games.
"I really liked what he was saying because he wasn't just saying things I would want to hear. He was straight up with me."
SCSU was in need of adding another goalie after Isak Posch signed a pro contract with the Colorado Avalanche organization and Gavin Enright finished his eligibility. Berzins will compete with freshman Yan Shostak and redshirt junior James Gray for the starting spot.
In 2022, Berzins left Latvia and went to camp with the USHL's Sioux City Musketeers.
"They cut me after the camp," Berzins said. "No teams were really interested in me. They thought I was this kid who came from Latvia and no one knew how good the league is. USHL teams didn't want me. NAHL teams had already started playing ... The only team that wanted me was Danbury. I went there, played half a season, played in another World Juniors Championship and did good and got traded to Tri-City in the USHL."
He played 15 games with the NAHL's Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks and was 1-11-1 with a 3.67 goals-against average and .920 save percentage. He played 16 games with the Tri-City Storm and went 11-3-1 with a 2.66 GAA, .890 save percentage and one shutout.
In 2023-24, he played 31 games with the USHL's Madison Capitols and was 16-12-2 with a 3.12 GAA, .901 save percentage and one shutout. One of his teammates was Austin Burnevik, who recently completed his freshman season at SCSU. As Berzins was making his college choice, he had some conversations with Burnevik, which also helped him decide.
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"He actually helped me quite a lot in making my decision," Berzins said. "I asked him about team culture and he had nothing but good words to say about St. Cloud State . That helped me make my decision way easier."
1 season at Maine
Berzins is transferring to SCSU after one season at the University of Maine. He played in two games and his lone start was on Dec. 8 against Stonehill and he stopped 14 of 16 shots in a 4-2 win. His lack of playing time helped him decide to enter the transfer portal.
"I felt like I deserved to be on a team where I can play because I believe I'm a good goalie and can give a team a chance to win," he said. "It was miserable in a way because I was waiting for that chance to play and win games and I only got that one (starting) opportunity. With the coaching staff at Maine, we decided that it was probably best for me to go to a team that I could help win."
How did he end up at Maine?
"I committed to Maine when I was playing back home in Latvia," Berzins said. "Back then, I didn't really get much recognition from a lot of schools when I was back home. Schools really weren't interested in players that haven't really shown themselves in top junior leagues in the States, Sweden or Finland. There were two or three schools that were interested and I committed to Maine. I didn't really experience that whole overwhelming (recruiting)."
After he committed to Maine, the coaching staff encouraged him to play junior hockey in North America. Berzins is from Sabile, a town of about 1,400 that is about a two-hour drive west from Riga.
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"Back home, I played junior hockey and also played in a semi-pro league where a lot of older guys were," he said. "There were a lot of guys that were playing a good level of hockey and now they were older and playing back home. It was still a really good level.
"Coming to the States, it's different. You play with older guys that play with more patience. You come to the States and it's young guys running everywhere and just a lot of grit. As a goalie, I didn't feel like it was a huge difference."
Surprisingly, Berzins said that he did not experience a lot of culture shock when he moved overseas.
"Every team that I went to, the guys were so welcoming and I was fortunate to have good people around me to help me get used to living in the States," he said. "Language wasn't something I was super worried about because I felt like I could talk to people and not struggle to communicate. I was open-minded when I came to the States. It wasn't that big of a challenge, to be honest."
Berzins played for Latvia in two IIHF World Junior Championships and comes from a hockey playing family.
"My dad played hockey, not professionally, but he still played," he said. "I have two older brothers who played hockey. I was kind of thrown into it. As a kid, I always liked playing knee hockey at home. I enjoyed it a lot as a kid. I started my hockey career in a small, small city. I got more interest from a better team and that's how my career path."
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Becoming a goalie
Berzins said that he decided to play goalie at about age 10.
"Me and my older brothers were practicing at the same rink," he said. "I'm pretty sure that my brothers practiced and then I would practice. My practice would get over and we would go home and my older brothers were probably exhausted by this point. They had to wait for the smallest one to finish his practice and got to home after that. We put our gear down and then I would take the small knee hockey team and ask someone from my family to shoot on me because I liked making those stick saves at home.
"One day, I remember telling my parents, 'I think I want to be a goalie.' My parents were like, 'You know that's a big decision, right? That's a big change.' I said, 'Yeah, I know.' 'How about you go to bed and we talk about it the next day?' I woke up the next morning that I wanted to be a goalie and that's it."
Berzins is listed at 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds. So what are his strengths as a goalie?
"I'd say my strengths are I'm athletic, I have lot of pop in my game and my skating is really good," he said. "My puck tracking is really good. I work at my crease, post to post. Those are my strengths."
And now he is looking forward to playing for the Huskies and competing in the NCHC. That was another factor that came into play when he picked SCSU.
"For starters, I looked at the conferences that teams play in," Berzins said of how he narrowed the recruiting field. "That's a big part of getting better as a player is what kind of conference you play. I think St. Cloud's conference is an awesome conference and there's so much skill and so many good teams.
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"Then I looked at coaching staff and the team that is being put together for next year. I love the fact that coach mentioned that he thinks that there's a good group of guys coming back and coming in ... A good chance for a goalie to come in there and prove himself because you're playing on a weekly basis against good teams with so much skill. I think it's a great opportunity."
Berzins is glad to have a new home for next season.
"It was kind of stressful because it's a career-changing choice that you have to make when you're deciding what school to go to," he said of the transfer portal. "It was definitely tickling my nerves a little. I was having a little trouble falling asleep some nights. It's definitely nice to have that settled now."
Berzins is the third player the Huskies have picked in the transfer portal since the end of the season. Defensemen Max Smolinski (RPI) and Finn Loftus (Massachusetts) have committed to playing for SCSU next season.
With the addition of Berzins, the Huskies will have players from five countries on their roster next season. There will be 17 Americans, nine Canadians, center Verner Miettinen is from Finland, Shostak is from Belarus and Berzins is from Latvia.
Berzins plans to major in business.
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