COLUMBUS, Ohio - Nicholas Schilkey, Zach Stepan and Matt Tomkins have all signed NCAA National Letters of Intent to enroll at Ohio State and skate for the Buckeye men's hockey team,
Mark Osiecki, Ohio State head coach, announced. The trio, including two forwards and a goalie, will join the Buckeye program in Fall 2013.
Schilkey (5-10, 175), a forward and native of Smiths Creek, Mich., is in his second season with the Green Bay Gamblers in the United States Hockey League (USHL). He has played in 13 games this year and has three goals and three assists for six points. He skated in 59 regular-season games for the Gamblers a season ago, posting 16 goals, 20 assists, 36 points and a +23 mark and was part of the squad that won the 2012 Anderson Cup as the USHL regular-season champion and the Clark Cup as the USHL playoff champions. Schilkey was part of the U.S. Junior Select squad that won the gold medal at the 2012 World Junior A Challenge in New Brunswick earlier this month, scoring two goals in the semifinal game vs. Switzerland. He has also competed for Team USA in the 2010 Five Nations Tournament and at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament last year. Schilkey helped lead his Honeybaked midget major team to the 2011 Michigan Amateur Hockey Association State title.
Stepan (5-11, 166), a forward from Faribault, Minn., skates for the Waterloo Black Hawks in the USHL, where he has 18 points, with eight goals (four gamewinners) and 10 assists, and a +7 mark in his first 12 games. Over the summer, he was a fourth-round choice of the Nashville Predators in the 2012 NHL Draft, the No. 112 pick overall. Stepan was on the gold-medal winning U.S. Junior Select squad at the World Junior A Challenge in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, earlier this month and he skated for Team USA in the 2010 Five Nations Cup.. He played at Shattuck-St. Mary's prior to joining the Black Hawks and had 65 points, with 22 goals and 43 assists, in 50 games in 2011-12 as the team captured the U18 Tier 1 National Championship for the second-consecutive year. In 2010-11, Stepan had 64 points in 54 games, posting 25 goals and 39 assists on the title-winning squad.
Goalie Tomkins (6-2171), from Sherwood Park, Alberta, plays for the Sherwood Park Crusaders in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). He was drafted in the seventh round of the 2012 NHL Draft by Chicago, going No. 199 overall. He is in his second year with the Crusaders and has a 2.96 goals-against average and .903 save percentage along with a 6-4-2 mark. In 2011-12 Tomkins played in 33 games for the Crusaders, with an 18-11-2 ledger, 3.41 gaa and .894 sv%. He started all 10 of the team's 2012 postseason games and recorded a 3.53 gaa and .897 sv%.