It has been Wild prospect Ivan Lodnia's dream to skate in the NHL since he was 5 years old.
The sounds around the rink hooked him — the swooshing as his skate blades dig into the ice, the clicking when he stickhandles and the hissing once the puck sails toward the net.
"Those little noises, just being there is a lot of fun," Lodnia said.
But twisting a passion into a profession isn't a solo journey for Lodnia, now 18. He's been helped along by his family, and that support is motivating the forward to crack the Wild's lineup.
"Hopefully I can do my diligence and repay them, so they can finally relax," he said.
Lodnia was born in Los Angeles after his parents and older sister moved to California from Ukraine with only $100.
He was on the ice by the time he was a year old and played in his first game at 3. Friends were mystified when they heard Lodnia played hockey, asking him, 'What's that?' But Lodnia was committed, and so were his parents — who bought a rink in Anaheim in 2006.
That's where Lodnia skated growing up before leaving the state to continue his development, first to Michigan in 2012 and then to Erie, where he starred in the Ontario Hockey League for the past three seasons.