by Tim Morris
As the son of a professional hockey player and coach, Ottawa Junior Senators forward Anton Sorensen knows the sport inside and out.
That has helped him play a more cerebral, instinctive game.
“I grew up around the game,” he noted. “From the very beginning, it’s been a part of me.”
Sorensen’s father, Anders, played hockey professionally in Sweden and France and coached in Sweden as well. The family lived in Stockholm when Anders coached there. Anders currently coaches the Rockford IceHogs in the American Hockey League (AHL).
Anton credits his father for his rise in junior hockey.
“He’s played a huge role,” said Sorensen. “He’s still there every day for me. We still talk about hockey and he watches my games. He reminds me all the time that you can always get better.”
Taking that message to heart, Sorensen is constantly working on his game, never settling. As a student of the game as well, he absorbed everything his father taught him and he’s never stopped learning.
Anton first started skating when he was four in his native Wheaton, Illinois. By the age of six, he started playing organized hockey in youth leagues around Chicago. He played his way up through the junior ranks and last year, was playing in the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL).
Before joining the Junior Senators this year, he also had a brief stop in St. Cloud, Minnesota, with the Norsemen in the North American Hockey League.
“I look at myself as a solid two-way player who plays on both sides of the puck,” Sorensen said. He’s also a strong skater with good puck handling skills.
He knows, however, that it’s more than just scoring but checking or going into the corners and battling for the puck that wins games. Sorensen’s biggest edge on the ice may be his knowledge of the game.
“It’s the little things that rub off and are infectious,” he explained. “I have a good hockey sense. I know where to go, to be in the right place and make the right play.”
In his first year with the Junior Senators, Sorensen has been having an impact, averaging just under a point-a-game with seven goals and 10 assists in the team’s first 18 matches. So far two of his goals have been game-winners, and his power-play goal against the Cornwall Colts late in the third period sent the November 12th contest into overtime where Ottawa eventually prevailed.
The 5-10, 165-pounder is likely to add to those numbers now that he’s adjusted to the level of play in the Central Canada Hockey League (CCHL) and become more familiar with his teammates.
Sorensen has been impressed by the Junior Senators organization.
“It’s truly a family here,” said the 19-year old forward. “They’re a good group of guys. I feel right at home.”
The Junior Senators and Sorensen are a perfect mix. They can help him attain his goal of playing Division I college hockey and he is helping Ottawa remain one of the preeminent programs in the CCHL.
There’s another advantage of playing for Ottawa for Sorensen.
“It’s nice being in a big city,” he said. “There’s never not something to do.”
