London Free Press (Ontario), August 30, 2007, Thursday

Copyright 2007 Sun Media Corporation

All Rights Reserved

London Free Press (Ontario)

August 30, 2007 Thursday

FINAL EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. B1

HEADLINE: London's new Knightlife;

This slick, darting forward was taught by a coach schooled in the Russian system.

BYLINE: BY MORRIS DALLA COSTA, SUN MEDIA

BODY:

After a short conversation with Tony Romano, you come away knowing he and the London Knights are going to be a good fit.

Romano is one of general manager Mark Hunter's off-season free-agent finds. Romano was at Cornell University, a draft choice of the New Jersey Devils.

Since the Hunters took over, they've become known for finding skilled players. Hockey has placed a premium on skill. So have the Knights. And so has Romano.

"I very definitely looked at that before deciding to come here," he said. "The Knights had a similar style of play to mine. At Cornell, the style of play is very different, a lot of dump and chase, a lot of defence, a lot of systems, maybe too many systems.

"My coach says hockey is still a thinking man's game. It's like chess on ice. You need some structure and some systems, but you still have to be able to think for yourself. You have to be able to make decisions and create plays."

If the first day of training camp is an indicator, Romano knows how to make plays. At five-foot-10, 180 pounds, he's a slick, darting forward. In the first day, he did a lot of showing the puck to an opponent and taking it away.

"He can dangle," is the expression most used.

And just to show he's more than just a puckhandler, he took a pass from a teammate and one-timed the puck into the top of the net.

His skill will be much needed on a team that isn't sure it's going to get back Pat Kane, the Ontario Hockey League scoring champion and Chicago Blackhawk first pick overall in the NHL draft.

Skills aren't something knew to Romano. He's had them cultivated since he was five and they've been cultivated by a coach schooled in the old-fashioned Russian system.

"Back home on Long Island, me and my dad were sitting in the rink when I was about five years gold," Romano said. "There was this new Russian hockey trainer. The guy just came from Lithuania. My dad introduced himself and asked 'Could I put my kid out with you and could you start training him?'

"We hooked up with him right there. I started skating with him. Ever since then he's been my go-to-coach. He's been my coach my whole life. Every summer, everyone goes back home and trains with him. He's put a lot of guys in the NHL. He turned something into nothing. He's amazing."

He's referring to Aleksey Nikiforov, a former Russian pro for Dinamo Riga who has fine-tuned NHL players such as Mike Komisarek, Chris Higgins, Alexei Yashin, Darius Kasparaitis, Bryan McCabe, Danius Zubris, Vladimir Malakhov and Uwe Krupp, as well as others who have earned scholarships to play college hockey.

Nikiforov came to the United States in 1991. His son Vladimir plays with the OHL's Barrie Colts.

Romano loves the style of play that emphasizes skating, puck movement and control.

"That's the way I've been trained all my life," Romano said. "It's more European training. It's a different kind of hockey. Not dump and chase but puck control, a lot of circling back, looking for a play, not losing possession of the puck, lots of skating skills.

"It's pretty similar to how the Knights play. They like to control the game with a lot of skill and lot of speed. They like guys to make plays."

Romano wants to be surrounded by a hockey environment. It's one of the reasons he left Cornell.

"Everywhere I go here people talk hockey. Back at Cornell, they talk hockey, but not 24/7 like here. I like it.

"These are prime years in the development of a hockey player. I felt in order to get to the next level, I had to come here and play as many games a possible. Mark and Dale Hunter have put a lot of players in the NHL, they have success during the regular season and they always go deep into the playoffs. That feature itself made the decision a lot easier."

Romano's father owns a telecommunications company. His mother is a teacher. He was studying industrial labour relations, a pre-law course, at Cornell. But hockey was on his mind.

"I wasn't too into (school)," he said. "I thought about becoming a sports agent but I didn't like to think that way. I didn't like to think 'What if hockey doesn't work out.' This is what I want to do. At school there's a lot more distractions. This is a 100 per cent hockey."

Romano knows Dave Meckler, recruited from Yale last season, had a big impact on the Knights.

"I have my own expectations," Romano said. "I don't feel I have to live up to anyone else's reputation. I just want to play my game and do the best I can. I just want to play hockey."

GRAPHIC: 2 photos by Morris Lamont, Sun Media 1. WINDY CITY BOUND: London Knights forward Pat Kane does some fancy stickwork during the first day of scrimmages at the John Labatt Centre yesterday. He soon leaves for the Chicago Blackhawks' camp. 2. NEW KID: London Knights forward Tony Romano, right, quit pre-law at Cornell University to come to the Knights in hopes of enhancing his pro hockey prospects.