The United States Olympic men’s hockey team had a few ties to Connecticut, but it has only one state native: Greenwich’s Strauss Mann was one of three goalies named to the team on Jan. 13. He might not yet be a household name, but he is a rising star in hockey circles. Here are a few things to know about Mann:
He started the way a lot of goalie started. “All my friends played growing up. I just wanted to be like them, be able to join their practices, games, be able to relate to them,” Mann, 23, said in a video for USA Hockey. He said he became a goalie when a teammate was injured. “They needed someone to play at like 10 years old,” Mann said. “I had a little experience in house league, so I started and never stopped.”
This will be his first time in Red, White and Blue. And if not for the NHL backing out of sending its players to the Olympics because of the COVID-19 spike through December, he might still be waiting, and maybe we’re talking about New Canaan’s Max Pacioretty, a forward for the Vegas Golden Knights, or Hamden’s Jonathan Quick, a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Los Angeles Kings. But USA Hockey picked Mann, who is playing his first professional season in Sweden. The Olympics will be his first international tournament.
He played prep school hockey at Brunswick. He also played for several local youth programs. After Brunswick, he played one year for the Fargo (N.D.) Force, of the United States Hockey League, a top feeder league to NCAA hockey, helping his team win the Clark Cup.
Mann turned pro after three years at Michigan. He was the Big 10 Goaltender of the Year as a sophomore in 2019-20, a year cut short by the pandemic, and he served as a captain the next season, in which the Wolverines made the NCAA tournament but withdrew before playing a game because of positive COVID tests. Last summer, Mann signed to play in the Swedish Hockey League, that country’s top league, for Skelleftea AIK. Skelleftea — a city in the north of Sweden, not far below the Arctic Circle — is in first place at the Olympic break, and Mann, splitting time with another goalie, has given up just two goals a game.
He follows a famed strict diet. A Michigan Daily reporter tried to follow it and struggled for a few days. “I’ve been doing this diet I think like five or six years now, so it’s basically second-nature to me,” Mann told the Pucks in Deep podcast in 2020. “If you had to describe it, it’s kind of like a keto or paleo diet, just basically all-natural. I try to eat, like, organic, just meat, vegetables, healthy fats and carbs for every meal, just trying to fuel my body the best way I can.”
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