Pohlkamps and a Passport: How Former Brainerd Warrior Eric Pohlkamp Won a World Jr. Championship

Eric Pohlkamp was winding down late on a Monday night after a tough practice, playing some video games, “Call of Duty” to be exact. Before he went to bed, he got a phone call that immediately changed his plans for the rest of the week.

Pohlkamp, a former Brainerd hockey player, is a second-year defenseman on the Cedar Rapids Roughriders and currently is tied for the most points scored by a defenseman (20) in the USHL. The call he received late on December 12th was from his head coach, Mark Carlson.

“He called me at 9:30 at night and I thought, ‘OK, this could be a million different things,'” said Pohlkamp. “He said two defenseman got hurt on the U.S. Junior Select Team and they needed another defenseman and asked if I wanted to go.”

At the time, the U.S. Junior Select Team was in the middle of competition at the 2022 World Junior A Challenge hockey tournament in Cornwall, Ontario. The U.S. Junior select team is comprised of the top players that compete in junior hockey leagues across the U.S. Pohlkamp just missed the cut for the team, but with the injuries to two defenseman, the call was made to attempt to get Pohlkamp in Cornwall.

“I said ‘absolutely,’ obviously.”

Only there was just one problem. Pohlkamp’s passport was back at home in Baxter, Minnesota.

That’s where Pohlkamp’s dad, Joe comes into the picture.

“Eric said, ‘I need my passport,'” said Joe. “The passport is sitting here in Baxter and he can’t obviously get into Canada without it, so what do you do?”

What Joe Pohlkamp did was leave Baxter, Minnesota at 11:30 P.M. on Monday night and travel 500 miles south to arrive in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 5:00 A.M. on Tuesday morning.

“The other side to this was the guy [from USA Hockey] thought about flying him out of Minneapolis, that’s a four-hour drive from Cedar Rapids, so I decided that he might as well go to bed and get some sleep and then I would drive through the night in the six-hour trip, so he could get four hours of extra sleep, so he was going to be prepared and ready to play the next night.”

Joe’s sacrifice of sleep allowed Eric to rest up before flying on Tuesday from Cedar Rapids to Chicago to Montreal, and then finish with a drive to Cornwall, Ontario. After a few hiccups that included Eric not being able to find his hockey sticks, the former Brainerd High School boys hockey standout finally arrived in Cornwall just as the U.S. Junior select team was warming up before its next game vs. Sweden.

Three days later in the USA’s game against Latvia, the Pohlkamp passport story took another unexpected turn.

“My wife and I, we sat and watched the games and said, “wouldn’t it be neat if he gets an assist in the tournament?'” said Joe. “And then all of a sudden he scores, and then he scores again.”

Pohlkamp went on to score three goals against Latvia. The next day, he scored two more goals vs. Sweden.

“Getting goals in the power play, that’s kind of my specialty, playing with a lot of other good players helps obviously,” said Eric.

The U.S. went on to win the World Junior A Challenge Championship with a 5-2 win over Canada East, and as it turned out, Pohlkamp, who showed up halfway through the tournament, finished tied for first in goals scored and made the all-tournament team.

The whirlwind of a week which started with Pohlkamp playing “Call of Duty” on a Monday night and ended on Sunday night with him becoming a gold medalist was complete, and it’s a memory both Eric and Joe won’t forget anytime soon.

“It didn’t really feel real playing in the gold medal game, it was unbelievable,” said Eric.

For Joe, he’d make the all-nighter from Baxter to Cedar Rapids again in a heartbeat, “The guy from USA Hockey said you’re the number one star for making that trip down there.”

“But you know, when they say you can play for Team USA, you do what you got to do, right?”

Next fall, Eric plans on enrolling at Bemidji State and playing for the BSU men’s hockey team.