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JACK'S STORY On May 31, 2018, Weiss underwent a retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND) in which nearly 30 of his lymph nodes were surgically removed. As difficult as the treatment and the surgeries were for Weiss to endure, he approached his battle as a means to an end. The hard part for him, he said, was the toll it took on his parents, particularly his mother. "My mom was more looking at things long term and, obviously, as a parent, I couldn't even describe her feelings," Weiss said. "But I could tell things were eating her away and that just sucked to see." Six weeks of recovery limited Weiss to lifting nothing heavier than a gallon of milk, setting the 5-foot-11, 185-pound left-shot defenseman's training back significantly less than a month before his return to Alaska. Weiss arrived back in Alaska with only two months to train and prepare for achieving his goal of joining his Nanooks teammates on opening night. "There were points where I was like, 'God, I may never even be close to where I was at,'" Weiss said. "But being able to be in that lineup opening night felt pretty good and it just makes you appreciate a lot of things for sure." UAF coach Erik Largen credits Weiss's work ethic and perseverance for his suc- cessful return to the ice "He's battled his way through, whether that's junior hockey, coming in as a walk- on, fighting through different injuries and now the ultimate thing with cancer," Largen said. "He wasn't going to be beaten by anything, including that." WILL'S JOURNEY Francis, a Minnesota Duluth recruit, enrolled at UMD in January of 2020, after a meniscus tear in his left knee premature- ly ended his second season with the USHL's Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. His plans to attend school while rehabilitating his knee and getting familiar with his future team- mates were going well until he began suf- fering from chronic fatigue. "I thought it was just kind of like a com- mon winter cold and it'd be something I kind of got over," Francis said. "But it just kind of stayed and lingered." It lingered into a spring break snow- mobiling trip to the family cabin in Lutsen. After a long day on the trails, Francis slept away most of the next two days while his appetite diminished considerably, prompting the trip to Grand Marais. Francis was then trans- ported by ambulance to University of Minnesota's Masonic Children's Hospital in Minneapolis where a test the following day confirmed the preliminary diagnosis. "Looking back at the month prior to what happened, it was pretty crazy," Francis said. "Just because, at the time, I'm a 19-year-old kid. "You almost think you're invincible." JACK & WILL'S HOCKEY FAMILY Jack said the outpouring of support he received from friends, family, team- mates and coaches was everything to him in his battle. "From Fairbanks to Minnesota to my billet family down in Texas it was very, very COMEBACK KIDS Will Francis not only received a massive outpouring of support from the Centennial hockey community in his fight against leukemia, his support system stretched from coast-to-coast and crossed an international border. The Anaheim Ducks prospect heard from his future club almost immediately and a few fairly big names offered him encouragement as well. "I've heard from head coach, Dallas Eakins a few times, you know, just to stay strong and he sent me some motivational stuff," Francis said. "And then I hear from Todd Marchant, who is the Director of Player Development there, pretty often, just asking how things are going and if I ever needed anything. "They've been huge." In addition, Francis heard from a variety of Ducks players, including captains Ryan Getzlaf and Josh Manson, who sent him get-well videos, and former Anaheim Hall-of-Fame defenseman Scott Niedermeyer. Minnesota Wild assistant GM, Tom Kurvers, the Hobey-Baker- Award-winning UMD defenseman who is fighting his own battle against adenocarcinoma, a form of lung cancer, reached out to the future Bulldog and brought a few of his friends with him. Francis heard from former UMD star Brett Hull and Montreal Canadiens Hall-of-Famer Guy LaFleur, who is also currently fighting lung cancer, along with one other legend of the game. "I was sitting in bed one day just talking to my dad and I got a call from an unknown number and answered it and it happened to be Bobby Orr, who's the greatest defenseman to ever play hockey," Francis said. "I was kind of in awe and speechless. I was like, 'Bobby Orr? The greatest defenseman to ever play hockey?' And he's like, 'Yeah.'" Francis also said he's received regular messages from the Minnesota Duluth program checking on his progress, offering encouragement and even a small gesture like a happy birthday text on his 20th birthday in November meant a lot to him, he says. "It kind of just says how tight the hockey community is, as a whole, comparatively to other sports," Francis said. "I think it's something special and I don't think it's something that can be recreated." M H J ON L I N E . C O M | J A N / F E B 2 0 2 1 18 DUCKS FLY TOGETHER Selected No. 163 overall by the Anaheim Ducks, Will Francis receives support from his NHL rights holder and many others in the hockey family Photos / Alaska Fairbanks; Tim Kolehmainen