For a month a year, Komets forward Josh Groll trades his skates for a surfboard and the chilly Midwest for the beaches of California.

“I’ll go home and surf every other day or every day that I can,” Groll said. "It’s a lot of fun and I’ll get out there with some buddies from back home.”

Groll’s hometown of San Diego isn’t a hotbed for hockey, but Groll’s father, John, put him into the sport and he fell in love with it.

“I started ice skating when I was maybe four years old and then started playing house league, competitive hockey when I was about seven or eight,” Groll said. “He started a little later in his career, in high school and college, so he introduced me to it earlier, and then I just fell in love and never stopped since.”

On the ice, the 5-foot-11, 174-pounder is a hustler. A

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