Jim Morrison, the late singer of The Doors, sang about the West is the best in the classic song, "The End."

Apparently, Union coach Nate Leaman believes that, too.

The Dutchmen are looking more and more like a western Canadian team. Four of the seven players who will join the team this season played for junior programs out west.

Three of those players come from the British Columbia Junior Hockey League — forwards Randy Hanagan and Kelly Zajac of the Salmon Arm Silverbacks, and defenseman Nolan Julseth-White of the Langley Chiefs.

The fourth western Canadian player is defenseman Taylor Reid of the Alberta Junior Hockey League's Fort McMurray Oil Barons, the same team that produced two other Dutchmen defenseman, senior Lane Caffaro and junior Mike Schreiber.

The Dutchmen will have 12 of 28 players, nearly half of the roster, who played in western Canada when they start practice in Oct. 4.

"It's been something that I've targeted since I've become the head coach," Leaman said. "Our first couple of years, we didn't quite have the funding to do that. We've basically gotten that support. It takes a little bit of time to build the relationships that you want to, to ultimately get the players that you want from that area. We're starting to see the fruits of our labors in our last couple of classes."

The recruits come in with some impressive stats.

Zajac, whose brother, New Jersey Devils center Travis, played two games for the Albany River Rats in 2005-06, was second on the Silverbacks in scoring with 21 goals and 41 assists in 60 games. The 5-foot-10, 185-pounder was a BCJHL All-Star.

Hanagan, who is 6-0 and 190 pounds, had 29 goals and 24 assists in 60 games. He led the team in playoff scoring with five goals and nine assists.

The 6-2, 210-pound Julseth-White, who joins junior forward Mario Valery-Trabucco as the only Dutchmen to have hyphenated last names, was a BCJHL All-Star after collecting eight goals and 26 assists in 39 games.

Reid, who is 6-1 and 175 pounds, had four goals and 24 assists in 55 games for the Oil Barons. He also played in the BCJHL, with Nanaimo (2005-06) and Westside (2006-07).

The Dutchmen went across the Atlantic Ocean to get one recruit. Defenseman Carl Ekstrom (6-0, 170 pounds) is from Sodertalje, Sweden. He had two goals and 22 assists in 36 games for Sodertalje SK of the J20 SuperElit League last season. He is the first Swede, and third European, to play for Union at the Division I level.

Six-foot, 180-pound forward Brian Yanovitch had 18 goals and 33 assists in 45 games for the Eastern Junior Hockey League's Bridgewater Bandits. An EJHL All-Star, Yanovitch ranked 12th in league scoring.

There is one transfer student joining the Dutchmen. Goaltender Brett Bothwell comes to Union from Wayne State, which dissolved its hockey program in March.

Bothwell, who will compete for playing time with sophomore Corey Milan, was 8-13 last season with a 3.36 goals-against average, two shutouts and a .879 save percentage. He had a 42-save effort in a 3-2 win at St. Lawrence Nov. 23.

We'll see how it comes together in a few months.

"It's not an overly big class, but we felt all the guys we've recruited are going to ultimately be the right pieces to the puzzle for our program," Leaman said. "We return quite a bit next year. I think the lineup is going to be extremely competitive. We feel that we need that because we got to the upper tier of the league this year, and staying there is going to be twice as hard."

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Sad news to report. Tina Shea, the wife of Brian Shea, who played for Union in the early 1980s, died this week. She is survived by her husband and daughters Allie and Tori. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Shea family.