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Nate Ewell was one happy camper after the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup.

Ewell is the deputy executive director of College Hockey Inc. and the Penguins claimed hockey’s biggest prize with a full complement of players from the NCAA ranks.

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“Eleven players, more than 50 per cent of the players dressed in the playoffs, played college hockey,” Ewell noted during a recent visit to the annual Apex Hockey Camp in Montreal.

The former collegians on the Pittsburgh roster included Phil Kessel (Minnesota), Nick Bonino (Boston University), Carl Hagelin (Michigan) and rookie Conor Sheary (Massachusetts-Amherst). And Mike Sullivan, who took over as head coach in mid-season, played more than 700 games in the NHL after graduating from Boston University.

“That’s the message Claude Morin and Phil Roy have been delivering to young players from Quebec through the Apex Hockey Camp, which serves as a showcase for youngsters interested in pursuing a hockey scholarship at a U.S. school.