Scholar Stories: Portillo's Crossroads Leads to Saves, Wins and U-M
2/23/2022 10:23:00 AM | Ice Hockey, Features
Continuing the series that began in 2016-17, each Wednesday MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories, presented by Absopure.
By Morgan Wagner
Growing up as a young boy in Gothenburg, Sweden, a future of playing collegiate hockey in the United States was not always on his radar. University of Michigan ice hockey's first-string goalie, Erik Portillo, who has a .926 save percentage with 830 saves on the season, once considered quitting the sport altogether.
Around the age of 15, while playing for Frölunda Hockey Club, Portillo found himself at a crossroads, wondering if he should continue playing the sport he loved. Playing with and competing against Sweden's best goalies made it hard to set himself apart from the crowd who usually go on to play for the Swedish National Team.
It wasn't until Portillo was connected to a former coach for the Canadian hockey team that he reevaluated quitting hockey. He taught Portillo the ins and outs of North American hockey and the college recruitment process which completely changed Portillo's mind. Suddenly, he had "a purpose again [with] a goal in mind," as he described it, refocused himself, and set his heart on playing college hockey.
Portillo's journey to Michigan was unlike most of his teammates. Aside from the typical concerns of an incoming freshman, Portillo was packing up his life to travel 4,000 miles to Ann Arbor to live, study, and play in an unfamiliar country during the height of a pandemic.
"I was all nervous about coming over to another country, studying in English, and doing it at a top-tier university," Portillo said. However, he noted that Michigan provided him with a sense of promise and security regarding academics. The resources offered by the University stood out to him when he visited.
During his official visit, he was informed of the available tutors, and academic advisors who assured him that they would set up his class schedule to fit with hockey. He compared Michigan's proactive mindset of setting him up for success favorably against other schools he was looking at. To Portillo, this was the "big difference" that made Michigan unlike the other universities.
Portillo noted that academics have always been extremely important growing up and the University of Michigan was a "perfect fit" for him. He was offered a high level of competition both in the Ross School of Business and on the hockey team, with each program being nationally ranked.
Somehow, in between juggling his rigorous course load at Ross and demanding athletic schedule with team meetings, practices, and training sessions, Portillo still finds a way to give back to the local community.
Dualete is an athletic mentorship app created by a group of Michigan business and engineering students. Portillo hopped on board as a consultant to provide insight and expertise into the world of Division I athletics. In between the gaps of his challenging schedule, he meets with younger athletes through video chat, both one-on-one and in group sessions, to provide mentorship and help them excel on the ice. All of the proceeds are currently being donated to the local Ann Arbor hockey community.
One of Portillo's fondest hockey memories thus far was when he made his collegiate debut for the Wolverines on Dec. 3, 2020, at Penn State where he made 15 saves on 17 shots.
"When I finally got to play I realized how much I really love to play hockey and how fun it is," he recalled.
Although the Wolverines lost that Big Ten match-up, it sparked a fire in Portillo and reinstilled his love for the sport. This season, the Wolverines went on to shut out Penn State 4-0 in the series with Portillo in goal, accumulating a total of 140 saves on 148 shots.
Since he was young, Portillo has always admired Henrik Lundqvist, former goalie for the New York Rangers. Both he and Lundqvist are from the same hometown and played on many of the same teams growing up.
Portillo is not entirely sure if his future will play out as Lundqvist's did but he will likely be making a decision soon between pursuing his lifelong dream as a goalie in the NHL or entering the business world. He was selected as the 67th overall pick by a different New York team, the Buffalo Sabres in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, but if a career in professional hockey doesn't unfold, Portillo mentioned that he would be interested in possibly going into consulting and maybe even starting his own business one day.
"I've always thought it's important to have several paths available," said the sophomore business student. Although this life-altering decision may be difficult to make, Portillo has two great choices in the palm of his hands.
"I'm in a position where I will need to decide my next career move in the near future," he said. "That decision will stand between playing hockey professionally or starting to work after finishing my degree at Ross. I will have to wait and see how everything plays out, but I'm excited about the options ahead of me."
