WCHA midweek Notes

• WCHA announced its players of the week and Justin Fontaine took home offensive player of the week, with Chay Genoway winning defensive player of the week and Colorado College and former Wayzata goalie Joe Howe won rookie of the week. Fontaine had five points in a sweep of Minnesota State-Mankato. Genoway scored three power play goals for the Fighting Sioux in the series versus the Gophers. Howe stopped 65 of 68 Wisconsin shots on goal in the series for a .956 saves percentage, had four shutout periods - including one in overtime. Howe will take his 2-0-1 record into a home series against Michigan Tech this weekend.
  
• This weekend's match up between St. Cloud State and UMD in St. Cloud features two northern Minnesota goalies who both hope to become the future of their respective program. Brady Hjelle, a sophomore from International Falls, has played three games for the Bulldogs while only allowing seven goals on 94 shots. He has won all three of UMD's games this year as they have a 3-1 record and has a save percentage of .926. He will most likely opposing the Huskies Mike Lee a freshman from Roseau at least one night. Lee is 1-1-1 in his first career starts. He has a 1.97 GAA and a .933 save pct.
• Mankato Free Press writer Shane Frederick wrote a column about his thoughts on the possibility of a Big Ten hockey conference. Obviously this would be not good for teams like North Dakota, St. Cloud State, UMD and Minnesota State-Mankato who relish the opportunity to play Minnesota or Wisconsin each year and fight for a conference title.
  READ STORY HERE
• Keep an eye on Tyler Johnson a Cloquet native and junior forward for Colorado College. As a sophomore he scored six goals, but he has three goals in his first four games this year. As a senior at Cloquet he scored 29 goals and 20 assists in only 20 games because of an injury.
• Two WCHA rookies haven't found the back of the net, but that hasn't stopped them from contributing offensively. Danny Kristo has four assists in four games for North Dakota. He is logging big time minutes on the top line. Tyler Pitlick, who is a freshman that also wears No. 7 has three assists in the Mavericks first four games. Pitlick scored 25 goals and 34 assists for 59 points as a junior at Centennial and 31 goals and 33 assists for 64 points as a senior. Pitlick is expected to be drafted in the first two rounds of the 2010 draft if he continues his good play in college. Kristo was taken 56th overall by Montreal in the 2008 draft.
  Rookie Breakdown of Pitlick HERE