MN's own St. Louis rookies have big night

The St. Louis Blues have an exciting mix of youth and experience on their team and several members of the youth movement are "one of us." Last night in a nationally televised game versus Detroit, the MN rookies stepped up and helped the Blues get a big divisional win.

Steve Waggner had two assists and was named the second star of the game. Erik Johnson, fresh off a recent injury, also added two second period assists. It was a big win for the Blues and was compared to their win over the Wild, which was termed as their best performance of the year so far by Head Coach Andy Murray.

Another local player on the Blues is former Avalanche winger Dan Hinote. Hinote didn't get into the scoring mix, but during the broadcast the Versus crew interviewed Jenny McCarthy who was at the game with her sister Amy (pictured right) who is marrying Hinote according to the article linked below.

Hinote and McCarthy story here

Blues over Red Wings game story here

Another story about Blues win over Detroit

WCHA weekend roundup

The Gophers got their first conference win Friday night and followed it up with the completion of a much needed sweep on Saturday versus Minnesota State Mankato. Kyle Okposo had two goals in Saturday night's game, which was just as good news as the sweep was to Minnesota fans.
Friday recap here
Saturday recap here

Michigan Tech entered its series versus St. Cloud State as the top team in the WCHA standings. However, SCSU continued to get strong play from Garret Roe and sophomores Andreas Nodl and Ryan Lasch. Roe scored his seventh goal of the season already in Saturday night's game which completed the sweep at Michigan Tech. The wins were big for the Huskies who now are idle this upcoming week and play in a non conference series against Clarkson the following week.
Friday recap here
Saturday recap here

Sweeps weekend continued with Colorado College handling its business against the UMD Bulldogs. The Tigers pulled away in Friday night's win with four second period goals on their way to a 5-3 victory. CC followed Friday night's triumph up with a 3-0 shut out Saturday night.
Friday recap here
Saturday recap here

In the WCHA's biggest series of the weekend Wisconsin and North Dakota skated to a split in Madison. Friday night's star was Shane Connelly, Badgers goalie, who made 43 saves and helped shut out UND 4-0. T.J. Oshie had a goal and an assist in Saturday's 3-1 win over the Badgers. Robbie Bina had two assists and Moorhead's Chris VanVelde scored for the Sou ix.
Friday recap here
Saturday recap here

Tracking USHL Part 1 of 3

First stop looking at notable performances in the USHL is the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders. Former International Falls goalie Brady Hjelle has been steady in goal winning seven of his first 10 starts with a save pct. of .934 and GAA of 2.28. Former Blaine Bengal Ben Lynch was hoping a team would give him a chance in the USHL and his hard work as paid off as he has contributed two goals and three assists for the Rough Riders in 10 game and has a +3 as well.

One of the most underrated players last season was Drew LeBlanc of Hermantown. He led his team to a Class A state championship and wasn't getting a ton of love from WCHA schools. Since then his stock has risen and he has committed to play for St. Cloud State. LeBlanc is the only Minnesotan on the Chicago Steel. He currently has three goals and three assists in 10 games this season. His goal last weekend broke a streak of four games without a point. The Steel have currently lost five games in a row.

University of Minnesota fans have plenty to track on the Des Moines Buccaneers. Three future Gophers are listed on the roster. Roseville's Michael Dorr is currently on Injured Reserve and hasn't played a game yet this year. Former St. Thomas Academy Cadet Ryan Walters and former Holy Angels Star Taylor Matson are skating for the Bucs. Walters is still looking for his first goal, but does have two assists while Matson has two goals and two assists in four games.

The best sophomore goalie in the state last year was Joe Howe of Wayzata. Howe played three games in October for Waterloo this fall. His record was 1-2 and things didn't go well for Howe in his last two starts giving up nine goals while facing 53 shots. Moorhead's John Lee is also on the Waterloo roster. He's a talented defenseman and is currently -2. He has a goal and an assist, both while on the power play. Nick Larson of St.Thomas Academy and Mike Fink of Hopkins are both playing forward for Waterloo. Larson has four goals in eight games and Fink has one assist in five games.

What's being written

There was little doubt that Ryan McDonagh was the top defenseman in the state last year playing for Cretin-Derham Hall. He's big and physical and can shut down opponents, not to mention his ability to move the puck effectively on the break out. He was taken in the first round of the NHL draft and now sports the red and white for the University of Wisconsin. A recent article in the Wisconsin State Journal talked about the talented crew of freshmen playing for the Badgers.
Click here for article

UMD is now ranked No. 15 in the country and ought to be fresh coming off an idle weekend. The Bulldogs travel to No. 9 Colorado College. Both teams have earned impressive WCHA road splits in the past couple of weekends. Two weeks ago UMD shut out Denver on Saturday night despite being heavily out shot. CC took a game from No. 2 University of North Dakota on Saturday night after falling on Friday.
Click here for Series Preview

The Gophers are in a desperate need for a win or two as they play Minnesota State Mankato this weekend. Minnesota hasn't lost in the last 16 meetings between these two teams.
Click here for Series Preview

The Gustavus men’s hockey team opened its 2007-08 season with important road wins over Lake Forest College (7-0) and No. 2 St. Norbert College (4-2). It marked only the second time in the nine-year history of the MIAC/NCHA paired schedule that the Gusties have posted a road sweep to open the season. The stars for the Gusties were predominantly transfers to the program. Sophomore David Martinson and Patrick Dynan both scored two goals and added three assists over the weekend. Martinson transferred from Air Force Academy and Dynan transferred from Bethel University. Junior goaltender Matt Lopes, a transfer from the University of Massachusetts at Boston made 27 saves in the upset victory over St. Norberts.
Click here for MIAC weekly Athletic Notes

Division 1 transfers help St. Thomas in opening weekend

The University of St. Thomas benefited from a couple of new faces helping the Tommies win its first two games on the road in Twin Ports last weekend. Former UMD defenseman and junior transfer Adam Davis scored two goals in each of its wins to start the Tommies off to a 2-0 start. On Friday Davis scored the first two goals helping the Tommies come from behind and defeat the College of St. Scholastica. Saturday Davis added two power play goals in a 3-0 win over UWS.

While at Lakeville High School, Davis played in three state tournaments and was named All Conference in a stacked Lake Conference his senior year.

Tyler Chestnut debuted in nets for St. Thomas and picked up his first shut out of the year as he won both games. Chestnut, from Shattuck-St. Mary's, is also a DI transfer from Holy Cross.

The Tommies continue their non conference play this weekend at home against a pair of NCHA teams. Friday night UST hosts UW Stevens Point and Saturday UW Eau Claire.

Sophomores are expected to carry teams

The Gophers suffered a very difficult weekend and the easiest way to summarize their struggles is by focusing on the lack of scoring and where it’s supposed to be coming from. Most hockey fans thought the biggest hole in the lineup would be at the blue line, where Minnesota is very young. There is more experience at the forward position, but more importantly there’s top end talent. However, talent hasn’t led to goals…..yet.

Kyle Okposo and Jay Bariball had successful freshman seasons and because of that it was thought they’d jump right back into form this year by equaling or bettering their offensive output from a year ago. It may still happen, but it calls attention to a pair of sophomores that have done a better job at picking up where they left off last year.

The best example is St. Cloud State’s Ryan Lasch and Andreas Nodl. Lasch already has five goals and eight assists this year and has fired 30 shots on goal in just eight games. Nodl, from Vienna, Austria has three goals and five assists in the Huskies first eight games. Lasch (16 goals, 23 assists 2006-2007) finished one point shy of averaging a point per game in his freshman year while Nodl (18 goals, 28 assists 2006-2007) had 46 points in 40 games for St. Cloud State.

Okposo (19 goals, 21 assists 2006-2007) , Lasch and Nodl were all named forwards on the WCHA All Rookie Team last year and Bariball's 20 goals and 23 assists as a freshman were probably enough to put him on the second All Rookie team, if there were one.

Granted, Minnesota has played what would seem like stiffer competition than St. Cloud State this year, but there's no question that if the Gophers are to be successful they will need more output from Bariball's one goal and three assists and Okposo's one goal and two assists through six games.

Erik Johnson and Jamie McBain, both of whom played for Team USA U18 before their freshman seasons, made the WCHA All Rookie as defenseman. Johnson's currently injured for the St. Louis Blues while McBain is off to a steady start for Wisconsin.

Last year's goaltender named to the WCHA All Rookie team was UMD's Alex Stalock, who has opened his sophore season with a big shut out at Denver. Stalock is 4-1-1 with a 1.64 GAA and two shut outs so far this year.

St. Cloud Times story on Ryan Lasch

Story on Andreas Nodl named college hockey rookie of the year

Story on Stalock's big game vs. Denver

Check out future Stars

There's a great chance for you to check out the future of your favorite college team this weekend. November 2nd through November 4th marks the 2007 Nike Bauer National Invitational Tournament in New Hope.

Tournament Bracket Here

Included in the tournament are several players who have committed to the University of Minnesota, along with other WCHA teams.

Roseau's Aaron Ness is joined on a team with Nate Condon from Wausau West in Wisconsin, both of whom have verbally committed to play for Don Lucia. Ness became well known last year as maybe the best sophomore in the state and an offensively gifted defenseman. Condon is a center who finished second in the Elite Fall League in scoring this year.
Elite League Stats

The tournament consists of two teams made of the top returning high school players in the state of Minnesota that participated in this year's Elite League as well as Shattuck-St. Mary's, Michigan Stars, LA Jr Kings, Malmo Redhawks, Team Illinois and Dallas Stars.

Other members of the Minnesota teams that have notable D1 verbal commitments are:
Minnetonka's Jake Gardiner-U of Wisconsin
Edina's Joe Gleason- U of North Dakota
Burnsville's Jake Hendrickson- U of Minnesota Duluth
Roseville's Adam Mueller- Minnesota State Mankato
Eastview's Robert Maloney- Providence University
Holy Angels' Danny Mattson- U of North Dakota

Of course each year Shattuck-St. Mary's pumps out the most premier hockey talent within the state's borders. This year's team is no exception and several of those players have made college verbal commitments.
Derek Stepan- U of Wisconsin
David Toews- U of North Dakota
Jordan Murray- U of Wisconsin

Full Shattuck-St. Mary's Roster

College Puck

The scoring for the Gophers has been slow from the start and it has Don Lucia shuffling the lines around each night looking for that perfect match. He's hoping that veteran players step up in those leadership roles by leading the way offensively and defensively. An article on the WCHA website by John Gilbert looks inside the Gophers.
Article

This weekend appears to have a number of good match ups. The top series may be Minnesota versus Denver, but not far behind is the series between Colorado College and UND. There's a very strong Minnesota presence on the CC roster including Minnetonka's Jack Hillen who is off to a great start leading the team in points with a goal and four assists.
Several of the skaters from MN were mentioned in below link.

Senior forward/team captain Scott Thauwald (Rochester, MN) appeared in his 100th game for CC last Saturday...An assist by freshman center Tyler Johnson (Cloquet, MN) on Walsky’s early goal last Friday was the first point of Johnson’s collegiate career...Junior center Chad Rau (Eden Prairie, MN), who has 4 points (2g,2a) this season including both tallies of the 2-1 overtime victory against Minnesota on Oct. 20, leads Colorado College with 18 shots on goal in four games

CC series preview here

For North Dakota, Hastings' Taylor Chorney is leading the team in points with six assists in five games. Moorhead's Chris VanVelde scored his second goal of the season last Saturday and now has two goals and an assist in his sophomore season.
UND series Preview here

St. Cloud State hosts Alaska Anchorage this weekend, and it should be a good chance for the Huskies to get things in gear. Farribault's Marty Mjelleli had a feature article written on him Wednesday. In the article he talks about playing for Shattuck-St. Mary's and how he developed his love for hockey.