U.S., Canada avoid upsets
Former Sioux forward Zach Parise helped save Team USA on Thursday at the World Championships.
Parise broke a 4-4 tie in the third period and lifted the Americans to a 6-4 win over Germany. Parise had two goals and an assist in the game. His former UND teammate, Drew Stafford, added an assist.
The Americans pulled starting goalie Craig Anderson after he allowed four goals on nine shots. Robert Esche played the final 15:05.
Team Canada also avoided an upset bid on Thursday. Rick Nash scored with 4:58 left to give the Canadians a 2-1 win over Norway.
The Americans play Finland on Sunday. Canada plays Germany on Saturday.
Box scores:
USA 6, GER 4
First period -- 1. USA, Parise (Martin, Pominville) :26; 2. USA, O'Sullivan (Backes, Kessel) 2:10; 3. USA, Wisniewski (Stafford, Stempniak) 2:52; 4. GER, Hackert (Wolf, Gogulla) 14:03; 5. GER, Schmidt (Seidenberg, Tripp) 17:52 (pp)
Second period -- 6. USA, Pominville (Kane, Mueller) 6:52 (pp); 7. GER, Busch (Schmidt, Sturm) 10:23
Third period -- 8. GER, Bakos (Ullmann, Seidenberg) 4:55 (pp); 9. USA, Parise (Martin, Kane) 11:04 (pp); 10. USA, Brown (Parise) 18:24 (en)
Saves -- USA: Anderson 5, Esche 6; GER: Patzold 36
CAN 2, NOR 1
First period -- 1. CAN, Green (Roy, Burns) 9:32 (pp)
Second period -- 2. GER, Hansen 13:59 (sh)
Third period -- 3. CAN, Nash (Green) 16:02 (pp)
Saves -- CAN: LeClaire 15; NOR: Grotnes 50
Posted by: Schlossman on Thursday, May 08 at 8:52 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
MacWilliam, Camrose rolling
Recruit Andrew MacWilliam and the Camrose Kodiaks earned the No. 1 seed and a spot in the RBC Cup semifinals after beating Cornwall 2-1 on Wednesday night.
Camrose will try to complete the round robin portion of the RBC Cup -- Canada's Junior A Championships -- unbeaten. The Kodiaks play Oakville (OPJHL champ) today, even though the outcome doesn't really matter for Camrose.
The semifinals are Saturday and the championship is at noon Sunday in Cornwall, Ont.
MacWilliam, a stay-at-home defenseman, has no points and two penalty minutes in the three RBC games.
Follow the tournament at this site.
Posted by: Schlossman on Thursday, May 08 at 2:42 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
McBain, Bozak to return
A pair of WCHA teams got good news from standout players this week.
Wisconsin defenseman Jamie McBain, a third-team all-WCHA pick, says he'll be back for his junior year. McBain is a second-round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes.
This is some good news for Wisconsin, which loses half of its d-corps to graduation (Davis Drewiske, Kyle Klubertanz and Josh Engel). With forward Kyle Turris already signing, it would appear that the Badgers are out of the woods for the rest of the offseason.
Denver also got a big lift when Tyler Bozak said he would return instead of signing a free-agent contract. Bozak, 21, was a member of the all-WCHA rookie team. The Pioneers figure to be loaded up front next season.
The list of early departures in the WCHA (at seven right now) will soon rise, though.
Posted by: Schlossman on Wednesday, May 07 at 5:05 PM | Comments (5) | Permalink
BC's Gerbe signs with Sabres
Brad Eidsness, Aaron Walski.... breathe a sigh of relief.
Boston College forward Nathan Gerbe has signed a pro deal with the Buffalo Sabres, giving up his final year of college eligibility.
Gerbe killed UND in the Frozen Four the last two years. He had two goals and two assists in St. Louis in 2007 and last month he had three goals and an assist in Denver.
Gerbe was a Hobey Hat Trick finalist and the Most Outstanding Player at the Frozen Four.
Posted by: Schlossman on Tuesday, May 06 at 7:29 PM | Comments (7) | Permalink
WCHA teams pass the APR test
NCAA prez Myles Brand says he's going to crack down on schools that do not meet the required 925 APR (academic progress rate).
The formula was put into place four years ago in order to try to improve academics in NCAA schools. Schools that do not meet the 925 rate are subject to loss of scholarships and postseason bans.
The NCAA released the annual report today and Alaska-Anchorage is the only WCHA team below 925. However, it doesn't appear that the Seawolves will be in trouble for it. There is a note attached to Anchorage's score that says: "Denotes APR that does not subject the team to a contemporaneous penalty because the team is performing better than the institution's general student body, or based on instituional, athletics and student resources."
No men's or women's hockey programs in the country are facing penalties. Here is a list of the teams that could be penalized.
UND is ninth in the WCHA. The top performing team in the league is Denver.
WCHA teams:
1. Denver 988
2. Colorado College 986
3. Michigan Tech 960
4. Wisconsin 959
5. Duluth 951
6. Minnesota 950
7. Mankato 948
8. St. Cloud State 944
9. UND 941
10. Anchorage 917
As a whole, college hockey is one of the top performing men's sports. The other big three revenue sports are the last three on the list.
Here's the list of average scores for men's sports:
Fencing 977
Water polo 975
Gymnastics 973
Ice hockey 970
Lacrosse 967
Skiing 967
Swimming 967
Volleyball 965
Cross country 963
Rifle 963
Golf 962
Tennis 961
Soccer 954
Track 951
Wrestling 941
Baseball 938
Football 934
Basketball 928
Posted by: Schlossman on Tuesday, May 06 at 5:59 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Canada beats U.S. in thriller
It was another thrilling international hockey game between Canada and the U.S., and once again, the Canadians prevailed.
Former Badger Dany Heatley scored with 47 seconds left to lift Team Canada to a 5-4 win in the preliminary-round game.
The U.S. battled back from a 3-0 deficit to tie the game at 4-4, but the tournament's leading scorer put it away for the defending champions.
A former Sioux player scored for each team in the game -- Jonathan Toews for Canada and Zach Parise for the Americans. Drew Stafford also picked up an assist for Team USA.
The pairings for the next round should be set soon on the IIHF site.
Here is the box score from today's game:
CAN 5, USA 4
First period -- 1. CAN, Burns (Staal, St. Louis) 8:26; 2. CAN, Heatley (Nash, Getzlaf) 19:49
Second period -- 3. CAN, Toews (Doan, Kunitz) :18; 4. USA, Parise (Brown, Pominville) :52; 5. USA, O'Sullivan (Stafford, Gilbert) 3:09
Third period -- 6. CAN, Roy (Kunitz, Doan) 3:29; 7. USA, Brown (O'Sullivan, Parise) 5:18 (pp); 8. USA, Pominville (Kessel, Kane) 6:54 (pp); 9. CAN, Heatley (Getzlaf, Nash) 19:13
Goalie saves -- USA: Thomas 14, Anderson 10; CAN: Ward 29
Posted by: Schlossman on Tuesday, May 06 at 5:06 PM | Comments (4) | Permalink
Items to discuss
There was a lot on the plate at the WCHA and AHCA meetings in Florida this spring.
Early signings, reffing, the lack of goals and the world of recruiting are just a few areas that were hot topics in Florida.
It appears that college hockey will urge for some changes in the next NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement to try to keep players in school longer -- not the players that are ready, but players such as the Denver duo who left last year.
Ryan Dingle and Geoff Paukovich are a couple of players (along with St. Cloud's Andrew Gordon) who left school early. All of them spent time in -- not only the AHL -- but the ECHL, which is two levels below the NHL.
Here is a general story about the meetings.
Here is a story about the wild world of recruiting.
After reading those stories, let's open up a discussion. What are the biggest issues facing college hockey? What are your opinions on the big issues? What can make the sport better for all involved?
Posted by: Schlossman on Tuesday, May 06 at 1:46 AM | Comments (22) | Permalink
Americans, Canadians go to 2-0
Both the U.S. and Canada improved to 2-0 at the World Championships today. Former UND All-American Drew Stafford had an assist, while former Gopher Phil Kessel had a hat trick to lead USA's 5-1 win over my grandmother's homeland, Slovenia.
Dany Heatley had another huge day for Canada, which beat Latvia 7-0. Heatley scored once and had three assists. The former Badger had a hat trick in Canada's opening win over Slovenia.
Team USA and Team Canada square off on Tuesday.
Sunday's USA and Canadian boxes:
USA 5, SLO 1
First period -- 1. USA, Kane (Brown) 11:12
Second period -- 2. USA, Kessel (Wisniewski, Pominville) 6:48 (pp); 3. USA, Kessel (Martin, Mueller) 12:41 (pp); 4. SLO, Kopitar (Razingar, Kranjc) 16:16
Third period -- 5. USA, Booth (Stafford, Halpern) 5:05; 6. USA, Kessel (Burish, O'Sullivan) 9:24
Goalie saves -- USA: Thomas 11; SLO: Kristan 32
CAN 7, LAT 0
First period -- 1. CAN, Sharp (Mayers, Jovanovski) 2:35; 2. CAN, Green (Heatley) 3:45; 3. CAN, Heatley (Getzlaf) 12:15
Second period -- 4. CAN, Nash (Heatley, Burns) 1:03 (pp); 5. CAN, CAN, St. Louis (Spezza) 2:00; 6. CAN, Kunitz (Roy) 2:42; 7. CAN, Nash (Getzlaf, Heatley) 12:20
Third period -- No scoring
Goalie saves -- CAN: Leclaire 30; LAT: Masalskis 12, Naumovs 18
Posted by: Schlossman on Sunday, May 04 at 9:54 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink