brianvf

It wasn't Motzko's decision, it was the USA GM. Bob just "went along" with the decision. https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/will-zellers-proves-late-addition-to-usas-roster-was-the-right-call-in-wjc-breakout-2

UND up to #3 in NPI thanks to ASU's win over Dartmouth! Moving up while not even playing, noice.

Just ridiculous. Ha, exactly.

Dartmouth gets crushed after playing a real team, even if that real team is only sitting with a .500 record. Can't say that I'm too surprised. They've now lost 2 in a row after going 11-0 to start the season. Also...it moves UND up to #3 in the NPI.

Some really questionable decisions with some of these UND players at WJC. Verhoeff still not playing despite half of the Canadian d-corps looking like crap in yesterday's game? Emery one of the better defensive dmen for US, but scratched yesterday and extra dman tonight? Zellers moved off the PP despite leading the US in goals?

Emery in today! Hopefully Verhoeff is as well for Canada:

Zellers proving them wrong: https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/will-zellers-proves-late-addition-to-usas-roster-was-the-right-call-in-wjc-breakout-2 And this made me chuckle...it wasn't even Motzko that finally made the decision to add Zellers to the team: There were rumors that McMorrow would transfer here before the season, maybe we can get him in the portal another year :

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/team-canada-edges-u-s-collegiate-selects-3-2-in-spengler-cup-opener

Bob didn't even want him on the team!

A talk with Smaby about the 1st half for UND and looking forward: https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/und-returns-from-christmas-break-putting-focus-on-ending-the-season-strong

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/a-look-at-all-10-teams-and-the-top-players-in-the-2026-world-junior-championship

MacKenzie getting all the details on UND from Reschny and Verhoeff at WJC: https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/unds-canadian-trio-eager-to-open-world-juniors

Cool Schloss article on the UND team that traveled to do the Spengler Cup the year after they won the 82 title. Sweet pics in there! https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/in-1982-und-hockey-took-a-trip-of-a-lifetime-to-the-spengler-cup?fbclid=IwdGRleAO6PK1zcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeLBxJ1FQ0yiLUR9OUuxaYUNAckefn5a2oygr4eYGcMaTvThbHlyjl5z6vl_s&brid=cqgtKU-4-Dn5x9ymF_AGEg

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/unds-american-trio-headed-to-world-juniors All 6 players with UND ties make it on the US/Canadian final rosters!

Nice, Cags is playing at the Spengler Cup too.

I think the rumors have pointed both Carels and DuPont as having UND be the frontrunner for them. Highly doubt we'd end up with both, but who knows what Bryn has cooking.

Updated Commit Stats as of Dec 21: Heil and MacKenzie both at WJC camps Welcome aboard to new D commit Brayden Klimpke! Forwards B. Schultz (USHL Sioux Falls) - '05: 26gp - 12g/11a Pilgrim (USHL Tri-City) - '06: 22gp - 7g/8a A. Schultz (USHL Chicago) - '06: 17gp - 8g/6a O'Neill (WHL Edmonton) - '07: 32gp - 13g/8a Sanderson (USHL Muskegon) - '07: 22gp - 8g/11a Simpson (USHL Youngstown) - '07: 28gp - 13g/24a Jundt (WHL Calgary) - '08: 28gp - 5g/2a Williams (WHL Saskatoon) - '08: 32gp - 12g/17a DeMars (WHL Penticton) - '09: 28gp - 3g/5a Grubb (SSM 18U Prep) - '09: 26gp - 6g/12a McKamey (WHL Victoria) - '09: 17gp - 1g/3a Defensemen MacKenzie (WHL Edmonton) - '06: 30gp - 10g/21a Klimpke (WHL Saskatoon) - '07: 34gp - 2g/23a Lindberg (USHL Fargo) - '07: 22gp - 3g/6a Penner (USHL Fargo) - '08: 14gp - 0g/0a Goalies Heil (USHL Madison) - '06: 16gp - 2.60 / .891 (10-4-2)

Klimpke seems like a solid prospect to add to the list! Currently rated as a C prospect, so middle/late rounds. Looks like we beat out DU. And this was an interesting tidbit about his brother saying that the Ralph was his favorite arena:

I think the decision on Williams will come down to how he finishes the season. Right now he's just about the same pace as he was last year in the WHL. I wouldn't be surprised if he came in next season, but am guessing that the staff might also be looking at some other high end CHL forwards to come in that might push him back for one more year in juniors.

That might make it easier to keep everyone's relevant threads accessible from the first page and not buried. No worries!

I took the liberty of merging all the UND Princess blog post threads into one thread to clean up the Other Sports section. Hopefully that will make it easier to navigate for all.

https://forum.siouxsports.com/topic/51081-wjc-2026/

Motzko will look for a way.