USA Hockey

I totally agree, strategically the Gopher d-men played very well all weekend.

This series comes down to what team shows up, on both sides since both have had ups and downs through the start of the year. Despite not having the best start, the Gophers are still a very dangerous team on paper. They still have good playmakers and the talent is there to put up to have a breakout on any given night. The d-men that the Sioux should watch out for is Cade Fairchild. This is a kid we recruited and would've loved to have on our team. There is a world of talent there and this kid comes to play every night.

For anyone in the southern Twin Cities area, you can Danny Mattson as Holy Angels opens up their season tonight in Rosemount.

I've seen Fienhage play, he's a little raw, but the coaches know what they want on their team and what it takes to play in this league.

I don't think we will have anyone in it, but the U.S. World Junior team will be announced in one of the intermissions during the Red Wings/Canadiens game on Versus tonight.

I think we will bring in one more recruit also.

From what I understand it had to do with playing time behind Eidsness, even though he still is two years behind him. It seems a little immature on his part because most goalies can't come in freshman year and make an impact.

We haven't created a good amount of scoring opportunities and haven't put many shots on the net and when playing Manino you can't do that. It has been the reason we haven't scored yet.

What is scary abou this Denver team is that both those first and third lines can score, so it becomes a tough task trying to shut down two scoring lines. I'm actually pretty familiar with that first line since I watched all three of those guys play before the WCHA, all three being extremly talented players. Another key will be creating many scoring opportunities and throwing many shots at Manino, since his numbers right now are next to none. Especially with Manino, I think they need to look at throwing many shots at him and getting some rebound goals.

For anyone down in the Twin Cities area that is interested, you can watch Joe Gleason and Corey Fienhage square off tommorow night as Edina plays Eastview at Braemar Arena, the game starts at 7.

There are rules to how many players can travel, but not on any specific position. Usually they bring two goalies on road trips.

For anyone that is interested, Sioux recruit Joe Gleason and prospective recruit Zach Buddish play Rochester Century on FSN North tommorow night.

There are some mixed opinions on him. I saw him play a few times with Edina last year so you'll just have to go see him for yourself.

Although one poster on there may have said this, most Gopher fans realize that they offered Mattson pretty much a full ride and was their top recruited defenseman for 2010. Posters like Hammy and some of the other insiders realize this.

Not anyone that hasn't been mentioned before. I always liked Aaron Crandall and despite recruiting him he committed to Wisconsin. I need to watch the high school season and catch a couple of USHL games this year to see some guys that are on the board.

Great pickup, if anyone gets a chance to see the NTDP 17U team he really is special to watch.

I was recently informed that it looks as if Mike Lee will eventually commit to St. Cloud, or at least that is his number 1 as of right now. He was going to give a verbal, but then was told to wait. He thinks the situation in terms of playing time will be better down there.

The early signing period starts tommorow and runs through the 21st. I don't think there will be any surprises unless there is a commitment right beforehand.

We'll actually get a chance to see these guys as they will be up here for the Midget Major Classic in January. They're on a good team, last time I looked Russell Stover was the number 1 team in the nation.

I will be in Madison this weekend for the games so I'm not going to be updating the two tournaments that our recruits are participating in this weekend. Both the links should work for live stats. Also, the championship game for the World Junior A Championship should be on TSN on Sunday if anyone gets that. Besides the standard junior schedules, there isn't much else going on because Shattuck is off, the Elite League is done, and high school hasn't started yet. If anyone in the area wants to go check a potential player out, they can check out Dakota Collins of the F-M Jets, who play two home games on Friday and Saturday night.

It's hard to say how good this Wisconsin team really is becaue of their schedule so far. They're very talented but young. I think if we come out and play our game early we sweep. It would be real nice to get a little pay back since they have swept us at our building the last two years in a row.

The US defeated Canada East 3-2 in overtime in the World Junior A Challenge yesterday. Team Canada West lost to Russia 4-2. None of our players had any points for either team. The US will play on Saturday against the winner of tommorow nights game with Canada West and Belarus. If Canada West wins, we could have four recruits playing in one game.

Kristo had a goal in last nights 2-0 win over Switzerland. They will play Sweeden tommorow, you can follow the live stats from the link above.

Exactly. From what I always understood, the reason for three goalies on the team is for practice purposes so you don't wear your starter out.

Well, speaking of goalies, Aaron Crandall, a goalie who we were recruiting committed to Wisconsin today. This is actually the second goalie that we were recruiting for 2009/2010 that we haven't got. It's a good pickup for Wisconsin and would've been a good pickup for us. I saw him play numerous times with St. Thomas Academy the years he was there.