WCHA Post-Season Awards

Well for the first time in our blog's young life, we had the honor to fill out a ballot for WCHA post-season awards (huge shout-out to Tradition of Excellence for inviting us to take part).  If you guys haven't checked out his blog and are Sioux fans, I strongly advise you to do so.  I've always respected the bloggers and beat writers that post their ballots online, so I've decided to follow suit. 

1st Team:

F - Ryan Walters - Omaha

F - Danny Kristo - UND

F - Drew LeBlanc - St. Cloud

D - Nate Schmidt - Minnesota

D - Nick Jensen - St. Cloud

G - Stephon Williams

2nd Team:

F - Corban Knight - UND

F - Eric Haula - Minnesota

F - Josh Archibald - Omaha

D - Mike Boivin - CC

D - Joey Laleggia - Denver

G - Juho Olkinoura - Denver

3rd Team:

F - Rylan Schwartz - CC

F - Matt Leitner - Mankato

F - Eriah Hayes - Mankato

D - Jake McCabe - Wisconsin

D - Dillon Simpson - UND

G - Adam Wilcox - Minnesota

All-Rookie Team:

F - Tony Cameranesi - Duluth

F - Rocco Grimaldi - UND

F - Alex Petan - Michigan Tech

D - Andy Welinski - Duluth

D - Nolan Zajac - Denver

G - Stephon Williams - Mankato

Player of the Year - Ryan Walters

Defensive Player of the Year - Nate Schmidt

Rookie of the Year - Tony Cameranesi

Coach of the Year - Mike Hastings

Goalie of the year - Stephon Williams

Well I couldn't have picked a more difficult year to fill out my first ballot.  There were so many players that could be on this list. The all-rookie and rookie of the year might have been the toughest.  Both Brodzinski (St. Cloud) and Farley (Duluth) could have been in this group and any of those players could have won ROY.  Ultimately, I had to give the edge to Cameranesi as he had to jump right into a first line center role and did it remarkably well.  My apologies to Nick Bjugstad.  As one of my pre-season Hobey Baker picks, he was the hardest to leave off.  However, I couldn't put him in front of the nine forwards I chose.  Finally, my one homer pick goes to Dillon Simpson.  He might not get as much of the praise, but he is playing on the top pairing on the 3rd place team in the league and has put up a career high 21 points.  Andrew Prochno or Andrej Sustr made that decision very difficult.



Sorry, Not Sorry

Usually I try to stay away from opinion pieces and try to write objectively, but today I have to do a public call-out of Austin Krause, the Farmington High School goalie who intentionally scored on himself, flipped his coaches the bird and walked off. Here is the article where he states his reason for doing it was because he wan't the starter (except for Senior night, obviously).  My post serves two purposes:  to vent about it, and to make a plea that other young athletes don't find this cute and copy him.

First off, whether he thinks so or not, this did not prove his point by any means.  In fact, it reaffirms the coach’s decision to play the sophomore over him.  From the outside looking in, it appears the coach’s decision to play him this game was the mistake; not his decision to not play him before.  I can say as a competitor that I hate losing more than I could ever hate a coach, no question.  If Mr. Krause didn’t have that attitude, he has no business backstopping his team.

Second, this is one of the most selfish plays I’ve ever seen.  Even if he claims some of his teammates were okay with it, I guarantee not all of them were.  Whether he liked or didn’t like his coach has nothing to do with it; the fact that he cared more about proving a point to his coaches than to battle hard for the boys he’s played with since youth hockey is one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen in sports.

Third, perhaps the most disheartening thing for me when watching and reading this was the lack of respect for the game he has.  Positive Coaching Alliance urges coaches and parents to create Triple Impact Competitors:  Athletes who make themselves, their teammates, and the game better each and every day they are there.  As someone who absolutely loves the sport of hockey, I’ve always taken this to heart.  Mr. Krause didn’t just show his coaches up or let his teammates down; he dishonored the game of hockey.  From a coach/player/fan’s perspective, the game of hockey took a step forward yesterday when he walked away from it.  Here’s to hoping athletes across the nation don’t see this kid as a role model and replicate things like this.  If you love the game of hockey, honor it.  Go out there every day and attempt to make it better.

Jordan Nelson Commits to Mankato

Fargo Force forward Jordan Nelson’s future got a lot clearer this week; he’s made his decision where he’ll be lacing up his skates next season.  The 2010 North Dakota Mr. Hockey winner has verbally committed to play hockey for Minnesota State University-Mankato next season. "I'm really excited about it.  I really like their coach and just had a great feeling about the school and team.  I feel like it's going to be a great fit for me" Nelson said.

The Mavericks, who are tied for 4^th in the WCHA this year, have been a huge surprise to those that weren’t paying attention.  However, anybody in the hockey world saw that they were heading in the right direction coming into this season.  They replaced Troy Jutting with a proven winner in new Head Coach Mike Hastings and they have a handful of very talented underclassmen that include forwards Matt Leitner, Jean Paul Lafontaine and Teddy Blueger, defenseman Zach Palmquist, and goalie Stephon Williams.

The Mavericks are going to return a strong core of players next season and not one of the teams above or tied with them this season will remain in the WCHA (Denver, St. Cloud and UND will go to the NCHC and Minnesota and Wisconsin will go to the Big 10) so Nelson has to be feeling lucky to have gotten on with the ascending Mavericks.  However, the excitement surrounding the commitment is surely reciprocated by the Maverick’s coaching staff.  Coach Hastings and his crew are getting a very nice recruit late in the game.

“They are getting a reliable guy; a day-in, day-out kind of player that can also put up numbers for them.  Jordan should be an every night kid for them if he picks up where he leaves off here” said Assistant Coach Jesse Davis.  Coach Davis was a member of Jason Herter’s coaching staff that drafted Nelson in the first round two years ago and he’s seen the development in his game over the last couple seasons.  “Jordan’s really come into his own as a Junior player the end of last season and this season.  The last 20-30 games he’s really become the player we expected him to be when we drafted him (in the first round).  It’s a tough transition from High School to this league.  I think it’s tougher to adjust from High School hockey to our league than it is from our league to college.  He should have a pretty smooth transition next year" said Davis.

Nelson is relieved to have the decision over with so he can focus on the rest of his season with the Force who are in second in the USHL.  "It's nice to know where I'm playing next year.  I can finally go out and just focus on playing hockey and not worrying about next year.  We have a good team this year; I think we have the ability to go pretty far.  We're in second now, but would obviously like to get up into first, get home ice advantage, and hopefully make it all the way to the Clark Cup.  It's nice to just be able to focus on that stuff now."

Beyond the Pond wants to congratulate Jordan and thank him for always being open to talking with us!  Williston and the State of North Dakota are proud of you!  Mankato is getting a great player and an even better guy!

First off, I apologize for the lack of posts lately.  It’s been a pretty busy couple of weeks, and I just couldn’t find the will to sit down and write something.  I promised myself I would write up something while on the bus to our game in Minot.  I could write about the NHL season being back, Brian Burke being fired, or one of the never-ending topics in college hockey.  However, I can’t get my mind off of the huge win that the high school team I help coach just had.  So while the team is “cellying hard” on the bus ride back and reliving each and every moment of the game, I’m attempting to capture it in writing for all of you to read. 

Disclaimer:  Yes, this will be biased.  For an unbiased recap see willistonherald.com or minotdailynews.com

Coyote Girls Hockey Beats Minot in 2-1 Thriller!

                Ralph Engelstad once said, “The harder you work, the luckier you get."  While every North Dakota kid has heard these words hundreds of times, the frustration was obviously starting to settle in on the Williston Coyote Girls’ Hockey team.  The last few weeks it seemed like no matter how hard they worked, they couldn’t catch a bounce.  However, head coach Mat Ekblad was not willing to accept the “bad luck” excuse when he walked into the locker room at the Maysa Arena to address his team before the game.  Coach Ekblad spoke about making your own luck and emphasized that there was still more the girls could give to create the bounces they needed.  It turns out he was right, and the girls responded by controlling the play and coming away with a huge 2-1 road win.

                The Coyotes came out flying in the first period putting up twelve shots and limiting Minot’s chances.  They established a strong forecheck and were controlling the play, but couldn’t get one past goalie Sydney Swanson.  The first period ended 0-0, and despite controlling most of the period, the Coyote girls knew they had more to give.

                At the start of the 2^nd period, everybody in the building could tell that the Williston squad wasn’t content with being tied 0-0 and simply controlling play.  They threw more pucks at the net, crashed the net on every opportunity, and battled even harder.  Halfway through the period, Amanda Nelson put the Coyotes on the board.  Linemate Kayla Buck came down on a 2 on 1, drew the defenseman to her, and slid the puck to Nelson who sniped it top shelf.  The Magette’s, starting to get frustrated, took a penalty and the Coyotes went back to work.  Kayla Buck came off the side boards looking to pass the puck up to the Miller, but she was covered.  Buck found the opening in the middle of the ice, cut in to the scoring area, and rifled one past Swanson for a 2-0 lead.  The Magette’s had a couple of good scoring chances, but couldn’t get one past Maddy McLees, and the Coyotes ended the second period up 2-0.

                In the third period, Minot came out with more heart trying to get back in the game.  They got on the board with a Sydney Boyce goal at the halfway point of the period.  However, it wouldn’t be enough as McLees and the Coyotes went back to work and finished the hard-found game 2-1.  There were hugs, cheers, and tears in the locker room and on the bus.  “Why?” you might ask.  Yes, this was just one game, but the excitement comes  from 19 players giving everything of themselves for fifty-one minutes against their biggest rival and it being enough to yield the result they desired.  That’s the beauty of sports.  Tonight they got to live out the quote “The harder you work, the luckier you get!"

Family Ties Not Enough For Gersich

Coach Hakstol and company just had one of their biggest wins of the season while the team wasn’t even playing.  Just two days after St. Cloud Cathedral’s  Austin Poganski committed, UND won the Gersich recruiting battle, essentially stealing the top  sophomore prospect in the state of Minnesota out from under the Gophers.  Shane Gersich (Holy Family) is thought to be the best Sophomore in the state and possibly the nation.  He put up 41 points as an 8^th grader and a whopping 60 points as a freshman giving him over 100 varsity points before his sophomore season even started.  He was drafted first overall in the USHL Future’s draft by Omaha and led the 16’s National Camp.  Not only is this a huge get because of the talent he possesses, but also because it comes as such a surprise to the hockey world.  Gersich’s family ties made it seemingly inevitable that he would wear the maroon and gold.  His father played for the Gophers from 1985-1988 and his uncles are the Golden Gopher golden boys (Neal, Aaron, and Paul Broten).  However, Gersich stated that he wanted to carve his own path and that UND felt like a better fit. 

See article

 

Silent Knight

Silent Knight

At the beginning of the season, I wrote a blog on my pre-season Hobey Baker predictions and sent them to my editor, Katie Schauer, for review.  Her response was “No Corban Knight?”  I responded that he’s steady and probably the best 2-way player in the WCHA, but he’s not fancy enough.  This wasn’t a slam on Knight; it was more of a slam on the media and other coaches that don’t realize the things that he quietly does night in and night out to help the team win.  Things have changed since then; Knight is leading the WCHA scoring, ranked 7^th nationally, has the highest +/- on a top WCHA team, is riding a 13 game point streak, and is on pace to break his own  face-off record of 59.9%.  Keep in mind that he has never received any post-season honors.  So some people that don’t watch Knight on a regular basis are wondering “where did this guy come from?”

Corban Knight hasn’t come out of nowhere.  He very quietly put together 40+ point seasons as a sophomore and junior.  He is 50th on the list of career points by UND players with 120 points.  This puts him ahead of players like Zach Parise, Matt Frattin, Terry Casey, Marc Chorney, and Drew Stafford.  Some of these players didn’t play all four years, but it is impressive company, nonetheless.  In fact, all but Stafford received All-American honors.

Last season, Knight led a young, injury-plagued line-up to a 3^rd straight Broadmoor trophy and into a regional championship game where they fell short.  In that regional he had the winning goal against Western Michigan, was a +3 in the tournament, and won 72% of his face-offs.  Once they lost out to Minnesota and his season was over, it was revealed that he had played the last month of the season with a broken hand.  Yes, he won 72% of his face-offs at a regional tournament with a broken hand.

So where did Corban Knight come from?  The real question is when did the media start taking notice?  He’d be the first to admit he doesn’t have remarkable speed like Kristo or Grimaldi, a shot like Frattin, or hands like Evan Trupp.  In fact, if you had to pick one skill that Knight is “flashy” at, it’s his incredible knack for face-offs. 

Flashy or not, Corban Knight is leading the WCHA in scoring this season  and is playing his reliable 2-way center role on a team that’s tied for first in the WCHA heading into Christmas Break.  Given his consistency, I don’t see his production dropping off much this season either. The rest of the hockey world is starting to take notice of the player that UND players, coaches, and fans have known about for three years and he’s made it almost impossible for coaches and media to not discuss him as an All-WCHA, All-American, and Hobey Baker top 10 pick in the spring.  So much for a Silent Knight!

 

 

 

Friday Humor

 

I just thought I'd post a familiar video to get everybody excited about the UND/Denver games this weekend.  For those of you that were not watching the game and haven't seen this video yet, you are in for a treat!