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PHERSY: I just wanted to get the word out to you Faceoff viewers.
Feldy, Guy N. Limbeck and I will have a live Vikings/NFL Draft blog tonight at PostBulletin.com starting at 6:45 p.m.
Please log in to make fun of Feldy, and that Limbeck clown as well. We may not have anything intelligent to say, but I'm sure we'll make you laugh with our stupidity.
SO, PostBulletin.com at 6:45 tonight ... watch for the link for our live blog!!!
Thanks peeps!
PHERSY: We're back! It's been a while, but Feldy and I had a lot to talk about.
This week we talk about the possibility of Joe Mauer moving to the outfield, the Gophers spring game and the upcoming NFL draft, including the Vikings' most pressing needs.
So, if you've got 40 minutes to kill (sorry), enjoy. If you make it all the way through, Feldy will give you a prize.
Official word will come Wednesday, but this afternoon, multiple sources have confirmed that former Rochester Mustangs player and assistant coach, and former Lourdes High School head boys hockey coach Jay Ness has been named the new head coach at John Marshall.
Ness will take over for Scott Lecy and Jared Skovbroten, who served as co-head coaches this past season, when the Rockets went 15-10 and earned home-ice advantage for the first round of the Section 1AA playoffs.
Ness coached at Lourdes with Bob Ellinghuysen in the 1998-99 season, when the Eagles went 18-5-1. He took over as head coach the following year and led the Eagles to three consecutive Section 1 championships. Ness guided Lourdes to the Class A state championship game in 2001, where the Eagles lost to Benilde-St. Margaret's, 2-1. Ness was named the Class A recipient of the John Mariucci Award that year, given to the state's top boys hockey coach (as voted by the boys hockey coaches from around the state).
In Ness' final season as Lourdes' coach, the Eagles went 28-2-1 and finished third in the state Class A tournament. They were ranked No. 1 in the state Class A poll briefly that season. The Eagles blasted Fergus Falls, 7-2, in the third-place game after falling to Red Wing in the state semifinals.
Ness played multiple seasons for the Mustangs, finishing his USHL career in the 1989-90 season, when he had 25 goals and 53 assists, for 78 points. He went on to play four seasons of NCAA Division I hockey at Lake Superior State, where he put up 24 goals and 38 assists, for 62 points, in 144 career games.
We'll have more here on the blog tomorrow, after the official announcement has been made, and we'll have a story in Thursday's print edition of The Post-Bulletin.
Posted by: Feldman
Rochester native Mark Stuart, a defenseman for the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers, is headed to Slovakia to play in the IIHF men's world championships, April 29-May 15, but before departing, he gave reporters in Atlanta his thoughts on his first (partial) season with the Thrashers.
Stuart clearly enjoyed being in Atlanta for the final 23 games of the season, after being traded by the Boston Bruins. He scored one goal in those 23 games, but provided the team with a tremendous defensive defenseman, someone willing to play hard on the penalty kill and a leader in the locker room.
Just 10 days after being traded to the Thrashers, Stuart signed a three-year contract extension worth $5.1 million total, which made it evident that both sides were pleased with the trade from Boston. He has 41 points in 306 career games.
Stuart has been described by Thrashers coaches as "providing momentum-shifting hits" and "having a willingness to drop the gloves to defend his teammates." The Thrashers think so highly of Stuart, that he even wore an "A" while Toby Enstrom missed time with an injury.
Here is some of what Stuart had to say to the media in Atlanta after the Thrashers season — Stuart's fourth full NHL season — came to an end:
On joining the Thrashers after the trade…
"Coming over, it was exciting and new. It was disappointing that we didn't make a better run at (the postseason). But like I've said since I've been here, I really like our team. I like the makeup of our team. I like the organization. … Some things need to get better, but I think we have the guys. … We know we can be a good team in this league, it's just finding that consistency."
On what needs to change for Atlanta to be a playoff team…
"It's tough to explain, but in this league you have to learn how to win. You saw that in some of the games we were up by a few goals. We don’t know how to win yet. We kind of let teams back into it once in a while. win yet. We kind of let teams back into it once in a while. There was a lot of overtime games — games that we won, but good teams, when they get up, they don’t look back. They bury teams. We haven’t quite learned how to do that yet."
On Atlanta's defensive corps …
"“I think it’s one of the best (I’ve seen), really. Nowadays your defensemen have to be offensive. If you look around the league a lot of teams are getting a lot of offense from their defensemen. Buff (Dustin Byfuglien) had 20 goals this year, so I think we have that piece, but I also think we have two-way guys. We have guys that are good defensively and you need some toughness, and I think we have that.”
On being named an alternate captain late in the season …
"I was very flattered. Leadership is very important to me. Hopefully I can grow into that role here. I haven’t been in the league a long time but I think I’ve been in it long enough that I can help some of the young guys. Having a letter is very important to me. On an NHL team wearing an “A” is big. I hold a lot of pride in that for sure.”
Posted by: Feldman
Sorry, we've been away from the blog for a few days. I was letting a few hockey notes pile up. Time to get to them now.
First off, the USHL held its Futures Draft today. All of the teams in the country's top junior league had a chance to secure the rights to the top 95-born players who could potentially wind up in the USHL. No local players were taken, though there are ties to a couple of players drafted.
With the top overall pick, Waterloo selected Taylor Cammarata from Plymout. Cammarata plays at Shattuck St. Mary's in Faribault, where he starred on the U16 team that finished second in the country this year. Cammarata led Shattuck with 126 points (64-62--126). The second-leading scorer on that U16 team, and the only other player on the team to top 100 points, was Rochester's Tyler Vesel, brother of Lourdes senior Rory Vesel, who was a Second Team All-State pick this season and the Faceoff/Post-Bulletin All-Area Player of the Year. Tyler had 36-67--103 in 48 games; from what I've heard, he'll be playing on Shattuck's top team next season.
** And while we're on the topic of Tyler Vesel, he'll get some more big-time exposure to top junior and college scouts this summer. He is one of 14 Minnesota players invited to USA Hockey's National Player Development Select 17 camp at Rochester, N.Y., July 7-13.
Among the other Minnesota players invited to the Select 17 camp are Vesel's Shattuck teammate, Zach Stepan (cousin of former University of Wisconsin standout and current N.Y. Ranger Derek Stepan); Edina forward Louie Nanne (yep, of that Nanne family) and Apple Valley star forward A.J. Michaelson.
** Minnesota players selected for the Select 17 and Select 16 national camps were chosen after this past weekend's High Performance 54 Showcase in Plymouth.
Vesel was one of three Rochester players who competed in the HP 54. Lourdes forwards Alex Funk (who will be a junior next season) and Landon Farrell (a senior-to-be) both played in the three-team all-star tournament. Each team had 18 players on their rosters (54 total players, thus the HP 54 name).
Funk played for Team Blue, which also included Stepan and Class A state tournament darling Adam Johnson of Hibbing (which beat Funk's Eagles in the first round at state last month). Also on that team was New Prague goalie Joe Morris, who was outstanding in the Section 1A tournament, with his Trojans falling to Lourdes, 2-0, in the section title game.
Farrell played on Team Red, and Lourdes head coach Josh Spaniol coached Team White, which went unbeaten in three games. Spaniol's team included Vesel, Michaelson and Lakeville South defenseman Charlie Heller.
Vesel led Team White with five points (2-3--5) in three games; Funk didn't have a point in three games; and Farrell had one assist in three games.
Spaniol said both Funk and Farrell had good weekends, played well in front of scouts from most WCHA teams and USHL teams.
PHERSY: Hey yo, we're back! Phersy and Feldy Show ... after a little hiatus, we're back, and we're breaking out new material.
Yep, that's right, we brought a special guest in to the show tonight. Check it out. Since Feldy and I don't know hoops, we brough one of our fellow writers on board to show us the ropes.
If you've got 29 minutes to waste, check it out ...
FELDY: Two Rochester natives will be on the same bench when the Portland (Maine) Pirates open their first-round American Hockey League playoff series tonight in Portland against the Connecticut Whale.
Forward Colin Stuart -- who played three games this season for the Pirates parent club, the Buffalo Sabres -- is the Pirates' seventh-leading scorer, with 44 points in 72 games. Goalie Jeff Jakaitis, a Rochester Mayo grad, has only been with the Pirates for about a month, playing in six games so far. He played in three games for the AHL's Worcester Sharks earlier this season. Jakaitis spent most of the 2010-11 season with the Central Hockey League's Dayton Gems, where another former Mayo grad, d-man Nick Canzanello, was his teammate.
Jakaitis signed with the Pirates on March 5, after Buffalo called up 22-year-old goalie Jhonas Enroth for a fourth time this season.
Here's a story from the Portland Press Herald about Jakaitis' first start with the Pirates this season, about a month ago. Notice who scored the game-winning goal. Hopefully we see some more of that in the playoffs.
A couple of other names to note on the Pirates roster: Former Minnesota Wild forward Mark Parrish (the Wild are still taking a cap hit for the bad contract Doug Risebrough gave him) and goalie John Muse, who signed with the team after finishing his career at Boston College three weeks ago with a first-round NCAA tournament loss to Colorado College. My fellow North Dakota fans might also recognize Pirates defenseman Corey Fienhage, who played two seasons for the Sioux before leaving for Kamloops of the WHL.
Follow the entire Calder Cup Playoffs at the AHL's website here.
To follow Jakaitis, Stuart and the Pirates, the team website is here and the Portland Press Herald is here.
* * *
Elsewhere in the AHL playoffs, the Wild's affiliate, the Houston Aeros, got off to a good start in the postseason by beating Peoria (St. Louis affiliate), 4-1, in the opening game of their first-round series Wednesday night, at Houston.
Four players familiar to Wild fans -- Jed Ortmeyer, former Wisconsin star Robbie Earl, Warren Peters and Patrick O'Sullivan -- scored for the Aeros. Game 2 of the best-of-7 West Division semifinal series is Friday at Houston.
FELDY: You would think a doctor as successful as Mayo Clinic's Dr. Michael Stuart and a hockey player, such as his son, Mark Stuart, who makes more than $1.5 million per year, they could find an easier way to see each other than to travel to Slovakia.
But, the Stuarts will indeed have a family vacation in Slovakia, from April 29-May 15.
Mark Stuart, a defenseman for the Atlanta Thrashers, and Mike, will represent the USA at the 2011 IIHF Men's World Championships. The Thrashers announced today that Stuart, as well as former Minnesota Gopher Blake Wheeler, have been named to the U.S. roster.
Both of those players were traded from the Boston Bruins to Atlanta earlier this season. At the time, the Thrashers were within striking distance of a playoff spot in the NHL's Eastern Conference. Atlanta fell off late in the season, though, and finsihed 12th in the east, 13 points out of the playoffs.
Though Stuart, who signed a three-year, $5.1 million extension with Atlanta, won't be in the playoffs, he'll do the next best thing -- represent the U.S. on a big stage. His brother, Colin Stuart, played for Team USA at the 2009 IIHF World Championship.
Mark Stuart had two goals and four assists in 54 games between Boston and Atlanta this season. He had a goal and 24 penalty minutes in 23 games after being traded to Atlanta.
Team USA is in Group C, along with Sweden, Norway and Austria. The U.S. opens play on April 30 against Austria, followed by a May 2 game against Norway and a 4 matchup with Sweden.
Canada is in Group B with Switzerland, Belarus and France.
FELDY: I'm back at a quiet (for now) Xcel Energy Center for the NCAA championship game, Minnesota-Duluth against Michigan. The Wolverines are chasing their 10th national title; UMD seeks its first, in just its second-ever appearance in the final.
It's pretty clear this game will come down to two things: Goaltending and special teams (though, you could say that about any hockey game at any level, I suppose). So, let's take a position-by-position look at the finalists. The puck is set to drop exactly 1 hour, 49 minutes from now.
FORWARDS
Edge: UMD
The reasons: Michigan doesn't have the dynamic group of playmakers that two of the other Frozen Four teams do, but, obviously that didn't matter in the Wolverines win over top-ranked North Dakota on Thursday. Still, UMD has the best line in the country (Mike Connolly-Jack Connolly-Justin Fontaine). And, in Thursday's 4-3 win against Notre Dame, the Bulldogs received key contributions from second-liners J.T. Brown and Kyle Schmidt, and third-liner Joe Basaraba. UMD can't afford to sleep on Michigan's third line, though. Seniors Ben Winnett and Matt Rust, and junior Luke Glendening, are smart players and veterans who won't back down from UMD's offensive playmakers.
DEFENSEMEN
Edge: UMD
The reasons: Michigan gave up 40 shots to North Dakota on Thursday. Say all you want about Michigan's d-men's willingness to drop and block shots, but had it not been for the sensational play of goalie Shawn Hunwick (more about him later), the Wolverines would be watching tonight's game in Ann Arbor. Duluth's defensive corps lost talented Dylan Olsen after Christmas break, when he left for the Chicago Blackhawks organization. Yet, despite losing a player who was a first-round draft pick, UMD's defensemen seem to have become stronger as a group down the stretch. Freshman Justin Faulk -- who likely will head to the NHL after this season -- is one of the best offensive defensemen in college hockey. He has 33 points in 38 games.
GOALIES
Edge: Michigan
The reasons: Shawn Hunwick has been outstanding for the Wolverines in the national tournament, allowing a total of three goals in three games. He's just 5-foot-7, but the way he's playing is reminiscent of the way diminutive North Dakota netminder Karl Goehring (he of Apple Valley and Minnesota high school state tourney fame) played during the Sioux's run to the 2000 NCAA title. Hunwick will have to carry the Wolverines again tonight, and will again have to be their best penalty killer. On the other side, UMD's Kenny Reiter is an adventure. He made some nice saves against Notre Dame, but allowed two soft goals on shots from above the circles. If he isn't focused tonight, UMD will have to win an 8-7 game.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Edge: UMD
The reasons: Duh. Did you watch the Bulldogs power play on Thursday? As I state above, it's a well-oiled machine and they run a system that is rather unorthodox, sort of an inverted umbrella, I've heard it called. Faulk runs the point as efficiently as any player in the college game, which leads to the question: Why not just focus on stopping Faulk at the point? Well, because that leaves a 4-on-3 for guys like Connolly, Connolly, Fontaine and Brown. Not good odds for the opposition. To be successful, Michigan has to do what it did to North Dakota -- wall up at the blue line, force UMD to dump it in, then take away time and space, not letting the Bulldogs cycle the puck.
COACHING
Edge: Michigan
The reasons: See Thursday's win against North Dakota for the reasons here. Red Berenson might be in his early 70s, but the college game has not passed the Wolverines head coach by. Against UND, he took a Michigan team that traditionally plays an um-tempo, we're-gonna-outscore-you style, and turned it into Alaska-Anchorage, but with better players. They mucked up the neutral zone, took away time and space from the Sioux and got them flustered, forced them to make bad passes and try to become too creative. In other words, the old-timer still has a few tricks up his sleeve and knows how to coach. More importantly, he has a group of players who buy into what he asks them to do.
WHO WINS?
The score: UMD 3, Michigan 2, OT.
The reasons: I just can't see Michigan getting away with playing a muck-it-up style two games in a row against talented teams like UND and UMD. North Dakota had a handful of great scoring chances where, either Hunwick robbed them, or they missed the net. That won't happen twice in a row. Hunwick will hold Michigan in the game again, but, in the end, UMD has too much firepower and they'll bring the NCAA championship trophy back to AmSoil Arena for the first time.
FELDY: How often do Phersy and I use that headline? We have a lot of most wonderful times of the year around here. Usually that headline comes out when hockey season starts, or when the playoffs at any particular level of hockey are intensifying.
That's certainly the case this weekend, as the NCAA Division I Frozen Four makes its return to the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The last time it was here -- 2002 -- some team from just across the river won it by beating Maine in OT. I might add, it took a player from North Dakota scoring in OT to finally bring the Gophers a title, after 23 years ... :-)
My only prediction for this weekend: The Gophers will not win the NCAA title this time around at The X. Should North Dakota be considered the favorite? Probably. If these were 2-out of-3 series, I'd feel confident in saying the Sioux will win. But this is a one-game shot, followed by another one-game shot, and the other three teams have a ton of talent.
Today was practice day for Minnesota-Duluth, Notre Dame, Michigan and NoDak. Each team also held a post-practice press conference. Here are some of the better comments that came from those:
NOTRE DAME COACH JEFF JACKSON
On the one-game format…
"When you get into one-game situations, it is just a matter of which team goes out and plays 60 solid minutes of great discipline, as far as not taking unnecessary penalties. … One shift can be the difference in the game."
NOTRE DAME SR. F RYAN GUENTZEL
His advice to the 11 freshmen on the roster…
"Enjoy the moment. You're not guaranteed to be in this situation every year. It's really exciting. With such a young team, some people think we are at a disadvantage experience-wise. As far as energy and enthusiasm, I think we're a step ahead."
UMD COACH SCOTT SANDELIN
On the matchup against Notre Dame …
"In some ways, they're similar to our team. They like to play aggressively, they forecheck aggressively. It's going to be critical to get pucks out of the zone and try to challenge them defensively. Special teams are going to be big. Hopefully we can win the special teams and chip one in five on five."
UMD JR. GOALIE KENNY REITER
On UMD's success late this season …
"We picked up our intensity at the end of the season. We've paid extra attention to special teams and systems because special teams are obviously important to have clicking at the end of the year."
UMD SR. D MIKE MONTGOMERY
On the intensity of the Frozen Four…
"In our league, it's a battle every night and it turns into a grind by the end of the year. It's just a mentality thing. As soon as we got into the playoffs, everybody buckled down and knew their role and that's how they've been playing."
MICHIGAN COACH RED BERENSON
On who the crowd will support …
"I think they will root for Michigan. I know the animosity between Minnesota and North Dakota. If it was a game at Michigan State, they would be cheering for North Dakota. We have to play our best game of the season, no matter who is here."
On why Michigan can win …
"Stranger things have happened. You need good goalkeeping, good penalty killing, good backchecking, good play coming out of your zone and you need to be opportunistic. We know they are a better team, but we are going to come and play hard."
MICHIGAN SR. F CARL HAGELIN
On playing possibly in front of a pro-North Dakota crowd …
"We all want to be here, so it doesn't matter where we play. We focus on our task, and our task is to win the game."
NORTH DAKOTA HEAD COACH DAVE HAKSTOL
On facing Michigan …
"I have a great deal of respect for their program, the history and tradition of their program, and the success they have had. More specifically, I have a significant amount of respect for their team this year and the accomplishments they've had over the long haul, winning the CCHA and how well they're playing right now. They're a complete hockey team in every sense of the word."
NORTH DAKOTA JR. F JASON GREGOIRE
On the media attention the Sioux have had lately …
"A big aspect of team lately is that no egos have crept in whatsoever. Whether that is individual awards or media attention, we are all focused on one goal. People might think we are just being cliche, but we actually believe it. We are focusing on the job at hand. Right now, that is Michigan."
NORTH DAKOTA SR. D CHAY GENOWAY
On returning for his fifth season at UND, after suffering a season-ending concussion last year …
"It has been a great experience so far. Obviously, last year was a tough one for me personally. Just to have the chance to do it over again has been pretty special. For this year's senior class to take me and to have the opportunity to join their class has been a pretty cool thing. That's a group of six guys who are pretty tight-knit. It's been a fun ride so far and hopefully we have a lot of memories to come."
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