The Gophers were rated No. 12 in the final USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine national college hockey rankings. That’s a pretty high rating for a team that finished seventh in the WCHA.

Boston College, which eliminated Minnesota 5-2 in the semifinals of the Northeast Regional, en route to the NCAA title finished No. 1 predictably. Michigan was No. 2, Notre Dame No. 3 and North Dakota No. 4. That would be your Frozen Four teams.

Other WCHA teams in the final ratings: CC was No. 8, Denver No. 9, Wisconsin No. 13, St. Cloud State No. 14 and Minnesota State Mankato No. 15.

That puts the Gophers fourth in the ratings among conference teams.

PHOENIX BUSY

The Coyotes, who earlier signed freshman forward Kyle Turris Wisconsin, have also signed Michigan senior forwards Kevin Porter and Chad Kolarik. Wonder with all these new forwards coming in, Phoenix might have less interest in junior center Blake Wheeler of the Gophers coming out a year early?

Porter, of course, was named the Hobey Baker Award winner. He had 33 goals and 30 assists for 63 points, just a monster season. But Kolarik was not far behind. He had 30 goals and 26 assists for 56 points.

ALL ABOUT THE DEYS

St. Cloud State’s Nate and Stacy Dey will be featured in this month’s NCAA On Campus television program at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday on ESPN Classic, according to a Huskies’ news release.

Nate was a senior forward on the 2007-08 men’s hockey team; his sister Stacy was a senior defender on the women’s hockey team.  Both attended North St. Paul High School.

The show on the Deys will be repeated throughout the rest of the month on ESPNU at 10:30 a.m. Friday,  2:30 a.m. Sunday, 4:30 p.m. Monday, 2 p.m. April 26 and 10 a.m. April 28.

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