Finland beat the U.S. 3-2 on Monday in the first game of the 2009 Hockey Canada Cup ay GM Place in Vancouver, B.C.

“We ran into a goaltender that played exceptionally well, while not capitalizing on the opportunities we had,” said Mark Johnson, the U.S. coach. “It wasn’t the way we wanted to start the tournament but all we can do is bounce back and play well against Sweden [on Tuesday]. We’ll take the lessons we learned and move forward from here.”

The goalie? Noora Raty, who will be a Gophers freshman this season. Not sure how much she will play, though, because she will undoubtedly be the Finn’s goalie in the 2010 Olympics.

Gigi Marvin had one of the two U.S. goals in the first period. After that Raty stopped 34 shots in the second and third period and finished with 49 saves total.

After playing Sweden today, the U.S. faces Canada on Thursday.

The U beat No. 22 Kansas State in five sets and lost to No. 3 Nebraska in five sets in a tournament in Omaha on Fri.-Sat.

Not a bad start. Something to build on. Team has a lot of new players. It would be surprising if team was humming already.

Didn’t watch any of two matches but did see team in preseason scrimmage last Tuesday. My impressions: junior middle blocker Lauren Gibbemeyer is going to be a force at the net as a hitter and blocker.

Taylor Carico seemed very consistent as the new setter, spreading the ball around.

Brook Dieter’s jump serve looked like the best on the team.

Overall, the team’s serving was not sharp in the scrimmage. In Omaha, the Gophers also struggled with the serve: five aces, 18 errors in two matches.

K-State had 10 aces, 10 errors. One reason that match was so close.

Also liked Tabi Love in scrimmage. She is all of 6-6, no fudging their with extra inches. She has potential. A big upside, so to speak.

Carico can also score points. At times, instead of setting, she will confuse foes with a spike.

Read the rest of this entry »

The 23-member U.S national women’s hockey team was named on Monday and six former Gophers are on it.

Two of them are the Lamoureux twins, Monique and Jocelyne, of Grand Forks, N.D. They played for the Gophers as freshmen last season but then transferred to North Dakota.

Also on the national roster, which is basically the roster for the U.S. Olympic team minus two players, are:

Gophers assistant coach and former all-america player Natalie Darwitz and two players on last season’s team, forward Gigi Marvin and defenseman Rachael Drazan.

The sixth ex-Gopher is forward Jenny Potter, who played at the U of M before transferring to UMD and leading the Bulldogs to the NCAA title in 2000.

The seventh Minnesotan on the national team is forward Angie Keseley of St. Louis Park. She plays for the University of Wisconsin.

The national team will play a 10-game tour before the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, which starts Sept. 25 in St. Paul.

Rumors about Jordan Schroeder’s status were flying all around on Thursday in western Canada. Radio stations and web sites said he was ready to sign with the Vancouver Canucks, who took him with the 22nd pick in the first round of the NHL draft.

He would play for the Everett (Wash.) Silvertips this season of the Western Hockey League.

Awful for Gophers fans, eh? Actually the rumors are not true.

The U was concerned enough about the Schroeder buzz that someone contacted him to check what was going on. He told them absolutely nothing.

I talked with John Schroeder, Jordan’s father, too. He also said the rumors were not true.

“They are so far from the truth,” John Schroeder said. “If Jordan is going to leave college, it will be for the AHL or NHL. And Jordan is not leaving until he feels he has a good shot of making it there.”

Canucks assistant GM Laurence Gilman is quoted as saying in the Vancouver Sun that education is important and “if [Jordan] want to stay for another year of school, that is a good thing.”

Schroeder, who will be a sophomore center, was the second-leading scorer in 2008-09 in WCHA games, one point behind teammate Ryan Stoa. Overall, he had 13 goals and 32 assists for 45 points in 35 games. A great season, especially for someone who should have been in high school.

He accelerated his studies, graduating from high school in three years. 

Schroeder is already being called one of the leading Hobey Baker candidates this season by some hockey web sites. He’s a player whose loss this season could have badly hurt the Gophers. Looks like he will stay, though.

But his father John, in Friday’s Sun newspaper, is quoted as saying Jordan might join the Canucks after the season or their top farm team. So Jordan could be a two and done guy.

The under-17 U.S. select team lost 3-2 to Slovakia on Tuesday in the Five Nations tournament in Fussen, Germany.

Five of the players on the team are Minnesotans: defenseman Dan Molenaar of Eden Prairie, forwards Ben Bahe and Kevin Becker of Hill-Murray, Anthony Greco of Shattuck-St. Mary’s and Christian Horn of Benilde-St. Margaret’s.

Forward Kenneth Gillespie of Shattuck is also on the team but he is from North Carolina.

The U.S. team beat Germany 3-1 on Sunday and plays Switzerland on Thursday.

Two players who have committed to the U of M each scored a goal as the U.S. under-18 select team beat Slovakia 7-6 in overtime in the Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament in Piestany, Slovakia.

Forward Nick Bjugstad and defenseman Ben Marshall, who play for Blaine and Mahtomedi high schools respectively, each had one goal for the U.S. Bjugstad also had an assist. Marshall’s goal on a power play at 10:35 of the third period tied the score at 7-7.

 Christian Isackson, who will be a senior forward at St. Thomas Academy this season and has also commited to the Gophers, had two assists.  Kyle Rau, of Class 2A state champion Eden Prairie, also had a goal.

The U.S. team has a 3-2 tournament record now. It will play Sweden for third place at 6:30 a.m. CDT on Saturday.Â

Three players who have committed to the Gophers all could be playing for the Sioux Falls Stampede in the 2010-11 season.

All three will be high school seniors this coming school year but were at the Stampede’s tryout camp in June.

Two of them are the Reilly twins, Ryan and Connor, forwards on the same line at Holy Angels. The Stampede drafted both of them in the 2008 USHL Futures draft on Oct. 17, 2008. Ryan was the 73rd pick, Connor the 84th.

The other future Gopher expected to play for the Stampede is St. Thomas Academy senior forward Christian Isackson who had 57 points for the Cadets last season.

The Gophers women’s soccer, which tied Penn State for the Big Ten title last season, is rated No. 19 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s preseason poll.

The U was 22-4 overall last season, 8-2 in conference play.

Read the rest of this entry »

WCHA commish Bruce McLeod said Wednesday that he expects the conference to release details soon of what the 2010-11 schedule will look like and how the conference playoffs will work.

“Within two weeks, we should have news on both,” he said.

The WCHA will grow to 12 teams in 2010-11 with the addition of Bemidji State and Neb.-Omaha.

Most college hockey people expect the WCHA to go to a Final Six in 2011, with all 12 teams playing in the first round and the six winners advancing to the Xcel Energy Center.

In St. Paul, there would be two quarterfinals on Thusday instead of one, two semifinals Friday as is the case now and a championship game on Saturday. The third-place game would probably be eliminated.

Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. team routed Russia 8-1 on Tuesday in Lake Placid, N.Y., in a matchup of under-20 national teams.

Coach Dean Blais of the U.S. team still has 29 players in a junior national evaluation camp. He is looking for the players he wants to compete for the U.S. in the World Junior Championships in Saskatchewan over the holidays.

Against Russia, two Gophers had goals. Zach Budish, a freshman forward, deflected a shot for the third U.S. goal. It came on a two-man advantage. Jordan Schroeder, a sophomore center, had the last goal, on a power play, and an assist.

Mike Lee, a St. Cloud State freshman, was the U.S. goalie for the whole game.

The U.S. and Russia will play again on Wed., Fri. and Sat.

Hopefully, those games are more competitive.

Danny Kristo, a North Dakota freshman forward from Eden Prairie, had two goals for the U.S.

AROUND HOCKEY

* Stunning news: The CCHA has turned down Alabama-Birmingham’s request for admission. UAB is in the same four-team conference as Bemidji State and its disbanding after this coming season.

Read the rest of this entry »