Weekend Round-up

Every week, I'm going to try to link to some of the blogs on the link list as a way of recapping the weekend, as well as giving my own thoughts. This week is a little light because of the number of games played, but hopefully, we'll add some more blogs over the course of the season.

We'll start with The Blog that Yost Built, who had an excellent recap of Michigan's 3-1 win over Quinnipiac. He seems to be joining me on the Billy Sauer bandwagon.

Also, since I don't really follow the NHL until about June, The Blog that Yost Built had an excellent Western Conference Preview. It's recommended if you're a casual NHL fan like me and don't really know what's up. There should be an Eastern Conference preview up sometime this week.

Let's Go DU had an interesting take on Coach Gwozdecky's comments following a exhibition win over Lakehead.

USAFA Bulldog also has his write up of the Duluth/Bemidji series. Apparently freshmen Mason Raymond lived up to expectations last weekend, and the Bulldogs played hard, but couldn't solve Bemidji goalie Matt Climie.

This doesn't really relate, but Goon's Riverhawk Hockey Blog deserves special mention for his OMG!!! Lowell Preview, that includes both Rodney Dangerfield and French literature; two things I enjoy.

There was some recruiting news that happened over the weekend as well.

Defenseman Kevin Wehrs, of Cedar Rapids in the USHL, choose to play for Minnesota in 2007, over St. Cloud, Minnesota-Duluth, BU, and UNH. The offers from all the other schools were for 2006, but Wehrs chose to wait the extra year to play for Minnesota, with the option of coming in 2006 if someone leaves early.

Michigan Tech also got a commitment from a talented defenseman in Penticton Vees playmaking defenseman Deron Cousens. Chris Heisenberg had mentioned him a blog post the day before he committed.

Now for my thoughts on the weekend:

My worry level for the MSU,M Mavericks was bumped up from about Level 2 to Level 4 on the MGoBlog OMG Kitten scale, meaning kitty is up in the belltower with his rifle, but he doesn't quite have the star set up to steady his aim yet. The 5-0 loss to Alberta wasn't as bad as it looked, and goalie Dan Tormey didn't really get much of a chance to show off his talent, but the lack of finishing ability showed by the Mavs when they got quality chances at the start of the game was definite cause for worry.

Also cause for worry was the fact that Bemidji State swept Minnesota-Duluth at Duluth in pretty impressive fashion. Bemidji looks to be for real this year. I would not be surprised if this was the year that they broke through and won a game in the NCAA tournament.

Billy Sauer deserves special recognition for his effort this weekend because he gave Michigan fans at least one reason not to jump. He'll get his first big test next weekend when he duels Cory Schneider from Boston College.

Matt Hunwick's crazy, hardcore offseason workout regime is already paying big dividends. Hunwick was having a perfect weekend, with an assist on Friday night, followed by a 3 goal, two assist performance on Saturday, right up until the Detroit News called him "Matt Hensick" in the Sunday paper.

Just behind Matt Hunwick in the scoring race is Colorado College forward Derek Patrosso. Everyone wondered who would step up as the linemate of Marty Sertich and Brett Sterling, and it looks like Patrosso filled that role with a hat trick against Union and another goal against Maine.

It looks like I may have overrated Wisconsin slightly. St. Lawrence stole some big wins early last season as well, but I really expected more out of the Wisconsin offense.

North Dakota also had a pretty disappointing offensive performance this weekend. The Sioux only managed two powerplay goals against Miami, both scored by freshmen, and an empty net goal. They were then shut out by Michigan State. Jordan Parise was the real star for North Dakota, stopping 36 shots Miami shots for a shutout on Saturday.