#7 Michigan vs. Lake Superior

Who: Michigan vs. Lake Superior
Where: Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan
When: February 1st, 1992
Final Score: 1-0 Michigan

This may seem like ages ago, but at one time, there was no bigger rivalry in college hockey than the games between Michigan and Lake Superior. I think the only time I ever saw a fight break out before a game even started was a game between these two
teams. You could pick just about any game throughout the early to mid 90's and you'd have an incredibly physical, fast, one goal game, possibly decided in overtime. But even though I'm a guy who enjoys wide open, offensive hockey, this 1-0 battle sticks out most in mind.

Ten different players on that Michigan team would go on to see time in the NHL, including Mike Knuble and Aaron Ward, who are still playing today. Six Lakers would go on to play in the NHL as well, including a young freshman named Brian Rolston. Both goalies, Michigan's Steve Shields and Lake Superior's Darrin Madeley, would become NHL goalies and both were absolutely fantastic on this night.

The game also featured a pretty all-star coaching match-up between Red Berenson, who had resurrected Michigan's program and Jeff Jackson, who was in his second year as head coach after taking over the reigns of the LSSU powerhouse from Frank Anzalone.

Funny enough, nearly 17 years to the date after this series, Berenson and Jackson will meet for a big series between CCHA powerhouses later this year. Meanwhile, Rick Comley has a program in a periodic decline after a surprising national championship. The more things change, the more they stay the same, I guess.

Lake Superior had embarrassed Michigan earlier in the year up at the Soo, winning the Friday night game in overtime, before coming back and blowing them out 10-0 the second night. Michigan won the first game of their second series of the year on Friday night 4-3, after 11 consecutive games against the Lakers without a win. Michigan wanted to prove the previous game wasn't a fluke, and Lake Superior wanted to prove it was.

The game's only goal was scored by Michigan's Denny Felsner who finished that season with 94 points, though would lose the Hobey Baker to Maine's Scott Pellerin, who totaled 57 points that year.

The win would help Michigan go on to win their first even CCHA regular season title. But Lake Superior would get the last laugh, beating Michigan in CCHA Playoff Championship and going on to win the national title.

New Commits

Nebraska-Omaha picked up two new defenseman for the future. The first is Northwood Prep defenseman Nick Cecere, who is originally from West Des Moines, Iowa.

The other is St. Louis Jr. Blues defenseman Brian O'Rourke. He was selected by Green Bay in the USHL Future's Draft this fall, and played two games with GB while defenseman David Makowski was at the World Jr. A Challenge.

Both defensemen will join the Mavericks in either 2010 or 2011.

Lake Superior also had commitments from Ben Power and Kellen Ainsworth. Who knew?

Also, Cornell got a verbal commitment from Ben Thomson, who looks like a top '93 prospect from Ontario.

New Commits

I don't think I ever mentioned that goalie Joe Howe committed to Colorado College for the 2009 season. Howe played high school hockey in Wayzata, Minnesota before moving on to the USHL last season. He'll replace Drew O'Connell who graduates next season, and could step in as a starter if Richard Bachmann has another great year and decides to turn pro.

Justin Filzen committed to play for Alaska this season. Filzen played his high school hockey for Proctor High School, near Duluth and made a nice name for himself playing junior hockey last season.

Traverse City forward Kyle Jean committed to Lake Superior. He's a local kid with a lot of potential. A very nice pick-up for LSSU.

Keegan Meuer committed to Wisconsin. The World of Junior Hockey notes that Wisconsin has a recruiting pipeline with the Waterloo Blackhawks, now having four recruits from that team, as opposed to just three from every other team.

NTDP U17 defenseman Adam Clendening committed to Boston College. He's a small fast defenseman from Buffalo that played hockey in Toronto last year.

New Commits

These come courtesy of Chris Heisenberg.

Team Illinois forward Garrett Peterson committed to Notre Dame for 2010. Peterson had a successful Select 17 Festival, and will represent the US at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament this summer.

Lake Superior got a commitment from Detroit Catholic Central goalie Tyler Marble. Marble is a '92 birthdate, so he won't join the Lakers until 2010 at the earliest.

Northern Michigan got a commitment from forward Stephan Vigier. Vigier played in Manitoba last year, but will move to the USHL this season. He'll also join the Wildcats in 2010.

And out east...

NTDP forward Jerry D'Amigo committed to RPI. There were a few schools out west that had showed interest in him.

Berkshire Prep's Chris McCarthy committed to Boston College. McCarthy was one of the leading scorers at this year's Select 17 Festival.

Shawhan Leaves LSSU

Lake Superior State assistant coach Joe Shawhan will be leaving Lake Superior, when his contract runs out at the end of June.

New Commits

Forward Jason Zucker committed to Denver. Zucker has also reportedly accepted a spot on the NTDP U17 team for next year. Zucker is from Las Vegas, Nevada where he grew up playing for the Las Vegas Outlaws youth program(making him the most famous Las Vegas Outlaw since He Hate Me), before moving to the Compuware program this fall.

Former St. Cloud Cathedral defenseman Matt Crandell committed to Michigan State for next season, replacing the departed Mike Ratchuk.

Kyle Pobur and Kellan Lain committed to Lake Superior.

Cassiani Commits to Lake State

Not only is Lake Superior near the bottom of the CCHA standings, they are also behind the rest of the league in terms of recruiting. While some of the other teams in the league have recruits lined up for the next 3 years, Lake Superior only has one known verbal commitment for next season, in USHL forward Daniel Barczuk.

The Lakers added another forward to their class in St. Mike's(OPJHL) forward Fred Cassiani. Cassiani led the Buzzers in scoring during the regular season with 89 points in 49 games, which was good for third in the league in scoring. He should add some needed offensive punch to the Lakers lineup.

End of an Era in the Soo

Lake Superior is hosting a two-game series with Michigan this weekend in Sault Ste. Marie. That may not seem like a big deal, but it's actually the the first time in 10 years Lake Superior will have two home games against the Wolverines.

The reason for that is that Lake Superior entered into an 11 year contract to play one of their home games with either Michigan or Michigan State at Joe Louis Arena. The deal was signed while Lake Superior was one of the best teams in college hockey, and of course, soon after signing the contract, Lake Superior's program took a huge nose dive and for the majority of the contract, was one of the weakest teams in college hockey. It did have some benefit for the Lakers though. The money made from playing a home game in Detroit every year did help Lake Superior fund their Gem of the North project, which renovated their arena.

Meanwhile, people in Mankato were still complaining about Minnesota State hosting a game against Minnesota at the XCel Energy Center three years ago.

Killin' Time

A couple different games this weekend had to be rescheduled so that they didn't conflict with other sporting events, and ended up leaving some road teams with a little extra time on their hands.

Notre Dame asked Lake Superior to play their series on Thursday and Friday rather than Friday and Saturday so that it didn't conflict with Notre Dame's football game against Navy. In return, Lake Superior's team got tickets to watch Notre Dame's historic loss to Navy.

Denver got the entire day off on Saturday in their series with Minnesota. I didn't hear of any formal plans, but Denver coach George Gwozdecky mentioned in his post-game show that it would be a good opportunity for players to see their family, or catch up on studying, or watch some football. Meanwhile, Gwozdecky, and Minnesota assistant coach John Hill both went to New Hope to watch the Nike/Bauer National Invitational Tournament.

Minnesota State's second game against Alabama-Huntsville had to be moved from 7pm to 3pm to accommodate the Huntville Havoc's game against the Knoxville Ice Bears in thrilling SPHL action. That left the Mavericks with a free Saturday night in Huntsville before their plane left the next morning. The Mavericks went out to the movies to see the film American Gangster last night, before flying back to Minnesota on Sunday.

Recruiting Stuff

Ohio(USHL) forward Daniel Barczuk committed to Lake Superior for 2008. He is Lake Superior's first recruit for next season, which is interesting considering some of the top programs in the west are already set not only for next season, but the season after that.

According to Chris Heisenberg, Alaska got another commitment from an Albertan. This time it's '88 forward Jarret Granberg, who plays for Brooks. One has to wonder where Alaska is going to put all of these new recruits.

Defenseman Braden Birch committed to Cornell. He was reportedly also considering Michigan State.

And a few notes on uncommitted players...

Andy Baggot at the Wisconsin State Journal reported that BCHL forward Derek Lee visited Wisconsin last weekend. He'll be visiting BU later this month, and Michigan in October. He attended a college football game while in Madison. He can't do the same at BU, and I'm guessing a trip to the Big House will be scratched off the menu when he comes to Ann Arbor.

Omaha Lancer defenseman Peter Wiercioch is being heavily recruited by Denver, Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire. Wiercioch is a talented defenseman that left the BCHL to play in the USHL this year, much to the chagrin of his coach at Burnaby.

LSSU Loses Baird

Lake Superior defenseman Ryan Baird is retiring from hockey due to a recurring shoulder injury. Baird will return to his hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario where he works as an electrician. It's always a shame to see a player forced to give up the game prematurely. I wish Baird all the best in the future.

Meanwhile, Minnesota defenseman Nate Hagemo, who was forced into early retirement last fall with a nagging shoulder injury is trying to make another comeback. It would be great to see Hagemo back on the ice, as he was an extremely talented player, but I'd be surprised if he did come back. I'm not a doctor, but it seems to me that if his shoulder hadn't healed 18 months after the injury occurred, another 12 months probably wouldn't change much. Stranger things have happened though, and I wish him the best as he tries to come back.

Linkorama

Team USA's U17 team took second place at the Five Nations Cup after falling to the Czech Republic in the final game of the tournament. Steven Whitney was Team USA's top goal scorer. It also sounded like a nice tournament for Minnesotan high schoolers, including Blake's Josh Birkholz, St. Thomas Academy's Ryan Walters, and Edina's Zach Budish.

Lake Superior recruited a defenseman named Kitzmiller. I wonder if he shops at the Lumbar Yard and swims in the East River? Perhaps the Lakers will also be interested in Todd Gack. I think he's Dutch.

Chris Heisenberg lists KJ Tiefenwerth as committing to Boston College. Tiefenwerth is considered one of the better '92 born players in the country. He was also considering some other eastern schools, but chose the Eagles.

Former Yale coach Tim Taylor will be coaching with the NTDP. Taylor was one of the most outspoken critics of kids choosing colleges early, so it is kind of interesting to see him at a program where kids choose their college extremely early.

Michigan native RJ Mahalak signed with the Plymouth Whalers.

Fun Fact

Elliot Olshansky of CSTV's Rink Rat Blog has been checking out schedules for the upcoming year, and noticed something interesting.

Lake Superior is scheduled to play Minnesota-Duluth this season as part of the new "Superior Cup," which features Lake Superior, Duluth, Michigan Tech, and Northern Michigan. The game will be Lake Superior's first game against a WCHA opponent since the Lakers played Minnesota in December 2000 as part of the Mariucci Classic.

It's incredibly rare for a CCHA team to go that long without playing a WCHA opponent. In fact, Western Michignan was the only other CCHA team not to play a WCHA opponent last season, and Western had played Wisconsin the year prior.

New Commitments

I'm a little backed up on these.

Hopkins high school star forward Mike Fink committed to North Dakota. Fink said he love Englestad Arena and the facilities that they have for players. He also felt very connected to the coaches at UND. He'll probably be playing for the NTDP next season, or in Waterloo, in the USHL.

Tri-City forward Alex Hudson committed to Nebraska-Omaha for 2008. Last season, Hudson left Tri-City, because he was struggling to gain college eligibility and was going to sign with Medicine Hat of the WHL, but apparently never played a game with the Tigers. He came back to Tri-City and has played well with the Storm.

Lake Superior got a commitment from the well-traveled Brian Mahoney-Wilson. He may split time with sophomore Pat Inglis next season.

Alaska-Anchorage got their first commitment for 2009. Anchorage was the last WCHA team to add a player for 2008 or 2009. Imagine being behind the times because you're only recruiting players 15 months before they step on campus. Anyway, that player is Gustav Bengston of the Northwest Regulators.

During yesterday's USHL Draft, I said I didn't know who the Northwest Regulators were. According to their website headline, they are the #1 AAA Major Hockey Program in Utah. Though competition is sparse. Also, they are apparently big fans of Nate Dogg and Warren G.

Bengston is originally from Stockholm, Sweden. In 34 games, he had 19 goals and 17 assists.

Linkorama

The MGoObit of Kurt Vonnegut. Worth a read.

Northern Michigan picked up two commitment from European players. Your guess is as good as mine. Northern Michigan has had some success with European players like Tuomas Tarkki and Juha Alen.

Lake Superior defenseman Derek A. Smith signed with Ottawa. He would have been a senior next season. He'll be replaced by a defenseman from from the Ottawa area, named Matt Cowie.

Ryan Duncan and Taylor Chorney said that they will return. T.J. Oshie also said that he will stay. I can kind of understand Chorney staying, but Oshie could definitely be playing for the Blues next fall, and I don't see what Duncan has to gain by staying in school. More power to them if they decide to stay though. College hockey would be certainly be stronger if they do.

Legendary blog commenter Colin now has his own blog, featuring Michigan. He tries to figure out what to expect from Michigan's freshman for next year. If Aaron Palushaj, Max Pacioretty, and Ben Winnett are playing behind the likes of Tim Miller and Brandon Naurato, I'll be pretty disappointed. He also tries to make sense of the enigma that is Carl Hagelin.

Garrett Suter has run out of chances to get into Wisconsin.

Chicago Steel goalie Rob Madore had an amazing game to steal a win over the Sioux City Musketeers.

CSTV says Boston College has been the best college team over the past ten years. Yet BC's entire athletic department has only won 2.3 national titles in school history. As far as overrated athletic programs, BC is easily among the top.

This guy gives a brief preview of the 2008 and 2009 NHL draft. There aren't any Americans/college prospects in the top 6 for 2008. 2008 could be a rough year for Americans at the top of the draft. The top American prospect could be Mitch Wahl, who is playing in the WHL.

2009 is a more interesting year. It's already being hyped as one of the deepest drafts in years. I hesitate to call it that though. It's too tough to say that this far out. Too many players are either not playing against quality competition, or are playing against much older competition and aren't expected to do much. I'd be surprised if it looked as strong two years from now.

Two college players are on the list though. Notre Dame recruit Sam Calabrese is rated #8, and is compared to Bobby Orr. Yeah, I think he is talking about that Bobby Orr. I guess I don't see it. I'm not even sure we'll see Calabrese in the first round, unless he grows a lot. He'll still be a fun player to watch in college though.

Michigan State recruit Matt Duchene is placed at 11th. He won't be playing in the OHL, but he will have a year of NCAA hockey under his belt before he is drafted, and that will likely play a big role in where he is drafted.

The biggest sleeper that isn't on that list would have to be Minnesota recruit Jordan Schroeder. Schroeder got off to a bit of a slow start with the U17 team, as most players do, but has really exploded since getting called up to the U18 team. His size will be a bit of an issue, but I can see him as being very similar to Pat Kane, who has really risen up the charts in his draft year.

Speaking of Schroeder, he is playing with the US U18 team at the World Championships, which got started yesterday. Team USA lost to Russia 5-3 to start the tournament despite outshooting Russia by a pretty nice margin. Jimmy O'Brien scored twice for the US. It's nice to see him shine against his own age group, because I feel like he was unfairly punished by some people for playing a smaller role on a very good team this year.

Linkorama

MGoBlog visited the Michigan Soo. I'm guessing he won't be invited back.

Also, on Sunday, Lake Superior completed their 12 year contract where they played a home game against Michigan or Michigan State at Lake Superior. The contract kind of backfired, since Lake Superior was pretty good at the time they signed the contract, but was terrible for most of that period. It is interesting to see the fairly positive reaction to the contract from the LSSU folks, as opposed to say, the fans of a certain southern Minnesota school, who complained when their team played a home game much closer to home than LSSU did.

Hockey's Future profiled Jim O'Brien. O'Brien said he would be interested in moving back to defense next season.

The seedings are out for the Minnesota State High School tournament. The Gopher Puck Blog has the sectional seedings. The actual brackets are somewhere on the MSHSL website. I'll have more on this later in the week once we get to the final rounds of the section touraments.

The CC Hockey Blog takes some inventory of where Colorado College is right now.

RWD gets creative. This is what happens when Duluth is in last place.

David Backes scored twice against the Minnesota Wild yesterday, giving him four goals in his last three games, and moving him into the top 30 among rookie scoring. That makes 6 players who left WCHA teams last summer in the top 30 among rookie scores. Those players are Paul Statsny(#3), Travis Zajac(#8), Matt Carle(#9), Joe Pavelski(#12), Phil Kessel(#18), and David Backes(#27).

New Commitments

Chris Rengert of Burnaby(BCHL) committed to Alaska-Anchorage.

Dillon Stonehouse of Melfort in the SJHL committed to Lake Superior.

Sean Murphy, who had a great year for the Southern Minnesota Express in the NAHL last season, but hasn't had as much success this year in the USHL, committed to RIT.

This Star-Trib article on Mike Dorr and Jake Hansen, lists Dorr's college choices as Minnesota, Minnesota State, Wisconsin, and Notre Dame. It seems pretty safe to say that Minnesota would be his top choice if they offered him a scholarship, since it was rumored that that was why he backed out of signing with Minnesota-Duluth. Wisconsin said they were only looking to add a walk-on type player for next year, and Minnesota State has a lot of guys kids coming in to replace not a lot of departures, so I don't know how much space either team would have left for Dorr.

Matt Martello Signs with OHL

Lake Superior freshman forward Matt Martello signed with the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL. Apparently Martello wasn't America's #1 Proust scholar, and was kicked off LSSU's team for academic problems. There's rumors that LSSU could suffer more academic casualties.

Martello is a pretty big loss for the Lakers. He was considered one of the most talented players Lake Superior had recruited in a while.

Statistical Craziness

In three starts so far in the month of December, Lake Superior goalie Jeff Jakaitis has faced 124 shots(which works out to 41.3 shots per game), and has only allowed 2 goals. That means that Jakaitis has a goals against average of 0.66 and save percentage of 98.4% so far in December. His season totals are almost as impressive, as he has a 1.57 GAA and .956 save percentage.

The Lakers, who were picked by both the coaches and the media to finish 10th in the league, currently sit in 5th place in the CCHA, and are only two points behind third place Michigan, with one game in hand on the Wolverines. That's due in large part to only allowing 26 goals in conference play so far this season. Only Notre Dame has allowed fewer goals in league play.

Jakaitis won't get an opportunity to continue his hot streak until after Christmas when the Lakers travel to Madison to play in the Badger Showdown, where he could meet up with another great goalie in Wisconsin's Brian Elliott in the final.

Jakaitis is a player that is definitely worthy of Hobey Baker consideration. Whether or not he will get it is another question. Lake Superior has flown under the radar this season, but Jakaitis continues to play at the level that he has been, and Lake Superior finds a way to get into NCAA tournament consideration, he should definitely be a finalist for the award.

Dante Hicks Would be Proud

Lake Superior traveled down to Bowling Green to take on the Falcons this past weekend. It wasn't exactly a pleasant bus ride though. On the ride down, the Lakers third defensive pairing of Steve Kaunisto and Marty Gurnoe got sick, to the point that they were too dehyrated to play. Nik Sellers was plugged into the lineup at forward, and fourth liner Jason Blain dropped back to defense. But the Lakers still needed one more defenseman.

Coach Jim Roque called back to Sault Ste. Marie and told defenseman Justin Gutwald to drive down to BG so he could play. Gutwald made the 400 mile trip in time to play in Friday night's game, where he picked up an assist in the Lakers 3-1 victory. Kaunisto and Gurnoe felt better the next day and played, but maybe the Lakers should have stuck with Gutwald because the Lakers lost 4-2.

Incidentally, I hate to say it, but my daring pick of Lake Superior finishing in second is starting to look like a "Gene pick". Just to prove that I'm not always wrong about everything, last week I said that Michigan Tech might struggle to score against Colorado College, and the Huskies proved me right, only scoring a single goal in each game of the series.