Midweek Thoughts

Congrats to Lee Moffie and the Americans on winning the World Junior A Challenge by beating Canada West 7-1. Moffie had the opening goal for the Americans in the championship game. Moffie had a 1-2--3 line in five games played.

USA Hockey regularly puts out feature stories about their players and a couple weeks ago it was Kevin Lynch's turn. I just noticed this article and it's pretty good.

The Under 18s won the Four Nations' Cup in Lake Placid. AJ Treais was the Player of the Game in USA's opening tilt, scoring the first two goals en route to a 4-2 win over Switzerland. Lynch had an assist in a 5-4 win over Finland and Treais assisted on the opening goal of the Championship Game against Finland.

The U-17s went 3-1 at their Four Nations' Cup event in Switzerland. The highlight was Jack Campbell going 2-0 in his starts (against Slovakia and Switzerland), winning both via shutout and making 42 saves in the process. Jacob Fallon had a goal and an asisst and was +4. Jon Merrill was even. Luke Moffatt had a goal and was +4.

Could Mark Mitera return this year? He had surgery on his injured knee last Thursday and Red Berenson told the media that the timetable for his return is 3-6 months. Red is also optimistic that his recovery will be toward the shorter end of that timetable. Now, I would expect Mitera and the team to be safe about it since he's got a shot at a pro hockey career in front of him, but last Thursday was November 6. Three months would put him at February 6. Four months and he's back for the CCHA Tournament. Five months and it's just the Frozen Four if we make it. It might be unlikely, but apparently there's still a chance that Mitera's Michigan career isn't over. You know he'd like to make it back in four months and play at Yost one more time...

The Daily put out their 10 game report card, giving the offense an A-, the defense a B, the special teams a C-, and the goaltending a B. I think I would've gone a tick lower on the offense and defense (B+ and B- respectively; very small qualm) but I agree with the other two grades.

Louie Caporusso kept a five day diary of the trip to Alaska. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty much on board with letting these guys (especially Caporusso and Rust) write for MGoBlue as much as they want to. It's always hilarious. Louie seemed to enjoy getting to play on an outdoor rink for a little while. I'm sure he'll be geeked if the game against Wiscy at Camp Randall ends up happening.