Wednesday Evening Post

Here's some news from the North Dakota hockey world, beginning with a wrap on the recently concluded international break:

• USA Hockey had an historically successful fall international break. For the first time ever, Team USA swept the four tournaments that make up the break. Monique and Jocelyne Lamoureux were part of the gold-medal winning US Women's national team at the Women's Four Nations Tournament. Team USA shutout Canada 3-0 in the championship game. In the Under-18 Four Nations Tournament, Keaton Thompson and Team USA won its fifth consecutive championship while Chris Wilkie and the Under-17ers did the same at their Four Nations Tournament. At the World Junior A Challenge, Luke Johnson and Team USA defeated Canada West and Wade Murphy to win its fourth title in the past five years. Johnson finished the tournament with four assists in four games while Murphy was named to the tournament All-Star Team after producing six points (3G, 3A) in four games.
• Josefine Jakobsen and the Danish women's national team advanced to the final round of Olympic qualification by winning their most recent round of pre-qualification play. Denmark swept their three pre-qualification games this past weekend and will play in February for the right to advance to the Sochi games. Jakobsen led the tournament with a +4 rating and was named Denmark's Player of the Game following their first game of the tournament.
• UND women's recruit Halli Krzyzaniak led Team Manitoba to a silver medal at the Canadian Women's Under-18 National Championships last weekend. Kryzyaniak. who captained the Manitoba squad, finished the tournament with a goal and an assist and was named the tournament's MVP and Top Defenseman.
• The Edmonton Journal's Cult of Hockey blog says Chris VandeVelde's strong play in Oklahoma City is bolstering his NHL dreams.
• Robbie Bina has signed a two-year extension with Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg of the German elite league. This is Bina's third year in Wolfsburg.
• Aaron Dell of the Allen Americans leads the Central Hockey League (CHL) in both GAA (1.79) and Save Percentage (.935). After losing his first professional start Dell has rattled off three consecutive victories, including last night's 5-4 shootout victory over Bloomington. Dell entered the game in a relief role after the Americans had given up three goals in the game's first eight minutes. He stopped 26 of 27 shots the rest of the way and stoned five out of five shootout attempts to lead Allen to the win.
• Jonathan Toews expects to make a decision on playing in Europe in the near future.