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.

International and All-Star Tournament Updates

There are several international/all-star competitions that are either ongoing or have recently wrapped up. Here's a quick rundown of those events:

• Yesterday afternoon Team USA again ran into some hot goaltending at the World Junior Championship and moved to 1-2-0 for the tournament after getting dropped by the Czech Republic 5-2. UND sophomore defenseman Derek Forbort was injured after being checked into the boards by a Czech player and was unable to return to action after heading to the locker room. Opportunistic opponents, average goaltending, lack of offensive execution, and stellar play by opposing netminders have all spelled doom for what America thought might be another golden WJC experience. Tonight's matchup with Canada was supposed to be the biggest preliminary round game of the event but instead the Americans will be playing for pride as they are headed for next week's relegation round. Forbort will not dress for tonight's game against Canada, which is set to begin at 7:00 PM CST.
• Robbie Bina's EHC Wolfsburg squad was eliminated from the Spengler Cup yesterday after losing to to Dinamo Riga 4-1 in the tournament semifinals. The host team, HC Davos, claimed the tournament championship earlier today by defeating Dinamo Riga 3-2. 
• Team USA dropped a narrow 3-2 decision to Russia yesterday in preliminary round play at the 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Windsor, Ontario. Team USA, whose record is now 1-1-0, has today off before returning to action tomorrow at 6:00 CST against Canada West. Keaton Thompson has one assist and Luke Voltin is pointless thru the first two games, and if you care to watch these Sioux recruits and their Team USA teammates, all tournament games are being streamed live at Fast Hockey. You need to register in order to log-in, but the games cost nothing to watch.
• Recruit Drake Caggiula and the OJHL North All-Stars came up just short in the Central Canada Cup Challenge. The Quebec League All-Stars won the tournament with Thursday night's 5-1 victory over OJHL North, with Caggiula notching his team's only goal. For the tournament Caggiula had three points (2G, 1A) in five games and converted both of his shootout attempts, including the semifinal game winner. In OJHL regular season play, he entered the holiday break on a five game point streak that saw him put up nine points (4G, 5A) in helping the Stouffville Spirit to a 4-0-1 record.
• On the women's side, two Sioux recruits are taking part in the 2012 Women's Under-18 Championship. Samantha LaShomb is representing Team USA, which opened their tournament with an 8-0 victory over Russia this morning, while Meghan Dufault and Team Canada hammered Switzerland 13-1. Team USA has won three of the last four gold medals in this event, and the Americans and Canadians have met for the gold all four years. Team USA and Canada each resume play tomorrow at Noon CST, with the US taking on Sweden and Canada facing Germany.

Post Holiday Break Update, Part 1

Following the holiday break and a pleasant road trip to western North Dakota, the blog is now back to active status. There's been a decent amount of noteworthy activity in the land of Sioux hockey, and we'll look to tackle it all over the course of the next several days. There are a few recruit profiles left to complete, there are two significant international tournaments going on, and with a big nonconference series coming up against Harvard, the posting should become pretty regular during the next week or so. Hopefully everyone had a great holiday season, and here's the first round of updates and links:

• Derrick LaPoint scored his first professional goal last Friday in the Reading Royals' (ECHL) 6-4 victory over Greenville. LaPoint currently has five points (1G, 4A) in 24 games with Reading. He's also played in five AHL games this season-four with the Syracuse Crunch and one with the Peoria Rivermen.
• Brady Murray recently returned from injury to make his season debut with HC Lugano of the Swiss National League. He has registered seven points (3G, 4A) in eight games and recently signed a contract extension that will keep him in Lugano through the 2013/14 season with an option for an additional year.
• Michael Forney of the Colorado Eagles has been as hot as anyone in the ECHL lately, recently being named the league's Player of the Week. Forney produced six points (3G, 3A) and was a +7 in helping the Eagles to a 3-0 record over the course of the week. He is currently riding a nine game point streak during which he has recorded 14 points (8G, 6A) to go along with a +11 rating. For the season Forney has 27 points (12G, 15A) and a +9. Also helping Colorado earn at least one point in 11 of its last 12 games has been Aaron Schneekloth, who leads all ECHL defensemen with 28 points (11G, 17A) in 30 games. Jake Marto, meanwhile, has rejoined Colorado after a 12 game run with St. John's (AHL).
• The 2011 Spengler Cup, one of the oldest invitation-only hockey tournaments in the world, is currently taking place in Davos, Switzerland. Former Sioux defenseman Robbie Bina is taking part with his EHC Wolfsburg (Germany Tier I) squad, and earlier today they eliminated Team Canada 3-2 (SO) to advance to the semifinals. Travis Roche was originally chosen to participate for Team Canada, but was forced to back out due to injury.
• Derek Forbort is currently in Alberta representing Team USA in the 2012 World Junior Championships. In their tournament opener Team USA trounced Denmark 11-3, with Forbort notching two assists. The Americans were upset 4-1 Wednesday afternoon by an offensively gifted Finland team, despite outshooting the Fins 38-24. Team USA has an off day today before concluding preliminary round play against the Czech Republic Friday (2:30 CST) and Canada Saturday (7:00 CST).
• Recruits Luke Voltin and Keaton Thompson will be taking part in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge beginning today in Windsor, Ontario. The United States of Hockey put together a very nice preview of Team USA, including brief scouting reports of all players. Team USA kicks off their tournament today at 6:00 CST, and all games can be viewed live over the internet at Fast Hockey. This has become a high-profile showcase event for players still two to three years out of their draft year, and among those taking part will be highly-regarded prospects Nathan MacKinnon and Aaron Ekblad. Ekblad is just the second player ever to be granted exceptional player status by the OHL (John Tavares was the first), which allowed him to play in the league at the age of 15.
• Recruit Drake Caggiula is currently participating in the Central Canada Cup All-Star Challenge in Smith Falls, Ontario. The tournament, which consists of all-star teams from several Canadian junior A leagues, concludes tonight at 6:00 CST when Caggiula and his OJHL North teammates take on Quebec for the tournament championship. Caggiula has a goal and an assist in four tournament games. He's also gone two-for-two in shootouts, including the game winner in the semifinal game earlier today. The game can be viewed live via Neulion.