Wednesday Morning Post

• Junior forward Mark MacMillan is set to take on a significant leadership and scoring role for UND this season, an opportunity he is relishing.
• Senior defenseman Dillon Simpson came in at number 13 on the Copper and Blue blog's "Top 25 Oilers Under 25" rankings.
• The Ontario Reign (ECHL) caught up with the recently re-signed Mario Lamoureux, who is looking to build on last season's outstanding All-Rookie performance.
• Michael Forney had a terrific summer playing hockey Down Under. He now goes from Australia to Austria, as he will join former Sioux teammate JP Lamoureux on Villacher of the Austrian elite league.
• UND recruits Austin Poganski, Nick Schmaltz, Ryan Mantha and the rest of Team USA pulled out a clutch win yesterday at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, beating Russia 4-2 in pool play. Schmaltz scored a goal and added two assists in the victory, which put the Americans in solid position to advance to the tournament semifinals. They take on Slovakia later this morning (10:30 AM CDT), and a win would vault them into Friday's semifinal round. The UND contingent, by the way, has factored in on five of the six goals Team USA has scored in pool play and Schmaltz is tied for the tournament lead with three points (1G, 2A) in two games.
• McKeen's Hockey has released its Top 30 Prospects for the 2014 NHL Draft, and Schmaltz comes in at number 14. Future Considerations, meanwhile, has Poganski (number 26) in its preliminary rankings. Poganski is also the main feature of The Hockey News' most recent edition of The Hot List, and he says his "hardcore, blue collar" game will fit right in with UND's style of play.

NHL.com's "30 in 30" series is underway and a few Sioux alums have been featured thus far:

• Corban Knight is ranked as a top 5 prospect for the Calgary Flames.
• Derek Forbort came in at number five among Los Angeles' top prospects.
• Where does the newly acquired Matt Frattin fit in with the Los Angeles Kings?