Wednesday Evening Post

• Team USA and Rocco Grimaldi have advanced to the semifinal round of the World Junior Championship where they will take on Canada at 3:00 CST Thursday morning for the right to play for WJC gold. Sweden and Russia will play in Thursday's second semifinal matchup. Grimaldi, who was benched for Monday's preliminary round game against Slovakia, returned to action this morning in the quarterfinal game against the Czech Republic and it will be interesting to see what role he plays in the big rematch with Canada. His combination of speed and puck skill is as good as anyone playing in this tournament, making him an instant offensive threat that could be a difference maker in a big game. 
• The Team USA U-17 team rolled through World Under-17 Challenge preliminary play, going 4-0 while outscoring its opponents 23-11. UND recruit Chris Wilkie is tied for fourth in tournament scoring with seven points (1G, 6A), and his six assists are tied for the tournament lead. Fellow recruit Austin Poganski scored a pair of goals in prelim play, but his level of play is not reflected in his stat line. His strong play has earned him increased ice time as the tournament has progressed, and he is now seeing time on the second powerplay unit. Team USA will take on Russia tomorrow evening at 6:30 CST in the semifinal round, with the medal games scheduled for Friday. All tournament games can be streamed live and free via FastHockey.
• Both Team USA and Team Canada rolled through preliminary round play at the Under-18 Women's World Championship. Team USA, featuring North Dakota recruits Amy Menke, Gracen Hirschy, and Alexis Shaw, went 3-0 during the preliminary round and outscored its opponents 25-0. Canada, with recruit Halli Krzyzaniak, also went 3-0, and they outscored their opposition 15-1. Krzyzaniak, a defenseman, is Canada's leading point producer and she is tied for fourth in tournament scoring with six points (2G, 4A) while Menke is tied for 11th with four points (2G, 2A). Hirschy has recorded two assists while Shaw posted a shutout in her one appearance thus far. Team USA next takes to the ice in a semifinal tilt with the Czech Republic Friday, while Canada will face Sweden in Friday's other semifinal. The gold medal game will take place Saturday, and anything outside of a USA-Canada final would be a major, major surprise. For realtime stats and a full schedule, checkout the official tournament website.
• Former Sioux defenseman Travis Roche and Team Canada defeated Davos (Switzerland) to win the 2012 Spengler Cup. Roche recorded two assists during Canada's four tournament games.
• Andy Johnson of Bucky's Fifth Quarter issued his WCHA First Half Awards, and his Player of the Year is UND centerman Corban Knight. Danny Kristo, Derek Forbort, Clarke Saunders, and Rocco Grimaldi also received recognition.
• Brock Nelson of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (AHL) is expected to miss the next two weeks after suffering a broken jaw.
• The second annual USHL/NHL Top Prospects Game is scheduled to take place January 23 in Muskegon, Michigan, and a trio of North Dakota recruits received invitations today. Luke Johnson (Lincoln) will take part for the second consecutive season, and he will be joined by Luke Voltin (Des Moines) and Tucker Poolman (Omaha).
• Recruit Nick Schmaltz sent 2012 out in style by notching a hat trick in Green Bay's (USHL) 6-5 (OT) win over Muskegon on New Year's Eve. He completed the hatty by scoring the overtime game-winner.

Holiday Leftovers

The blogging came to a screeching halt as the result of holiday travels, but having now returned home a Heinz post is in order. Here's some old news along with some not-so-old news in an effort to catch up:

• Team USA kicked off the 2013 World Junior Championship today with an 8-0 thumping of Germany, and North Dakota forward Rocco Grimaldi picked up an assist in the victory. They will take on tournament host Russia tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM CST, and the game can be viewed on NHL Network or streamed on NHL.com (Full Broadcast Schedule). Grimaldi is seeking to play a big role for Team USA, and he and WJC linemate Johnny Gaudreau are big on ability despite both being under 5'10". In another local connection, the team doctor for Team USA is Phil Johnson of Fargo.
• In a WJC lead-up feature, Jonathan Toews came in at No. 8 in TSN's Top 40 All-Time Canadians in World Junior history.
• Corban Knight finished off the season's first half in style with a six point weekend in a road sweep against Michigan Tech and he was named the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts. Beyond the Pond says he is no silent Knight, while Goon's World asks the question, why not Knight for Hobey?  
• The Western College Hockey Blog issued its WCHA First Half Awards and Knight, Grimaldi, Danny Kristo, and Jordan Schmaltz all received recognition.
• After being named the CHL Goaltender of the Month for November, Aaron Dell stayed hot and was named the league's Goaltender of the Week for the week ending December 16th.
• Brock Nelson was recently included in The Hockey News' Hot List.
• The 2012 Spengler Cup is underway in Davos, Switzerland and former Sioux defenseman Travis Roche is representing Team Canada. Roche has notched an assist in two tournament games and is among an unheralded group of Canadians getting the job done. This year's Spengler is drawing a bit more interest than usual as a number of locked out NHL stars pepper tournament rosters. Among the familiar names are Rick Nash, Joe Thornton, Patrick Kane, Tyler Seguin, Patrice Bergeron, John Tavares, Jason Spezza, etc.
• Colby Genoway was recently featured in a nice video highlight package (link opens a YouTube video). Genoway currently plays for Lausanne of the NLB (Switzerland Tier 2) and is tied for 8th in the league in scoring with 45 points (19G, 26A) in 26 games. His 1.73 PPG rank first in the league among players with at least 25 games played. 
• As virtually everyone knows, UND recently received verbal commitments from two highly-coveted recruits. St. Cloud Cathedral's Austin Poganski and Holy Family's Shane Gersich both committed to North Dakota in the days leading up to Christmas. A recruit profile for Gersich is forthcoming, and in the meantime you can get to know Poganski a little better via his recruit profile.
• Poganski will be joining fellow North Dakota recruit Chris Wilkie on Team USA's entry in the 2013 World Under-17 Challenge, which runs Dec. 29 through Jan. 4th in Victoriaville/Drummondville, Quebec. Team USA plays an exhibition game Friday against Canada Pacific before kicking off preliminary round play Saturday in a tilt with Canada Ontario. Poganski is the only high schooler on the Team USA roster. The majority of the roster is made up of NTDP players, while a few others play for junior clubs.
• The 2013 Women's Under-18 World Championship begins Saturday in Vierumaki/Heinola, Finland, and North Dakota has four committed recruits taking part. Alexis Shaw (G), Gracen Hirschy (D), and Amy Menke are on Team USA's roster while Halli Krzyzaniak (D) will be playing for Team Canada.

Tuesday Morning Coffee

• North Dakota, despite not playing any regular season games, has risen to number two in both the USCHO poll and the USA Today/USA Hockey poll. 
• Former Sioux defenseman Ben Blood was recalled by the AHL's Binghamton Senators yesterday. Blood, who played two games this past weekend with Elmira of the ECHL, will be with the team when they take on Joe Finley and the Rochester Americans tonight.
• Brock Nelson picked up his first professional points last weekend with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (AHL), and here's a video of his first pro goal.
• Angus Certified recently interviewed Minnesota wild strength coach Kirk Olson. When asked to name the fittest hockey players he's trained, he mentioned Chris Porter, Zach Parise, and Drew Stafford.
• Former Sioux Travis Roche is currently tied for fifth among NLA (Swiss elite league) defensemen with eight points (1G, 7A). 
• Ryan Bayda is tied for seventh in DEL (German elite league) scoring with ten points (2G, 8A).
• UND recruit Wade Murphy has an eleven game point streak for the Penticton Vees (BCHL), the longest such active streak in the league. Murphy has recorded at least one point in each game he's played this season. Murphy is tied for the league lead with 20 points and he is the outright leader in assists (14) and points per game (1.80).

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.

Quick Monday Evening Links

• Travis Roche signed a contract extension with Bern of the National League A, Switzerland's top tier league. The extension will keep Roche in Bern through the 2013-14 season. He finished 15th in the league in scoring last season with 41 Pts (9G, 32 A) in 39 games.
• Here are a couple more features on Matt Frattin: TSN Blog and Toronto Star article.
• According to Bleedin' Blue, TJ Oshie is one of five Blues that could surprise this year.
• Ryan Johnson is entering the Detroit Red Wing training camp with only one goal in mind.
• If you want to catch Brett Hextall and the Phoenix Coyotes rookies take on their counterparts for the LA Kings, the two game set will be streamed live at LAKings.com. The rookie games are scheduled for Wednesday at 8:00 PM and Thursday at 4:00 PM.