Baby Geniuses Triplets Commit to Bemidji State

Leo, Gerry and Myles Fitzgerald all play for Victoria of the BCHL, but they are perhaps known better for being the triplets who starred in the 1999 movie Baby Geniuses with Christopher Lloyd (a movie which has 1 whole star on IMDB I might add).

Now all three of them, all 1993 birthdates, have committed to play college hockey at Bemidji State. Gerry Fitzgerald has 23 goals and 41 points in 41 games, Leo Fitzgerald has 26 goals and 50 points in 54 games, and Myles outpaces both of them, scoring 30 goals (7th in the league) and 71 points in 52 games.

They’re all 19 and playing in the BCHL so take their numbers with a grain of salt, but they all pretty clearly look like D1 level players. I don’t think I have ever seen triplets in college hockey, and certainly haven’t seen triplets who were all actors, so that’s pretty cool. Hopefully their hockey careers earn them more praise than their movies did.

(s/t Chris Dilks)

Preseason Top 16: Number 7 North Dakota

Howdy, folks. It’s that time of year again. Every so often The College Hockey Blog will be unveiling our Preseason top 16 teams, one by one. If you want to see the top 16 in order, and links to each individual preview, click the tab at the top of the page. Today’s team is #7 North Dakota

Last year the Fighting Sioux won the MacNaughton Cup for the first time since 2004, but was bounced in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by New Hampshire in a crazy game. A failure by Joe Finley to clear the puck out of the zone led to a faceoff and a goal for New Hampshire with less than a second left. With many of their top players back, the Sioux look to advance farther than the first round this year.

Preseason Top 16: Number 8 Minnesota

Howdy, folks. It’s that time of year again. Every so often The College Hockey Blog will be unveiling our Preseason top 16 teams, one by one. If you want to see the top 16 in order, and links to each individual preview, click the tab at the top of the page. Today’s team is #8 Minnesota

Well, here we go. I have my e-mail open and my Google translator on in preparation for all of the e-mails from Sioux fans that say some form of “U kant hav the goofers number 8 u loser.” Should be a fun week or two in my household.

Last year the Gophers came roaring out of the blocks and were the number 1 ranked team in the country in this and many other polls. But starting with a January 9th and 10th sweep by North Dakota, the Gophers went through a stretch where they lost 9 of their final 16 regular season games. They jumped back on track in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, sweeping St. Cloud State, but then lost to Minnesota-Duluth in the opening round of the Final Five and missed the NCAA Tournament.

Preseason Top 16: #12 St. Cloud State

Howdy, folks. It’s that time of year again. Every so often The College Hockey Blog will be unveiling our Preseason top 16 teams, one by one. If you want to see the top 16 in order, and links to each individual preview, click the tab at the top of the page. Today’s team is #12 St. Cloud State

Last year I had the Huskies as a top 10 team, noting that not only were Ryan Lasch and Garrett Roe one of the best one-two scoring punches in the country, but that I thought the Huskies would have the secondary scoring needed to make the jump to the next level. Fast forward five months, and St. Cloud State finished 6th in the WCHA, losing in the first round of the playoffs to Minnesota. They scored 122 goals on the year, but finished 5th in the conference in that category. Roe was 7th in the country in points per game, and Lasch was 26th, but the only other forward with double digit goals was Sophomore Aaron Marvin. No Husky scored a goal even once every two games.

WCHA Expansion?

Bemidji State officials were recently in Florida making their pitch to the WCHA about being let into the conference, and the result was…….a lot of nothing. The WCHA did vote to expand to 12 teams, but without a 12th team in sight, Bemidji’s chances may be slim. Now for the Beavers the job is convincing a 12th team to join the league. The names most tossed about are Nebraska-Omaha and Northern Michigan.

Northern Michigan, in my mind, makes no sense. Yes they were a member of the WCHA, but Anchorage, Denver and CC aren’t voting them in. No chance. Also, if you’re Northern Michigan, why would you leave Michigan and Michigan State, two natural rivals, not to mention Lake Superior State and Ferris State?

Nebraska-Omaha would be a much better fit. They are closer to Colorado College and Denver, but are they better at hockey than Northern? Probably not. Also, Frozen Four run aside, Bemidji isn’t exactly a Division One powerhouse. With the lowering frequency at which we see rivalry series in the WCHA already, a 12 team league will only lower it. For the WCHA’s sake I hope they stay at 10, otherwise the competition pool will be diluted.

Bracket Breakdown: Northeast

So we come to our final bracket, in which the #1 overall seeded BU Terriers reside. BU is the 3rd ranked offensive and defensive team in America. They are also the 2nd best team in the country on the power play, and 11th on the kill. So as you can see, they’re going to be tough to beat. Led by the most talented player in the country in Colin Wilson, BU has a great mix of players up front with Wilson, Nick Bonino and Chris Higgins.

Not only do they have those guys, but they have a nice blend of youthful exuberance and veteran leadership. The guy I really love on their team is Senior forward Brandon Yip (19-20–39). Yip had tons of promise coming into BU, and he didn’t really blossom into the superstar everyone (or at least I) thought he would. But there’s no doubt he has been a very solid college hockey player and had himself a great career.

And I would be remiss if I discussed BU without talking about Freshman goalie Kieran Millan. Millan is trying to repeat the trick of crosstown rival John Muse by winning the national title as a Freshman goalie. And Millan’s numbers have been fantastic. Millan led Hockey East in GAA (1.84) and wwas third in save percentage (.932). No doubt BU poses a tough matchup to any team, but they could be vulnerable to a team with a great powerplay, seeing the amount of penalty minutes they take (18.7 per game).

The team assigned the task of beating them is Ohio State, the last at-large team in the field. The 5th place team in the CCHA has beaten some good teams this year (Denver, Notre Dame, Michigan, Miami) but are just 4-7-1 against the NCAA tournament field, and have also lost to teams like Michigan State, Western Michigan and Lake Superior State.

The Buckeyes leading scorer is Senior Corey Elkins (18-22–40) but their best player is Freshman Zac Dalpe. Dalpe has had some injury problems throughout the year, but when he is on the ice Ohio State becomes a completely different team. My X-factor for the Buckeyes in this game will be defenseman Shane Sims, a Sophomore who doesn’t get a ton of ink but he’s a very good offensive defenseman.

Although Ohio State possesses the talent to give BU a run, BU is just so much better at every part of the game and I think they’ll take it by a score of 5-2 or so.

Bracket Breakdown: West

Starting our bracket breakdown is the West regional in Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis. All regionals are going to be wide open affairs. This Friday-Saturday regional is no different. It features a coach going against his old coach, the WCHA tournament champs, and the only Hobey finalist in the region.

Denver, the 2nd place team in both the WCHA regular season and conference tournament, locks horns with Miami, a team that quite frankly shouldn’t be in the tournament. Their best non-conference win (and indeed their only wins) was against RPI. They have however swept both Notre Dame and Michigan, so the talent is at least there. But for the CCHA to have 4 teams while ECAC Hockey and the WCHA only have three is a bit of an injustice to those two leagues. Both St. Lawrence and either Minnesota or Wisconsin would be a better NCAA tournament team than the RedHawks. That being said, Miami will be a tough out. Miami has gotten solid contributions from their two Freshmen goalies all season, and they are the 9th best defensive team in the country going into the tournament.

The Pioneers, meanwhile, have been suffering from injuries, most notably to Tyler Bozak and Tyler Ruegsegger. Bozak however is expected to return to the lineup for the NCAA tournament, giving Denver a much needed boost offensively. The 10th best scoring team in the country already, Denver is sure to put up some numbers and Miami’s goaltenders will need to be ready. They also have gotten good goaltending from Marc Cheverie, who is 2nd team all WCHA and has 4 shutouts this season. In the end I see the Pioneers moving on to the regional final.

WCHA Awards

It’s been a bit of a rough year for the WCHA. North Dakota’s season ending point total was one of the lowest for a WCHA champion ever. Minnesota, once thought to be the best team in the country, suffered through a 1-6-1 run late in the season. Minnesota State had a winless December, and Wisconsin started 0-6-1. Indeed, the WCHA has had competitive balance, but it has been a very mediocre conference for much of the season. North Dakota and Denver are bound for the NCAA tournament, but it is very possible that those are the only two teams to make the field. For a conference that once sent four teams to the Frozen Four, it has been an unthinkable season.

Still, the WCHA has been blessed with some amazing individual talent, and it starts with our 2009 player of the year, Wisconsin’s Jamie McBain. He doesn’t have an elite +/- rating, but much of that was accrued early in the season when Wisconsin got off to their terrible start. McBain was tied for 10th in the league in scoring at almost a point per game. McBain was the rock on Wisconsin’s talented blueline, and did so many things for that team both offensively and defensively.

The coach of the year almost has to be North Dakota’s Dave Hakstol. I’ve heard convincing arguments for George Gwozdecky of Denver, but Hakstol lead a young team to a MacNaughton Cup. Sure it was a down year for the league, but the Sioux were still the conference champions.

The rookie of the year came down to Denver’s Patrick Wiercioch and Minnesota’s Jordan Schroeder. Wiercioch was the 4th leading scorer for defensemen in the league, and he was 4th in the league in rookie scoring. But Schroeder was phenomenal all season. He led WCHA rookies with 44 points, and he was 4th overall in the league. His performance this year, and at the WJC put him in line to be a top 5 or top 10 NHL draft pick, and he will be all over Hobey radars at the beginning of next season.

All-WCHA First Team

F- Ryan Stoa, Minnesota

F- Justin Fontaine, Minnesota-Duluth

F- Garrett Roe, St. Cloud State

D- Jamie McBain, Wisconsin

D- Chay Genoway, North Dakota

G- Alex Stalock, Minnesota-Duluth

Second Team:

F- Jordan Schroeder, Minnesota

F- Chad Rau, Colorado College

F- MacGregor Sharp, Minnesota-Duluth

D- Josh Meyers, Minnesota-Duluth

D- Patrick Wiercioch, Denver

G- Marc Cheverie, Denver

WCHA Playoff Preview

Because all four of our NCAA bound ECAC teams and three of the four CCHA teams bound for the NCAAs were off last weekend, I decided not to do a bracket this week.

Instead, let’s take a look at the WCHA. The WCHA has had a bit of a down year this year. It’s deep, but after the top 2 teams in the league, 3-9 are all about the same. It’s tough to envision a WCHA team making a serious run to the Frozen Four this year, but stranger things have happened