| 03/31/99 04:27 PM USHR's March News 3/31/99 U.S. Takes Off
In February, at the Five Nations Tournament in Prague, the U.S. won the gold medal, topping Russia in the championship game, so hopes are high. Of the 22 players on the squad, 19 played in the National Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. this season. The three exceptions are Jeff Taffe and Dan Welch, linemates at Hastings High, the runners-up in the Minnesota high school hockey tournament, and Brett Nowak, who played at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn.
Injury Report: Forward John Eichelberger of Glencoe, Ill. is the only player who will miss the tournament due to injury. Eichelberger has been out of action since January because of lingering effects of a concussion.
3/30/98 Two Top Minnesotans Sign with National Program Justin Maiser and Barry Tallackson, perhaps the top '83 forwards in the Twin Cities area, will be moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan in the fall to play for the U.S. National Team Development Program. Maiser, a 6'0", 167 lb. LW, was a 9th grader at Edina High School this past season, and our top-rated '83 forward. He's a dynamic player with good speed and excellent acceleration. Perhaps the best one-on-one player we've seen among the '83s. Strong on his skates, and can carry the puck in traffic. Tallackson, a 6'3½", 181 lb. RW/C, was a 10th grader at St. Paul Johnson High this past season. Has excellent size, a long stride, and good hands. Excellent pro prospect. Overlooked for last summer's Minnesota Select 15 Team. 3/29/98 Defense! Defense! North Andover, Mass., Sun. March 28 -- In the championship game of the Hockey Night in Boston All-Scholastic Tournament here today, the Mass. Privates beat New York/ Mid- Atlantic, 10-7. (How do they get goalies for this shindig, anyway?) New York/Mid-Atlantic, though falling a field goal short, boasted the dominant player in the tournament -- 5'10" Deerfield junior RW Tyler Kolarik, who notched seven goals in his four games here. Look for Kolarik to get a flood of college offers come July 1. The co-MVP came from the winning Mass. Privates -- UMass-Amherst bound winger Brad Nizwantowski (Cushing Academy). Nizwantowski had 3 goals, 5 assists in the tournament. Our pick for co-MVP would have been Kolarik's Deerfield teammate, 6'3", 200 lb. left-shot D Trevor Byrne, a rangy strong-skating D with good offensive skills (he had two goals today). Look for Byrne to go high in June's NHL draft. A couple of Div. II forwards who played well for the Mass Privates were 6'2" senior D.J. Pelletier of the Tilton School, and PG Greg LeColst of Winchendon. For NY/Mid-Atlantic, 5'11" junior RW Sean Terry and senior center Les Haggett, linemates at the Northwood School in Lake Placid, NY this winter, looked sharp. So did Choate's Sam Paolini, who notched two goals in the title game. Look for Paolini to announce his college intentions this week. 5'11" RW Marc Cavosie of Albany Academy, bound for RPI, has had an off year -- in the last 12 months he's had an ACL injury, a separated shoulder, and a case of mono -- and, although he had a nice goal today, hasn't yet returned to form. On D, 6'1" Canterbury senior Matt Deshamps was solid, as was Erik Eaton, a 6'2" senior blueliner at Salisbury. Here's something to ponder (though not for long): 25 different players in yesterday's game had at least one assist. On that note, let's move on and take a brief look at the other six teams in the tournament. Each had at least one player who made us take note. The teams are listed in the order in which they finished. Juniors: This team, which whacked Keller-Eberhart, 7-2, in the third-place game, was composed of players from the EJHL and a handful of independent junior teams. Up front, winger Peter Zingoni of the New England Coyotes displayed great hands and a strong sense of where he is on the ice. 5'11" Kenny Turano of Applecore is hard-nosed -- and smart, too. A player we'd never seen before but who looked like someone worth keeping an eye on is 19-year-old 6'3" forward Brian St. John's of the Milford Ice Falcons. 11th grade forward Brad Powell of the Bay State Breakers was another surprise. On defense, 6'3, 220 lb. Cornell-bound Doug Murray was playing a hard, physical game and setting up plays nicely from the point. He's a left shot. His Applecore teammate, 5'11" Chris Pedota, also had a good weekend. He's solid in his end and has a excellent shot. In net, Randy Hevey of the New England Coyotes didn't allow a goal all tournament. Keller-Eberhart: Up front, elusive 5'7" Thayer center Steve Greeley and 6'1" Belmont Hill right-shot center Tristan Lush stood out. Also playing very well was Thayer RW Luke Smith, who seems to have gotten quicker on his skates, and 5'10" Milton junior center Tom Colclough, who has a real knack for knowing where his linemates are -- and great patience with the puck. On defense, we thought St. Sebastian's senior RD Nick Cammarata, playing on the rink he'll be calling home in college, was the standout D on his team -- and his teammates included 6'1" John Cronin of Nobles and 6'2" junior Stephen Wood of Lawrence Academy. In net, Paul Morrissey of Gov. Dummer played very well. He also helped out on offense, notching two assists in a span of 37 seconds in one game. At HNIB, even the goaltenders pad their point totals. Midwest/Great Lakes: 5'10" Shattuck PG Randy Harris was a standout. Yale-bound Taft forward Denis Nam and 6'2" Deerfield junior Rob Fried looked sharp, too. 6'2" Cliff Loya -- also of Shattuck -- and 6'2" Evan Neilsen of Taft were strong on defense. 6'0" Berkshire School D Dustin Corbett was a pleasant surprise. Mass. Catholics: BU-bound Brian Collins was clearly the most talented forward, at least when BC High's Mike Ryan (Northeastern's top recruit) wasn't on the ice. Ryan played only one game in the tournament, however. After Ryan and Collins, it's a tough call to pick the next best forward. However, a player who doesn't get much attention, but can play, is Gerry Hickey of Xaverian. On defense, Dartmouth-bound P.J. Martin of St. John's Prep played well, as did a pair of kids from Catholic Memorial, LD Dan Eberly, who's bound for RPI, and 6'4" junior Peter Tormey, a left-shot who's really come on in recent months. UNH-bound blueliner Kevin Truelson of Archbishop Williams seemed a little flat. A little-known goalie who played well was Jay Holt of St. Bernard's High in Fitchburg, Mass. He came up big in a shoot-out on Saturday. New England: Deerfield forward Tye Korbl, who's headed to Brown, played well. So, too, did the Exeter postgrad duo of Josh Prudden and Mike Engert -- and 6'1" LW Halsey Coughlin of Andover. On defense, 5'11" junior RD Mick Mounsey of Avon Old Farms and Yale-bound Greg Boucher of Exeter both looked strong. Kent's Chad Killiam, a native of Prince Edward Island, looked sharp in goal. Mass. Publics: Up front, our top picks were 5'5" Reading High junior Steve Saviano and 6'0" Brian Boike, a senior at Arlington High. 5'8" Brockton High forward Phil Nadeau showed excellent speed. On defense Eric Pedersen of Saugus High and 6'1" junior Mike Carnes of Chelmsford High were outstanding. Pedersen will be going to Avon Old Farms as a PG this coming fall. 3/26/99 More College Commitments 5'8", 165 lb. Lawrence Academy center Brian Tudrick has committed to Northeastern University. Tudrick, from Stow, Mass, was a co-captain at Lawrence this past season.Also heading to the Huskies in the fall is a goalie, Mike Gilhooly, of the Calgary Canucks. Gilhooly, who's 19, has been hot in the playoffs, leading all AJHL goaltenders with a 1.67 gaa, .946 save %, and 5-1 record. Another netminder heading to NCAA Div. I play from the Canadian junior leagues is 6'5", 190 lb. Tom Lawson of the Markham Waxers (OPJHL). Lawson, who's 19, had a 3.46 gaa with one shutout for Markham this year. Here's something unusual for Canadian recruits: Last year, he played high school hockey only (Henry Street HS, Whitby, Ont.) As far as we know, he'll be the tallest goalie in the Division I ranks. 3/25/99 Walpole Takes EJHL Crown Walpole, Mass; March 25 -- Joe Giantonio got things going by tapping home a goalmouth pass 1:21 into the game, and Ryan Grant kicked out 30 shots to lead the Walpole Stars to a 3-1 win over the New England Coyotes in the EJHL championship game tonight. Nine Picked for National Program The following eight players will be joining the US National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Michigan this fall:
Here are the box scores from the three games played in Ann Arbor, Michigan, March 14-16 Reimers Becomes a Badger U.S. Under-18 defenseman Jason Reimers has given a verbal commitment to the University of Wisconsin. Reimers, a native of Cottage Grove, Minnesota, had a 45-2-12-14-111 line this season in Ann Arbor. Reimers is 5'11", 175 lbs., and was born on New Year's Day, 1981. He's a left-shot D. He'll be joining current Under-18 teammates Brad Winchester and Brian Fahey in the Wisconsin class of '03. Prep Tidbits St. Paul's goaltender Matt Hanson has decided to leave the Concord, New Hampshire boarding school. He will take his wares to Deerfield Academy. Hanson will enter Deerfield as a junior. This year's goaltender, Mike Aroesty, will be graduating in June. Aroesty is headed to Williams College in the fall. Andy Noel will leave his position at Lake Forest Academy at the end of the school year, and will head to Salisbury School where he will assist head coach Matt Corkery with the hockey program. Before his two-year stint in Illinois, Noel directed the program at Cardigan Mountain School. With the season over, the prep school commitments will start to come in. If you are aware of a player going to, transferring from, or leaving a New England prep school please let us know via e-mail to info@ushr.com. Thank you. 3/23/99 Party After the Game? Today, the EJHL announced that its league championship game, originally scheduled for Easter weekend at BU's Walter Brown Arena, will now be held this Thursday night (3/25) at 7 p.m. at Walpole's Iorio Arena. That's right, a mere two days from now. The reason for moving the game up? Walpole Star forward Chris Heisten turns 21 on Friday, so Thursday night is the last night he's eligible to appear in a junior game without threatening his college eligibility. Look for Heisten to be joining his younger brother, Barrett, at Maine this fall. Expanded HNIB All-Scholastics Set to Face Off Tomorrow afternoon (Wed. March 24), this year's Hockey Night in Boston All-Scholastic Tournament gets underway at Merrimack College with a 5 p.m. game between the Mass. Publics and Mass Privates. At 7:15, the Keller-Eberhart squad will face off against the Mass. Catholics. Last year's championship was won by Mass Public/Catholics. In the title game, they knocked off NY/Mid-Atlantic, 6-5. Co-MVP's were forwards Ryan Cordeiro (CM/UNH) and David Evans (Cap District/Clarkson). This year, the tournament has added two teams, bringing the total to eight. New teams were created by breaking up the Mass. Publics/Catholics into two teams, and adding a team of Juniors (drawn primarily from the Eastern Junior Hockey League.) 3/22/99 Millbrook Sniper Headed to Schenectady Millbrook School left-shot forward Steve Levac, a 5'10, 185 lb. native of Vaudreuil, Quebec, has given a verbal commitment to Union College. 3/19/99 On the Road with Ron Hainsey UMass-Lowell has received a commitment from defenseman Ron Hainsey of the U.S. Under-18 Team. Hainsey, a 6'2, 177 lb. left shot, definitely has Division I talent (we rate him fourth among defensemen in New England.) However, some observers have questioned his attitude. Only time will tell whether the naysayers are correct. Hainsey skated for the Junior Whalers (now the Junior Coyotes) prior to his tour of duty in Ann Arbor. He hails from Bolton, Connecticut and will turn 18 on Wednesday. 6'3", 180 lb. Taft right-shot defenseman Trevor Beaney announced for Princeton. His other final choices were Vermont and Harvard. Beaney is the son of Middlebury College hockey coach Bill Beaney. Tabor Finds Their Man Gary Dineen will take over for the departed Tim Pratt as head coach at Tabor Academy next winter. Dineen spent the last three years coaching at Division II Brooks School in Andover, Massachusetts. He originally came to Brooks when then Brooks coach Larry Rocha accepted a similar position at the Berkshire School. Prior to that he was an assistant at Vermont Academy. In case you missed it, Pratt is the new head coach at St. Paul's, replacing the retiring Bill Matthews. Please Note: The Gary Dineen referred to above is not the same Gary Dineen that runs the New England Junior Coyotes organization. 3/13/99 Shattuck's MacLellan -- Coveted in Quebec 6'4", 210 lb defenseman Brent MacLellan of Shattuck-St. Mary's School in Faribault, Minn. is our top-rated player for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) draft in June. MacLellan, an '83 birthdate, started playing hockey in Niagara Falls, Ontario at age nine. Last year, as a 14-year-old, he played for the Toronto Young Nationals minor bantam team. When his father was transferred for work to Halifax, Nova Scotia last summer Brent headed north, too, and, in August, attended the training camp of the Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL) as an underage. MacLellan was so impressive there that the league was willing to make an exception and let him play major junior as a 15 year old. (As far as we know, there has never been an underage player in the QMJHL.) But the MacLellans chose instead to send Brent to play for Shattuck-St Mary’s prep school in Minnesota under the guidance of former Canadian National Team coach Andy Murray. Brent and his family have another tough decision facing them in the coming months. Murray recently turned down an opportunity to become an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks. It now appears as though he'll be back coaching at Shattuck-St Mary’s next season. Because MacLellan is an excellent student, he could return to Shattuck and accelerate, playing next season as a 16-year-old senior and then advancing the following year into US college hockey. As for now, though, the new Montreal franchise in the QMJHL has the top pick in the upcoming draft. Other teams in that league are rumored to be very interested in acquiring that pick. Stay tuned. (Note: Because MacLellan has lived most of his life in Ontario, we have included him in our OHL list. But, with his parents now living in Nova Scotia, there is very little chance that he could be drafted in the O (We'd put him right behind Jason Spezza). Even so, we've compiled a scouting report on him. Click on our OHL Scouting Profiles section to read it.) 3/12/99 Aiming for Ann Arbor The 1999-2000 U.S. National Team Development Program will take further shape this weekend in Ann Arbor as over forty of the top '82 and '83-born players will gather for practices, scrimmages, orientation, and testing. It is from this group that the core of next year's Under-17 Team will be drawn. A handful of candidates -- including some top defensemen -- whose teams are in the playoffs won't be able to attend this weekend's events at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube (they are, of course, still candidates.) While over 30 of the players are '83s, nine of the players invited to the weekend camp are '82 birthdates that Director of Player Personnel Bob Mancini believes could help the U.S. team at the 2000 World Under-18 Championship. Of the highest-ranked '82's only Ben Eaves won't be on hand. He's elected to play his senior year for coach Andy Murray at Shattuck-St. Mary's, but is a likely addition to the U.S. squad for the tournament, scheduled for Salt Lake City thirteen months from now. So far, only Eaves and Bloomington-Jefferson defenseman Tom Gilbert, an '83, have taken themselves out of consideration for full-time slots in the program. A few more players may be added in the next 24 hours. Players will be arriving in Ann Arbor Saturday. On-ice sessions begin Sunday a.m., with games scheduled for Sunday night, Monday, and Tuesday mornings. Here are the players. Those with '82 birthdates have an asterisk following their name.
Defensemen
Defensemen invited but unable to attend: Tim Gleason (Leamington Flyers Jr. B); Eric Reitz* (Leamington Flyers Jr. B); Eric Lundberg (New England Coyotes Jr. B); Michael Komisarek* (New England Coyotes Jr. B); Derek Smith (Compuware Jr. A). Forwards
3/11/99 Ouch!! How did Fairfield Prep do after the firing of head coach Adolph Brink (see "Nothing Fair at Fairfield Prep" in USHR February News) with a week left in the regular season? Not well. Last Saturday night, the higher-ranked and far more talented Prep squad was bounced from the Connecticut state quarterfinals by Greenwich High, 4-2. It was the first time this decade that Fairfield Prep has failed to reach the semifinals. Reports we've received indicate the program has been severely split in two by warring groups of parents, with a powerful minority -- those behind the firing of the coach --- overruling the majority. This less-than-civil war could be the start of a period of decline for the program that produced Ted and Chris Drury. Players who a month ago were considering attending the Connecticut school are getting cold feet and looking elsewhere. 3/11/99 Great 8 Rosters Released The post-season all-star series featuring Minnesota high school seniors has had several different names and formats over its 15-year history, and this year will have yet another, for the Great 68 has doubled in size to 136 players. Yet, because it has changed its name to the Great 8, actually sounds simpler. Can't knock that. Anyway, this year's tournament, which will take place Fri. March 19 through Sun. March 21 at two venues -- the new Super Rink in Blaine and Columbia Arena in Fridley, will, naturally, feature eight teams. Each team will play three games. 3/10/99 Next Stop, Babcock St. U.S. National Under-18 Team RW John Sabo, who earlier in the winter had narrowed his college choices to BC and BU, today announced his decision: he'll be playing for Jack Parker's Terriers. And, due to the fact that all is proceeding well in his goal to accelerate and graduate from high school a year earlier than expected, he'll be there in the fall. Sabo, a 5'9", 176 pounder from Summit, New Jersey, possesses a combination of skill and grit, and is an important catch for the Terriers. In 49 USHL games this season, Sabo has a 22-26-38 scoring line, which puts him third on the team behind Michigan recruit Andy Hilbert (48 points) and Notre Dame-bound Connor Dunlop (44 points). Sabo has 127 penalty minutes. A September '81 birthdate, Sabo is in his second year with the U.S. Development Program. In 1996-97 he played for Cushing Academy. His older sister graduated from Boston College last spring. 3/08/99 Taffe Takes Top Minnesota Honor Senior center Jeff Taffe of Hastings HS was named the 1999 winner of Minnesota's Mr. Hockey Award. Taffe, who will be attending the University of Minnesota in the fall, helped lead his team to the state finals Saturday night at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Roseau, however, shut out Hastings, 4-0, to win the state title. Prior to last week's state high school tournament, five finalists were named for the award. They were Derrick Byfuglien (Roseau HS); Jay Dardis (Proctor HS); Matt Koalska (Hill-Murray); Dan Welch (Hastings HS); and, of course, Taffe. The runners-up for the award were also named at the time. They were John Conboy (Silver Bay); Rico Fatticci (Hibbing HS); Jon Francisco (Hermantown HS); Andy Sacchetti (Eveleth-Gilbert), and Ben Tharp (Hastings). Click here for more on both the semis and title game. Click here for All-Tournament Teams Winged Beaver to Become a Huskie Avon Old Farms' goaltender Todd Marr, who less than a week ago came very close to leading the Winged Beavers to an overtime upset of Deerfield (see below), has committed to play for Bruce Crowder at Northeastern. Marr is from Darien, Conn. Also headed to Northeastern from the prep ranks is big Thayer defenseman Brian Sullivan of Marshfield, Mass. An Ocean View The two leading candidates for the Tabor job are reported to be current Dartmouth assistant Jamie Rice and Lake Forest (Ill.) Academy head coach Andy Noel. Noel was formerly head hockey coach at the Cardigan Mountain School in Canaan, NH. Rice has eight years of Division I coaching experience (five at Brown and three at Dartmouth). 3/05/99 Two for the Ages It's playoff time and there have been some big-time performances over the past week. Last night in the Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament, Hastings High, down a goal to Blaine, was saved by Dan Welch. With 1:20 to go in the game, the University of Minnesota-bound winger tied the game at 6-6 when he pounced on a rebound and lifted it top shelf over Blaine netminder Justin Johnson. Then, as the final seconds of regulation ticked down a Blaine turnover in the neutral zone led to a Welch breakaway. The time left when Welch fired it home for the win and a chance to play another day? Two-tenths of a second. Tonight, in the state semis, Hastings will be meeting Elk River, which had to work extra hard to get past Hibbing and sophomore goaltender Travis Weber in the sectional finals. Weber, considered by many the top '83-born goaltender in the country, kicked out 60 of 61 Elk River shots before Elk River managed to break him in the third overtime period for a 2-1 win. Hibbing managed 28 shots on the Elk River net. Christini Stands Tall in the East... A 34-save effort from junior goaltender Bo Christini was the story on Wednesday as Lawrence Academy went on the road and knocked off Cushing, 3-1, in a taut, well-played quarterfinal. It's a game that featured numerous what-ifs. While Jack Celata and Ben Murphy had first-period scoring chances they couldn't convert, the capper came in the second when, with 5:05 remaining, Cushing RW Brad Nizwantowski hit a post on a rebound of a Murphy shot. At the other end, just a couple of minutes later, Cushing goaltender Ryan MacNeil, protecting a 1-0 lead, made a brilliant left-pad save on Lawrence center Brian Tudrick. But that apparently only whetted Tudrick's appetite. The Stow, Mass. native returned to the ice for his next shift in the final minute of the period, and, with 47 seconds left, walked out of the far corner and beat MacNeil low glove side to tie the game at 1-1. Then, with 19 seconds left, defenseman Greg Lauze hit Tudrick with a perfect pass at the blue line, sending him in all alone on MacNeil. Tudrick scored, giving Lawrence a 2-1 lead, and that was the game right there. Lawrences's third goal was an empty-netter. ...as Does Marr in the West #1 West seed Deerfield Academy almost was knocked off Wednesday afternoon by #4 seed Avon Old Farms as senior goaltender Todd Marr, the backbone of this year's Avon squad, kicked out 45 of 46 shots before a Rob Fried tip-in of a Trevor Byrne point blast at 14:58 of overtime gave Deerfield the 2-1 win. 3/01/99 Matthews Steps Down; Pratt Takes Over St. Paul's School head hockey coach Bill Matthews retired today after 33 years of coaching, and the Concord, N.H. prep school announced his successor will be Tim Pratt, the head coach at Tabor Academy for the last six years. Pratt, 32, described his decision to move north to St. Paul's as "a long-term family decision, not a hockey decision." Pratt grew up in Exeter, New Hampshire, and his parents still live there. "It'll be nice for my two-year-old son to be close to them," he said. Pratt, a 1989 graduate of Middlebury College, took over a Tabor squad that won only eight games in his first year behind the bench, but has won 16,16, and 15 in the last three years. St. Paul's, which, like Tabor, opened a new rink this winter, finished out a down year Saturday night with a 10-4 loss at Lawrence Academy. Matthews, a 1961 graduate of St. Paul's, played his college hockey at Bowdoin ('65).
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