Friday, April 2, 2010 | Quickies

Minnesota Showcase

After the Ted Brill Great Eight Tournament, the Chicago Showcase, now known as America's Showcase, is usually next. This year's America's Showcase will be held from April 14th through April 18th at The Island Sports Center at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, PA. This is the event's 26th year.

However, Minnesota will NOT be participating in the America's Showcase. Instead, Minnesota will be hosting their own First Annual Minnesota Showcase this year at Plymouth Ice Center in Plymouth, MN from April 21st through April 24th.

Team Minnesota is made up of selected seniors that played in the Ted Brill Great Eight Tournament on March 26th through March 28th. This year's roster has yet to be released.

According to the Great Eight brochure about the Minnesota High School Senior Showcase, "Held in Plymouth, April 21-24, 2010. This will be an 8 team event, including the Great “8” team and the Minnesota Select 18 team. We are looking for the best 8 teams to participate, to do this, we are allowing all D-1 signees to participate. That also means these players will be allowed to play in the Great 8."

Other teams known to be playing in this Showcase will be Team Wisconsin, Team Michigan, and Team North Dakota along with the Minnesota Select 18, which consists of juniors too old for Select 17s and too young for the Great Eight. Information on the other three teams involved has not been released.

Team Minnesota won last year's Chicago Showcase by defeating Team Michigan in the championship game, 3-2 in overtime. Tyler Voight (Rochester Lourdes) scored the overtime goal for Team Minnesota.

Last year's Minnesota scoring summary in the Chicago Showcase championship game:

Minnesota 3, Michigan 2 OT |GS|
1P: Riley Horgan (Mound-Westonka) (1)
Assisted by from Sam Rendle (Grand Rapids) and Zach May (Burnsville) | Even | 3:35

3P: Trevor Ness (Wadena-Deer Creek) (1)
Assisted by Sam Rendle (Grand Rapids) | Even | 4:14

OT: Tyler Voight (Rochester Lourdes) (3)
Assisted by Casey Eckman (Two Harbors) | Even | 2:38 left in overtime #1

Casey O'Connor (Bloomington Jefferson) | 26:15 minutes | 18 saves on 19 shots
Paul Moberg (Forest Lake) | 24:45 minutes | 19 saves on 20 shots

Minnesota |1|0|1|1| 3
Michigan |1|0|1|0| 2

The 2009 Team Minnesota roster and results for the Chicago Showcase can be found here.

Past Team Minnesota results:

2008: lost to Team Wisconsin, 5-2, in the championship game
2007: lost to Team New York, 3-2, in the quarterfinals
2006: lost to Team New Jersey, 6-5, in the semifinals
2005: won the championship over Team Wisconsin, 5-4
'05 goal scorers in the championship game were Mike Phillippi (Hill-Murray), Shea Walters (Hibbing), Mike Montgomery (Centennial), Mitch Ryan (Cloquet), Cory Johnson (Duluth East). The goaltenders were Alex Kangas (Rochester Century) and Spencer Deutz (Moorhead).

2004: lost to Team California, 5-2, in the championship game
2003: lost to Team Wisconsin, 3-1, in the championship game
2002: won the championship over Team Massachusetts, 12-2
'02 goal scorers in the championship game were Andrew Panchenko (Eagan/Eastview) 2, Brian Kaufman (Hill-Murray) 2, Tyler Howells (Holy Angels) 2, Scott Bjorklund (Moorhead), James Marcy (Moorhead), Tyler Dahl (Apple Valley), Travis Anderson (Coon Rapids). The goaltenders were Thomas Anderson (Roseville) and Brent Solei (Elk River).

Union College (NY) is feeling Minnesota

Tyson Fulton of Breck School made a verbal commitment to play Division I college hockey for Union College in Schenectady, NY last week. Now, there is another very good Minnesota prospect flying to New York in a couple of days to see if Union College is in his college future. All I can tell you is that his team did make it to the Class AA state tournament this year and he has played with Fulton.

Union College is in the East Coast Athletic Conference. Other colleges in that conference include Brown, Clarkson, Colgate, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Quinnipiac, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, St. Lawrence, and Yale.

NAHL playoffs start today

The best-of-five divisional semifinals series start today, Friday, in the NAHL (North American Hockey League). The St. Louis Bandits have won the Robertson Cup the last three years and the Texas Tornado won it three straight years prior to that.

Today's games (April 2, 2010):

Central Division
Albert Lea (MN) (19-34-5) at Bismarck (ND) (39-11-8), 7:15 PM
Alexandria (MN) (30-22-6) at Owatonna (MN) (32-22-4), 7:00 PM

North Division
Motor City (MI) (25-26-7) at Marquette (MI) (35-22-1), 7:30 PM
Janesville (WI) (29-23-6) at Traverse City (MI) (33-20-5), 7:00 PM

South Division
Springfield (IL) (21-29-8) at Topeka (KS) (44-9-5), 7:05 PM
Texas (TX) (25-28-5) at St. Louis (MO) (44-11-3), 7:05 PM

West Division
Kenai River (AK) (12-40-6) at Wenatchee (WA) (45-10-3), 7:05 PM
Fairbanks (AK) (32-22-4) at Alaska (AK) (32-19-7), 7:30 PM

The NAHL is a Junior A Tier II league.