Defenseman Maxim Noreau was named to the AHL All-Star game, January 31 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. As of Wednesday he led the Wild’s Houston Aeros farm team with 16 assists and ranked second with 23 points. The Montreal native played in one game with the Wild last season.
Left wing Gabriel Landeskog (Kitchener Rangers) of the Ontario Hockey League and defenseman Adam Larsson (Skelleftea AIK) of the Swedish Elite League are the top draft-eligible skaters from North America and Europe, according to the NHL Central Scouting Bureau’s mid-season rankings. The Wild host the NHL Entry Draft June 24 and 25 at the Xcel Energy Center.
Among Minnesotans drafted last year out of high school was Mark Alt, now a Gophers defenseman who could have played college football for Iowa. Carolina made a smart pick in selecting Alt on the second round. “He is a great athlete, (with) good size and he is intelligent,” said Glen Sonmor, former Gophers coach.
Alt has been a minus player in only four of 19 games this season and is working on a streak of nine consecutive. He is plus-four during that period.
Coach Don Lucia’s Gophers team, at North Dakota for games tonight and tomorrow night, is 8-1-1 when scoring three goals or more this season and 1-7-2 when scoring two goals or fewer.
Andrew Brommer, the former Rosemount High player, is the lone Minnesotan on the Iowa roster and is a hustle type player, a 6-9 235-pound reserve forward who struggles to score but had a then career high eight points against the Gophers last year. Iowa (0-4 in the Big Ten) plays at Minnesota (2-3) on Sunday starting at 5 p.m.
The Gophers upset No. 8 ranked Purdue last night and limited Boilermakers guard Ryne Smith to one three point field goal in four attempts, finishing the game with three points. He was announced as Big Ten Player of the Week on Monday after shooting 78.6 percent from beyond the three point line and averaging a team-best 19 points per game in the Boilermakers’ wins over Penn State and Iowa last week.
Kevin Love of the Timberwolves is one of seven NBA players raising funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital during “Hoops for St. Jude” Week (March 4-11). Love and others are donating to St. Jude for each point they score this season, with a season-end minimum total of $20,000. Love has served as a past spokesman for St. Jude, among the world’s premier pediatric cancer research facilities.
An era ended this week with the death of David Nelson, the last remaining member of the Nelson family from TV’s “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” The Nelsons loved sports and David’s dad, Ozzie, played football at Rutgers. His younger brother, Ricky, was among the elite teen tennis players in America before focusing on a singing and acting career.
St. Cloud State senior infielder Kent Koch has to do more than chase down ground balls. He also “fields” the city budget as the newly inducted mayor of his home town, Loretto, Minnesota. Koch was featured on ESPN’s “First Take” program on Wednesday morning.