Niklas Backstrom – Page 4 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Worth Noting

Posted on November 30, 2011December 29, 2011 by David Shama

NBADraft.net last week projected Gophers forward Trevor Mbakwe to be the No. 16 pick in the 2012 NBA draft. A Gophers official emailed that it’s “unknown at this point” whether Mbakwe could be granted a medical redshirt by the NCAA and play next season for Minnesota.

Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi will be in New York next week to attend the College Football Hall of Fame event recognizing former Gophers All-American quarterback Sandy Stephens and others.

Don’t be surprised if Paul Chryst’s name comes up for the Illinois head coaching job. Chryst, the Wisconsin offensive coordinator, drew speculation as a candidate to coach the Gophers in 2007 and 2010.

Big Ten football games drew 6,008,814 fans for an average of 71,534 in 84 games (39 sellouts). The Gophers averaged 47,713 per home game, the lowest in the three year history of TCF Bank Stadium. Minnesota’s attendance exceeded Purdue, Indiana and Northwestern.

Vikings coach Leslie Frazier talking about his 2-9 team and what he wants to see accomplished in the remaining five games: “Well, you’d like to see improvement across the board, and we have lots of room for improvement in a lot of areas. You’re trying to continue to evaluate players along the way. …Really get some momentum, get some wins and see some improvement along the way.”

Percy Harvin, who had a 104 yard kickoff return for the Vikings against Atlanta last Sunday, returned kicks for 95 yards last season and 101 in 2009. He’s the only athlete in Virginia prep history to win five gold medals at the state track meet.

Gophers marketing executive Jason LaFrenz said there’s no remaining inventory for men’s hockey season tickets. Single game tickets are available for all games.

New Twin Jamey Carroll, who could be the team’s starting shortstop and No. 2 hitter in the batting order, has a career on base percentage of .359. That’s a positive for a No. 2 hitter and a lot better than the on base percentage for last year’s shortstop, Tsuyoshi Nishioka’s .278.

The Wild play in Edmonton tonight and Minnesota already has two wins in three games against the Oilers this season. Goalie Niklas Backstrom has won both games.

The Big Ten Network provides its most extensive coverage ever of Big Ten wrestling this season with 43 regular-season dual-meets, the 2011 Midlands Championships and the 2012 Big Ten Championships. All will be broadcast on the network or streamed online. Thirty-nine events will be shown live either online or on the network.

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Worth Noting

Posted on November 7, 2011November 27, 2011 by David Shama

The Augustana basketball team from Sioux Falls the Gophers host at Williams Arena tonight includes senior guard Cody Schilling of Ellsworth, Minnesota. He averaged a team best 21.2 points last season. He led the NSIC in scoring at 22.6 points per game. This will be the Vikings first exhibition game of the season. The Vikings had an 18-9 record last season, 15-7 in conference.

Lindy’s Sports College Basketball Magazine includes Apple Valley High’s Tyus Jones among its top 25 high school sophomores in the country. It wouldn’t be surprising if Jones and his prep buddy Jahlil Okafor, the Chicago center also on the Lindy’s list, choose the same college for basketball.

The Wild haven’t sold out a home game other than opener, according to a Sports Headliners source. The team, though, has been able to avoid the slow early season start of last year and could play even better by increasing goal scoring. The problem? Probably too much finesse play ─ over passing the puck.

Among the early season positives is goalie Josh Harding who has won four straight games. His development offers confidence to coach Mike Yeo, that along with Niklas Backstrom, his team can have strong goalie play this season. Backstrom, who is 33 and among the NHL’s top paid goalies, might be involved with Wild trade talks.

Here are Sports Headliners’ weekly rankings of Big Ten Football teams: Wisconsin, Michigan State, Ohio State, Nebraska, Penn State, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Minnesota and Indiana.

Gophers freshman wide receiver Devin Crawford-Tufts, who apparently suffered a high thigh bruise on Saturday against Michigan State, will be “okay,” according to comments made by coach Jerry Kill on WCCO Radio yesterday morning. The Gophers play Wisconsin on Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium and game time will be announced today.

Congratulations to Saint Benedict and St. Olaf for respectively winning the women’s and men’s MIAC soccer playoffs last weekend.

The National Lacrosse League’s Minnesota Swarm has been named the 2011 Deubener Award winner in the category of Family-Owned Business. The award is presented annually by the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce in honor of Walter and Lydia Deubener. John Arlotta along with his son, Andy, purchased the Swarm in 2008 and serve as the team’s owners.

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Worth Noting

Posted on July 8, 2011November 27, 2011 by David Shama

The Vikings have two players in the NFL’s top 100 as voted on by league players and reported by the NFL Network. Running back Adrian Peterson is No. 3 and defensive end Jared Allen No. 80. Quarterbacks Tom Brady (New England) and Peyton Manning (Indianapolis) are No. 1 and 2.

Coach Leslie Frazier said in a video on the Viking website that Peterson reminds him of his former teammate in Chicago, Walter Payton, who Frazier described as perhaps the best back of “all time.” Both Peterson and Payton have built reputations on attacking tacklers.

Joe Mauer, who made his Twins debut at first base last night, drove in two runs with three hits and is batting .324 in his last 10 games to raise his average to .242.

WCCO TV’s Mike Max reported on Tuesday that the St. Paul Saints had interest in signing former major leaguer Jose Canseco but didn’t want a package deal that included brother Ozzie.

Gophers forward Trevor Mbakwe is participating in the LeBron James Skills Academy this week in Akron.

Although Craig Leipold is a passionate fan, the Wild owner doesn’t determine personnel decisions, a hockey source told Sports Headliners. General manager Chuck Fletcher has been busy in recent weeks with personnel moves that Leipold has been made aware of in advance.

Franchise player Mikko Koivu has been informed about potential trades and may comment about players but Fletcher makes the decisions, the source said.

Josh Harding is expected to compete for the Wild starting goalie job in training camp but the source also said the position is Niklas Backstrom’s to lose.

This has been a notable year for Minnesota’s Joe Laurinaitis who was inducted into the WEE Hall of Fame and has written a book about his pro wrestling career. Known as “Animal” during his wrestling career, the book documents the rise of the Road Warriors tag team. Son Jim Laurinaitis. who played football at Wayzata High and Ohio State before joining the NFL Rams, is the No. 1 Laurinaitis to many sports fans now.

The Wolves could add credibility and marketing pizzazz by hiring Kentucky coach John Calipari to fill their expected head coaching vacancy. Calipari coached in the NBA before going back to college coaching with Memphis and now Kentucky.

The MIAC was one of just six NCAA Division III conferences to place more than one school in the top 30 of the final 2010-11 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings. Six MIAC schools were in the top 100 nationally: Gustavus 21^st, St. Thomas 26^th, Carleton 71^st, Saint John’s 74^th, St. Olaf 75^th and Hamline 97^th. The cup is awarded annually to the institution accumulating the most points in a scoring system that rewards teams based on their postseason finish.

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