The Wild ranked ninth best among 30 NHL teams in composite scores by ESPN The Magazine as part of its NHL preview issue of October 5. Using a one (desperate) thru 10 (dominant) scale, the magazine gave the Wild a three for face-offs, six for shootouts, three for injury, seven for defense, eight for goaltending, five for power play, nine for penalty killing, two for scoring, two for five-on-five play, and five for intangibles. Overall rating: 4.7.
Ali Lucia, Gopher hockey Don Lucia’s daughter, is a Fox news anchor in Rochester, Minnesota.
The Gophers basketball team opens practice on Friday, October 16 with Tubby’s Tipoff at Williams Arena. The public is invited to watch coach Tubby Smith’s team starting at 7:30 p.m.
Single game tickets for Gophers basketball went on sale Monday. Season tickets are also available. A Gophers spokesman emailed that 98 percent of season tickets have been renewed. A public season ticket total of about 9,500 is expected.
The Wolves will be on local TV twice during the preseason with the first telecast on October 14 from Chicago and the second in Detroit October 22.
The new Minnesota Blizzards American Basketball Association franchise has scheduled a player tryout from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday at Bloomington Kennedy High School. The Blizzards plan to begin play in the ABA in 2010.
Wayzata High School football coach Brad Anderson and Buffalo coach Gerald Rohl won their 100th career games earlier this season and now have 101 and 102 wins respectively. Terry Ogorek, Kittson County Central coach, earned career win 200 recently and now has 203 victories.
The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame named Saint John’s senior defensive back Dominic Haik and Gustavus senior defensive back T.J. Ridley as two of 154 semifinalists for the 2009 William V. Campbell Trophy (formerly known as the Draddy Trophy). Haik, from Minneapolis, is a political science major (pre-law emphasis) with a 3.75 grade-point average. He is a three-year starter at cornerback for the Johnnies. Ridley, from Edina, is a 2008 CoSIDA Academic All-American and a biology, pre-medicine major with a 3.95 grade point average.
Minnesota State Mankato is ranked No. 7 nationally in the Division II football coaches’ poll and is 6-0 for the first time since 1926.