Wild executive Bill Robertson reports that Cal Clutterbuck’s jersey is the No. 1 seller in this market for the NHL franchise. He’s the first rookie since Marian Gaborik to lead jersey sales for the team.
Robertson is friends with former North Star Mike Modano. He expects Modano, 39, to play another NHL season and next year be a candidate for a young U.S. Olympic team.
Modano’s wife, Willa Ford, is an actress who is the fifth “victim” in the new Hollywood move “Friday the 13th,” according to Robertson.
The Wild play at Calgary tonight, with 14 of the next 17 games on the road. This will be the fifth of 15 consecutive games against Western Conference teams as the Wild starts a hoped for playoff drive.
Right wing Antti Miettinen scored the Wild’s fourth short-handed goal in the last eight games on Tuesday in a 2-1 shootout loss to Los Angeles. Miettinen had no short-handed goals in his first 289 NHL games but has two in his last eight.
Joe Schmit is co-hosting a WCCO Radio-Sun Country cruise that leaves on Sunday for Cozumel and the Cayman Islands. He and Eleanor Mondale will be broadcasting from the ship 9 a.m. to noon Monday-Thursday. The former KSTP news and sportscaster reports that his Lymphoma isn’t active and he’s not receiving treatment. “I go back to Mayo (Clinic) again in April and am hoping for another good report,” Schmit wrote via e-mail. He’s president of the John T. Petters Foundation.
The MIAC led all NCAA Division III conferences in average per game and total football attendance for the fourth straight season in 2008. The conference’s nine teams averaged 3,563 fans per game with 160,355 total attendees. Seven MIAC teams had attendance averages in the top 26 nationally. For the 12th time in 16 years, Saint John’s led the country, averaging 7,964 fans last season. Concordia College-Moorhead was 10th with an average of 3,956. Other MIAC leaders were St. Olaf (11th, 3,837 per game), St. Thomas (16th, 3,542), Bethel (22nd, 3,301), Gustavus Adolphus (23rd, 3,173) and Carleton (26th, 3,085).
The Vessey Leadership Academy in West St. Paul, a free public charter high school that includes many disadvantaged kids, has received a $2,000 donation from the Minnesota Minutemen for its sports programs. The school offers junior varsity football, varsity boys basketball, and junior varsity girls lacrosse, relying on fund raising and donations for much of its budget.