CANADA BEATS USA FOR GOLD

ZLIN, Czech Republic _ Canada won gold at the under-18 women’s hockey championship on Saturday with a 3-0 victory over the United States.

Alexis Crossley of Cole Harbour, N.S., Sarah Lefort of Ormstown, Que., and Cydney Roesler of Stittsville, Ont., scored and Emerance Maschmeyer of Bruderheim, Alta., made 28 saves for the shutout.

“I like shutouts a lot,” said head coach Pierre Alain. “So 3-0 was like the cherry on the cake.”

Crossley scored on a rebound at 9:04 of the first period and Lefort tallied on the power play at 14:03. Roesler’s insurance goal in the third period also came with the man advantage.

Alain said he was also pleased with his team’s play in the defensive end.

“We knew today we’d have to work in our end,” Alain said. “We came through. It was a great team effort.”

Defenceman Erin Ambrose of Keswick, Ont., said it was an amazing feeling to beat the defending champions.

“I don’t know if I’ve seen a group of girls so happy,” she said. “There are tears and smiles, there are hugs everywhere right now _ it’s incredible.”

American goalie Brianna Laing made 13 saves. Her coach, Heather Linstad, called it a disappointing result.

“I thought our team had great team chemistry,” Linstad said. “We worked really hard and created many scoring opportunities but couldn’t find the back of the net.”

Canada and the United States have dominated this event, meeting in the final at all four previous championships.

The Americans won gold on three occasions while Canada’s other title came in 2010.

Submitted by Faribault Daily… on Mon, 01/02/2012 – 22:41

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Willie Raskob scored a hat trick as the Shattuck-St. Mary’s boys prep hockey team avenged an earlier loss to Finland to capture the inaugural gold medal at the World Sport School Challenge in Calgary, Alberta.

Just two days after losing 4-3 to the Fins, the Sabres (32-4-1) came back with a 5-3 win in the gold medal game on Saturday, their third-straight win in an elimination game. Despite going just 1-2 in pool play, the Sabres got hot at the right time and rode a wave of goal-scoring to win the first-year tournament.

“We were on the puck all week from game one to game six,” said SSM assistant coach Des Christopher, who was coaching for Tom Ward. “The guys played very, very hard and worked together as a group. We played very well offensively in this tournament.”

Finals SSM 5, Finland 3

The Sabres fell behind 1-0 in the first period before Raskob, a defenseman, scored his natural hat trick, including goals just 57 seconds apart spanning the first and second periods. All three of Raskob’s goals came on the power play.

“Willie is a very skilled player,” Christopher said. “He understands the offensive side of the game. We activate our defensemen and give them the opportunity to jump in on the rush when it’s available and he was able to do that.”

Zach Stepan put SSM up 4-1 before Finland scored two goals to pull within one with 16 minutes to play. Hunter Fejes added an empty netter in the final seconds.

“They’re a very good hockey team and it was going to be close either way,” Christopher said. “I think we got a couple of bounces and a couple of breaks. Our power play was clicking very well.”

The Fins had come into the game 4-0 in the tournament and had out-scored their opponents 36-7. The Sabres had success in mixing up their penalty kill.
“We haven’t seen that team before and we noticed they were doing some different puck movement and we decided it was better to change our rotation in the box,” Christopher said.

Semifinals SSM 7, Slovakia 5

For the second time at the WSSC the Sabres took down Slovakia. Thanks to seven different players scoring — and two other notching assists — SSM built a 7-3 lead with 20 minutes to play behind four second-period goals.

The Sabres scored twice in the opening five minutes, then after Slovakia tied it at 2-2 the Sabres scored five straight times. Hunter Fejes had a goal and two assists and Noah Henry, Tyler Vesel and Stepan each had a goal and an assist. Anthony Brodeur made 21 saves as SSM out-shot Slovakia 68-26.

Quarterfinals SSM 12, POE 0

There wasn’t much excellence from the Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy as Shattuck peppered the net with 71 shots and 12 goals, including a hat trick from Fejes.

SSM scored four times in the first period, five in the second and three in the third. They scored eight times on 10 power plays. Noah Henry had two goals and an assist and Carter Lukenda had three assists. Brodeur had an 18-save shutout.

Pool play

The Sabres opened pool play on Dec. 26 with a tough 7-5 loss to Okanagan Hockey Academy. After SSM jumped out to a 3-0 lead, Okanagan tied it up with three second-period goals. Fejes tied the game at 5-5 with 2:54 to play, but Okanagan’s Joseph Hicketts scored the game winner with 1:36 to play.

“We probably played one of our best games in the first game,” Christopher said. “We just didn’t get the outcome. It was a really fluky game. It was odd.”
Hayton finished with 28 saves and Raskob, Vesel, Fejes, Truman Reed and Sabastian Lemm all scored.

The next day, SSM beat Slovakia 9-3 behind Stepan’s four goals. The Sabres led 6-2 after a second period that saw the two teams combine for seven goals. Brodeur finished with 25 saves.

In their final pool play game, the Sabres lost a lead to Finland and fell to 1-2.

Up 2-0, SSM led Finland score three straight goals before Jake Montgomery tied it in the second period. But Finland scored short-handed with eight minutes to go. Hayton had 17 saves and Fejes and Stepan scored.

The Sabres are off until they travel to Chicago for an HPHL Showcase on Jan. 13.

— Sports editor Brendan Burnett-Kurie may be reached at 333-3129.

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Jordy Murray wearing #28 playing in the Swiss National League A for Rapperwil Lakers.

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Click here for article written by Shattuck Alumni Al Daniel.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/842308-nhl-20-best-shattuck-st-marys-hockey-alumni#/articles/842308-nhl-20-best-shattuck-st-marys-hockey-alumni

At 5-foot-9, 177 pounds, Chay Genoway doesn’t look like your prototypical NHL defensemen.
But looks are often deceiving.

At the Minnesota Wild Development Camp, the recent free agent signee out of the University of North Dakota is doing what he can to show that height is just a number, and strength knows no limits.

Genoway’s off-ice strength testing has been as impressive as his coast-to-coast goal in Saturday’s scrimmage. Word has it that after piling up the most consecutive pushups among the prospects, he immediately started his pull ups and tallied the highest number of those.

“He is quite strong physically,” said Kirk Olson, the Wild’s recently hired strength and conditioning coach, whose first order of business was working out the prospects this week. “He has a low center of gravity and is hard to knock off his feet.”

If anyone knows size isn’t always relative to strength, it’s Genoway. The former UND captain is showing that he arrived at camp ready to make a run at a professional career.

“I’ve been doing the normal summer time stuff, like lifting weights and conditioning,” Genoway said. “But I also tried to get on the ice more than usual this summer so it wouldn’t be too strenuous on things like the groin or hip-flexors, like the ice can be when you jump right to it.”

In his first camp, at 23 years old, Genoway was one of the elder statesmen. His development as a player is advanced compared to his younger counterparts, and he knows the importance of making a good first impression.

“You’re here to develop, but people are always watching, so you never know and you want to be prepared as much as possible,” said the Swan River, Manitoba native said.

“Guys are trying to make a name for themselves,” Olson added. “Not only with coaches, trying to make a roster spot, but with teammates. The guys were trying to pull whatever they could out of each other, and Chay did a great job of that.”

Working with Genoway for less than a week, Olson noticed his off-ice habits.

“Chay works his butt off,” Olson said. “You can see that he takes pride his work ethic.”

For an undersized defenseman, self-determination and motivation is a necessity to excel in a game populated by behemoths. Genoway has been training at UND this summer and credits his time in college for helping groom him to make the leap to pro hockey.

“That place prepares you for the next level,” the four-time All Academic team member said. “I’ve been training there for the last five years and there’s always guys there that are pushing you everyday. It was a wake up call.”

Often, the most eye-opening challenge for college hockey players is adjusting to the higher speed of the pro game.

“It has been a really good pace; especially, considering it is the summer time,” Genoway said. “There are better players you’re playing with. You have to work a little bit harder to be in position.”
In addition to the boost in tempo, he also is trying to adapt to the subtle differences in style between the college and pro game. The camp is his first taste of what it will take to succeed at the next level.

“It’s a little more positional and structured than in college,” Genoway said. “So, I really have focused on positioning, being sound defensively and making a good first pass. And if that goes well, getting up in the play a little bit.”

Getting up in the play, as a blueliner, is something Genoway did better than most while at UND. In his senior season, he racked up 37 points in 36 games, leading the Sioux to the Broadmoor Trophy, awarded to the WCHA playoff championship, and a Frozen Four appearance. He also led the team as a two-year captain, something that was immediately evident to Olson.

“There are two types of leaders: The Ra-Ra types, and the lead by example types,” Olson said. “With Chay, you get the best of both worlds. He always leads by example, but can step-up and say something when it’s needed.  He is the type of leader other guys gravitate toward.”
      
At Development Camp, Genoway led by example at the off-ice workouts and said the team building exercises during outdoor training along with the more traditional work out routines were ways to show other methods of staying fit.

“We’ve done a little bit of everything – running, weight training and conditioning – we’ve also done some off-ice training that I’ve never done; things meant to push you out of your comfort zone. I think it helps the guys grow because you might see some of these guys on your team at some time.”

Genoway is hoping that team will soon be the Minnesota Wild