Putting on the foil – Friday links.

In the predictions department, Roman Augustoviz from the Red Star and Sickle and Shane Frederick of the Mankato Free Press made their predictions for this weekend’s games.

North Dakota at Alaska Anchorage
Shane: Anybody out there write off North Dakota after its slow start? Me neither. The Sioux face a Seawolves team that left Mankato with three points this week but also one that blew a 5-1 lead over the second half of Saturday’s game. Of course, those five goals came on just seven shots. That’s not going to happen again. North Dakota will build off last week’s impressive sweep of Colorado College and get an early jump on it annual second-half surge. ... NORTH DAKOTA SWEEP

Roman: The Seawolves scored seven goals in their first eight WCHA games before getting 10 in a three-point weekend at Mankato. Scoring on NoDak will be tougher. UAA is a respectable 14-15-1 against the Fighting Sioux in Alaska.... UND's top line had a huge weekend against CC. Brock Nelson had three goals and three assists, Corban Knight one goal and four assists and Danny Kristo three goals and two assists. That's 16 points combined. ... SPLIT

Delusions of Grandeur, aka the UAA Fan Blog, breaks down the series between the Sioux and the Seawolves, err, goes on a rant about his love for the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux Hockey program. [Click to be entertained]

The race in the WCHA is far from over, yet some seem to be penciling in the Gophers and the Bulldogs for the WCHA title game already. Seems a bit premature if you ask me; there is a lot of hockey left and the Gophers probably have one of the toughest schedules during the second half of the season.

We're not even halfway through the WCHA season. Some teams have played a disproportionate number of road games so far, while others just wrapped up a home stretch and won't play at home again for two months.

Hey, I don't make the schedules, okay?

As we get close to the Christmas break that marks what is basically the halfway point of the year, Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth -- longtime rivals -- appear to be on a collision course in the WCHA title race.
[Hockey Wilderness]

Just for the record the next six games for the Gophers “on paper” are games against the weak sisters of the poor. The Gophers will be heavily favored in all six games. The Gophers should go 6-0-0 and hardly breaking a sweat to roll their less than stellar opponents.

If you don’t believe me take a look, the Gophers play MSU-M (X2), Michigan Tech (X2), Niagara in the opening game of the Mariucci Cupcake Classic and then the winner of the Providence and Northeastern game. We all know that neither of those teams will have a chance against the mighty Gophers. Heck, neither of those teams should even bother showing up for the games right.

UAA appears to have a few players banged up this weekend.

UAA senior wing Jade Portwood (knee), junior center Alex Gellert (shoulder) and junior center Daniel Naslund (concussion) will all miss the series with injuries. Nine different Seawolves have already missed a total of 39 games this season because of injuries. [Anchorage Daily News]

The Fighting Sioux are ranked 6th in the College Hockey News power rankings.

6 — North Dakota (Last week: 7)
Back into the top-half of the rankings comes North Dakota, fresh off a weekend sweep of Colorado College. All that talk about the Sioux’s inability to score goals? Um, nevermind. And that first line of Brock Nelson, Danny Kristo and Corban Knight? Yeah, they’re pretty good. UND is still lacking a reliable second line, although head coach Dave Hakstol told me this week he was pleased with how the entire group played last weekend. Aaron Dell was not good last Friday, allowing six goals before getting the hook halfway through, but recovered nicely to post the win Saturday. UND is still very much lacking consistency in that area, however.
[College Hockey News]

Ness signs contract with N.Y. Islanders

This is one of those moves I would classify as being a head scratcher of the silly season, the underperforming Aaron Ness has decided to fore go his final year of eligibility to sign with the hapless New York Islanders.

Roman Augustoviz, Goal Gophers - Junior defenseman Aaron Ness on Wednesday signed a three-year entry level NHL contract with the New York Islanders.

The Islanders took him in the second round of the 2008 NHL draft. The 5-10, 177-pound Ness scored two goals and had 12 assists for 14 points this past season with the Gophers.

Ness, 20, will join the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Islanders' AHL affiliate for the rest of their hockey season.

In his three-year career, Ness played in 111 games and had six goals and 37 assists for 43 points.

Ness said he was ready to take the next step in his hockey career. "I've still got to make improvements in a lot of areas," Ness said, "But my dream it to play in the NHL and this is best opportunity to keep progressing."

He was it was his decision to leave the university, not the Islanders' pressing him. "After three years, I had a lot of fun and got a lot better," Ness said. "But I asked around to see what I had to do.

"I had a great three years," Ness said. "And realistically, if I had to do it all over again," Ness said, "I would do the same thing. I had great coaches, great fans. Everything is put on a platter for you to succeed. I would have wanted to do better in the playoffs, to go further, but it happens."

Ex-Gopher Cepis signs with Lake Erie Monsters

According to Roman Augustoviz of Goal Gophers, former Minnesota Golden Gophers punk Jacob Cepis will start his professional career with the Lake Erie Monsters of the American Hockey League this weekend, it will be interesting to see if he continues his antics from college or if he will now just play hockey instead of diving and flailing all over the ice. Goon’s World would like to wish him well in the next level of his hockey career and good riddance we won’t have to watch his antics anymore.

Goal Gophers --- Jacob Cepis, who finished as the Gophers' leading scorer, has signed with the Lake Erie Monsters of the American Hockey League.

"They called me right away," said Cepis, who practiced with the Monsters on Tuesday. "They are 10 minutes away from my home. I am super excited to play some games this weekend."

Cepis is from Parma, Ohio. The Monsters' arena is in Cleveland.

Lake Erie has three games this weekend and 13 left total in the regular season.

"Their head coach [Dave Quinn] recruited me when I went to Minnesota," Cepis said. "He was an assistant at BU."

That's Boston University. This is Quinn's second season at Lake Erie coach.

Cepis finished with 12 goals and 17 assists for 29 points for the Gophers. He wore No. 17 as a Gophers, but that number was taken on the Monsters so he is No. 38.

Zach Budish injured; out for the season?

Goal Gophers is reporting that Sophmore winger Zach Budish could be out for the season because of a knee injury. This is bad news for the Gophers if true. According to the Star Tribune Budish was injuried in a moped accident.

Goal Gophers --- Zach Budish, a sophomore right winger for the Gophers, was injured Monday in a moped accident, a team spokesman said. The severity of Budish’s injuries are being determined.

According to at least one report, Budish appears to have a torn anterior cruciate ligament in one of his knees and could be out for the rest of the season. That’s what Kevin Gorg, FSN’s analyst for the Gophers-Colorado College series this past weekend, said on KFAN radio on Tuesday morning.

Gophers coach Don Lucia will provide an update on Budish on Wednesday, the day regularly scheduled for media interviews, said Paul Rovnak, the assistant director in athletic communications for men’s hockey.

Darby Hendrickson has options.

Check this out this little nugget that I found it over on Michael Russo's blog, it looks like former Minnesota Wild and Minnesota Gopher hockey player Darby Hendrickson could be doing color for Gopher hockey this winter on FSN if he wants the job. Interesting!

Russo note: If it’s the coach, I believe the vision is for this person to basically be around home practices and games. I think former Wild center Darby Hendrickson is the guy Richards really wants. But Hendrickson makes good money as a Northwest Division rep for the NHLPA and I'm told by multiple sources that he's been offered the Gophers' color job from Fox Sports North. Plus, he works for FSN as a Wild analyst. So Hendrickson has a lot of options to weigh through. But I'm sure Hendrickson would be very intrigued by a unique coaching opportunity with his hometown Wild. So we'll see where this goes with time.

While I like the job Doug Woog did with FSN, face it he was one of the faces of the Golden Gophers hockey, I do think it was his time to move on. I also think Hendrickson is a likable hockey personality and he probably won't be an in your face color guy but more of an analyst that explains the game to you. That being said, Hendrickson will always be one of them a Golden Gopher, one of the hated golden Rodents...

A few Saturday morning links

Apparently Gopher coach Don Lucia is felling better.

Good news: Gophers men's hockey coach Don Lucia, who has suffered from sarcoidosis — an inflammation of skull lining that affects nerves — for the last 1 1/2 years, is back from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester apparently recovered from the disease. No longer does Lucia have to take steroid treatments and nerve drugs.

"I get to be myself again," he said this morning.

Here is an interesting perspective. This is how former Gopher "Hack" Tony Lucia and his father see him. I am sure Sioux fans would see him differently.

“I’m a hard-nosed player that brings his lunch pail to the rink every night and tries to give a good effort,” Lucia said when asked to describe his style of play. “I’m not going to be a flashy player, but I like to play a tough game whistle-to-whistle.”

According to Tony’s dad, Don, his son has always been a good leader with his teammates and passionate about hockey. In an exclusive interview with SJSHARKS.com, Don described Tony as a “gritty, smart, two-way player” who’s “always been willing to do whatever it takes to win.”
[NHL.com]

Former Wild Goon enforcer Derek Boogaard said he had a few teams pursing him during the free agency period.

Make no mistake, Boogaard's primary service still is to menace. The 6-foot-7, 260-pound left wing remains one of the top two or three most-feared enforcers in the NHL, which is why the Rangers' Glen Sather was one of what Boogaard said were about 10 general managers who came calling July 1, the first day of free agency.

"That's more (teams) than Gabby was dealing with last summer," said Boogaard, who shares agent Ron Salcer with Marian Gaborik, with whom Boogaard will be a teammate again. "Ronny was surprised; he told me he thought there would be four or five teams (interested)."

The Rangers have a lot of money invested in skill players such as forwards Gaborik and Chris Drury and goaltender Henry Lundqvist, and Sather said he was tired of them being pushed around. Boogaard believes he can help.
[Pioneer Press]

Boston Bruins Center David Krejci says he is, "on schedule to join his teammates for training camp." That is good news for the Boston Bruins who are very thin at the forward position. [Boston Globe]