The National Letter of Intent is an agreement between an athlete (a senior in high school) and the institution, where the athlete promises to attend the institution for a year and the institution promises some form of financial aid for that year. So only athletes receiving athletic scholarships sign an LOI. Also, once an athlete signs an LOI, other schools promise to stop recruiting him.

UPDATE: CC is expecting LOI’s from John Moore, Joe Howe, and Dakota Eveland (though he is expected to arrive in 2010, could come next season if CC has early departures). CC obtained letters of intent from Rylan Schwartz, Scott Winkler, and Russell Goodman in the spring. CC coaches can’t comment on recruits until they have received the LOI.

Other recruits lined up for fall 2009 include: Andrew Hamburg, who was named the NAHL South’s player of the week for his five-point weekend, and defenseman Joe Marciano, who is playing with the Omaha Lancers.

Schwartz, who just returned from a silver-medal appearance at the World Junior A Challenge, ranks second among all points-scorers (14 goals, 18 assists in 16 games) in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

Moore, who helped the U.S. Junior Select team capture a gold medal at the Challenge, is in his second year playing for the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League. Moore (Winnetka, Ill.) is fourth among Steel scorers and second in defenseman-scoring.

Winkler (Asker, Norway) as drafted in the third round (No. 89 overall) by the Dallas Stars last summer. He currently has seven points (2 goals, 5 assists) in his first season with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. He spent last season with Russell Stover AAA, a midget team based in Overland Park, Kan.

Goodman, who seems to have rebounded well from a pair of serious knee injuries, leads the Nanaimo Clippers of the British Columbia Hockey League with 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) in 20 games. Goodman hails from Saskatoon, Sask., and was named captain of the Clippers this season.

In his second season playing for the Waterloo Black Hawks, Howe is 3-2-1 through six games with a 3.10 GAA and a .892 save percentage. Howe has played the most minutes of the Black Hawks’ three goalies and just returned from the Junior A Challenge.

Post from: Eye of The Tigers

Harstad was the fifth overall pick in the USHL entry draft, which was headed by fellow CC recruit Jaden Schwartz.

With the addition of Harstad in 2010 or 2011, the Tigers’ defensive corps will be heavy with Wisconsinites: Art Bidwill and Ted Behrend, both freshmen this season, hail from America’s Dairyland.

–

There’s also a nice story on the BCHL website about 2009 forward recruit Russell Goodman, who had a tough spring with a knee injury and then being passed over in the NHL draft. Goodman’s back on track now, it seems, and one only needs to look at some of the undrafted players (Denver’s Tyler Bozak comes to mind) making a major impact in the WCHA to know that it’s sometimes good to fly under the radar.

Post from: Eye of The Tigers

As for other possible draftees with CC ties:

–Recruit Russell Goodman, a left wing for Nanaimo (BCHL), is a projected sixth-round pick by Central Scouting. He was listed as No. 160 in the final rankings.

–Recruit Scott Winkler, a center who plays for Russell Stover AAA, is a projected sixth-round pick by Central Scouting at No. 176.

Another little news item slipped under my radar, but I wanted to throw it up here. Recruit Colten St. Clair, considered by many to be the top 16-year-old hockey prospect in America, if not the world, was drafted by the Fargo Force of the United States Hockey League in May. Former North Dakota coach Dean Blais will be on the bench this season.

Post from: Eye of The Tigers

1. PairWise. Yes, I know it’s only February 1. But the Tigers had slipped out of the top four in the PairWise rankings after the loss and tie at Michigan Tech last weekend, meaning they lost a No. 1 seed for the West Regional. With the win over Clarkson — which brings CC’s non-conference record to 4-3 — the Tigers zoomed back up to a tie for third with Denver, which lost 5-1 at Minnesota State-Mankato. See the updated PairWise here.

For those who don’t know: the PairWise rankings mimic the NCAA Tournament selection process, taking into account strength of schedule and performance against teams under consideration for the tournament. Clarkson has been ranked in the top 10 all season long and leads the Eastern College Athletic Conference standings.

2. Offense. The Tigers had 35 shots against Michigan Tech last Saturday and only two goals to show for it. In the two games before that, they had 30 and 31 shots, respectively. Still, just two goals per night. Not only did CC generate 42 shots, but it scored five goals — the most it has had since Jan. 18 against Bemidji State.

That increased offensive output came from…

3. Team defense (and some line changes, too, which I will discuss Saturday. But first, team defense). Both coach Scott Owens and left wing Scott McCulloch, who had two goals on three shots in his first game back from a concussion, attributed this offensive resurgence to the forwards’ commitment to the forecheck.

“Coach had kind of put the onus on us forwards to take control of the game,” McCulloch said. “That’s important for us to keep pressure off of (goalie) Richard (Bachman) and our defense. I think we did a great job to night with moving our feet, cutbacks and getting to the net.”

Whereas the Tigers had continually been trapped in their defensive zone against Michigan Tech, they were able to confine Clarkson within its zone.

“It was nice to score five goals,” Owens said. “It was even nicer to have the puck in their end most of the time. That was something we had stressed, trying to get our forwards to win the territorial battles and keep them bottled up a little bit. The last few weeks, it seems like we’ve been in our zone a lot and having to defend, so I thought they did a nice job.”

Friday Night Links
–North Dakota, which has played 21 WCHA games to the Tigers’ 20 games, pulled to within three points of first-place CC with an incredible overtime goal by Evan Trupp. See it here. If you ask me, that should be on ESPN’s top 10.

–The Nanaimo Daily News profiled CC’s newest recruit, Russell Goodman, a 19-year-old forward from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, who tore his MCL in early December. Read it here.

Post from: Eye of The Tigers