News & Notes From Around PioNation

(left) DU won the WCHA's MacNaughton Cup for the 13th time on Saturdau night against Minnesota State

Paul Statsny and his USA teammates won Silver Medals on Sunday despite losing a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime loss to Canada. Stastny scored a goal and had two assists in Team USA's six games, but was minus-one in his nearly 18 minutes of ice time Sunday. His whole family, including his father Peter, attended the game. This wasn't his dad's first Olympics, just first as a dad. He played for Czechoslovakia in 1980 when the U.S. beat Russia for gold and again in 1994 for his native Slovakia.

DU recruit Jason Zucker scored six goals for the USNDT in three USHL games last week. Zucker scored a power-play goal with 43 seconds left in the opening period against Sioux City yesterday afternoon, recorded a hat trick against Lincoln and tallied two goals in Friday night's 6-2 win over Des Moines. He'll play for the University of Denver next season.

The Atlanta Thrashers have reassigned former DU goaltender Peter Mannino to the Chicago Wolves. Mannino, who did not appear in any games during his recall, is currently in the midst of a professional career-high 10-game winning streak. Atlanta needed a goalie to help out in practice as the team returned to the rink after its Olympic vacation. The team was down to one netminder with goaltender Ondrej Pavelec in Vancouver representing the Czech Republic team. Mannino, 26, was rewarded with an opportunity to practice with the parent club for a few days.

DU recruit Beau Bennett is off to a fast start in the BCHL playoffs. He has a goal and two assists in the teams first two playoff games.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

DU fan or Sioux Fan. I threw it all out the window and cheered my heart out for Stastny. Hated him while at DU, but I wanted to see our boys in gold. Love of country supersedes my love for the Fighting Sioux! USA HOCKEY IS DO OR DIE!

puck swami said...

I can assure you that every DU fan was cheering his guts out for Zach Parise as well. WCHA pride is almost as important as country.

Anonymous said...

I just want to say how proud I am of the Minnesota Boys/guys with MN connections that were on the US team. Parise, Langenbrunner, EJ, David Backes...plus Ryan Suter and Phil Kessel as former Gophers.

And of course Stastny as a former Pio. Great job by the US. I loved seeing in the interviews afterward how Parisa was looking forward to 2014 for "revenge." Love it.

Pioneers04 said...

I, too may have hated Parise when he wore the Black and Green of the Sioux, but yes, country trumps rivalry. I told my coworkers at lunch today that I was not surprised it was him who scored that goal, I knew what he was capable of. Way to go USA (and even a bit to Canada), way to show the world what college hockey can do once again. If I'm not mistakened, we even had the Johnson and Johnson defensive pairing.

Twister said...

That was an absolutely crushing loss yesterday. I haven't been that disappointed after a game in any sport in a long long time. I thought after Parise scored to tie things up there was no way our guys would lose. It would have been so sweet to beat Canada on their home ice. 2014 seems like light years away when the gold was so close.....

Nevertheless, it was a great tournament and a very exciting gold medal game.

Jordan said...

Just like country trumps rivalry, we can all agree that it was a great game for the sport of hockey.