More with Brownlee and other stuff

I had a chance to talk with Chad Brownlee this week as he was heading to Edmonton for the Canadian Country Music Association Awards. You can read my Free Press story on him here. The awards are on Sunday night, and Brownlee has been nominated in the "rising star" star category. But the festivities also included a charity hockey game on Wednesday and a prestigious new-artist showcase concert on Thursday, both of which Brownlee was scheduled to appear in.

Meanwhile, we're getting closer and closer to the hockey season, and some preseason news is starting to trickle in ...

Western College Hockey blog has rated the goalie position in the WCHA and ranked the 12 teams accordingly. Let's just say Chris Dilks have a lot of faith in Phil Cook, putting Minnesota State 11th on the list.  An excerpt:

Phil Cook earned the starting role for Minnesota State, on the back of some nice non-conference starts against Bemidji State and RIT, but his 3.24 GAA and .890 save percentage would have put him 12th in the WCHA in both categories if he had played enough minutes to qualify. Even in last year's playoff series against St. Cloud, which some considered Cook's finest moment, he let in 3 or more goals in all three games, failed to stop 90% of his shots in all three games, and lost third period leads in games two and three of the series.

Not sure I would Cook & Co. behind Michigan Tech, Nebraska-Omaha and maybe even Minnesota Duluth and Denver right now, but Mr. Dilks, who's a pretty keen observer of the WCHA does make an interesting statistical argument. ...

College Hockey News has put out it's preseason Top 10 and has defending national champion Boston College at the top of the heap. WCHA schools on the list include North Dakota (2), St. Cloud State (6) and Minnesota Duluth (9) with Wisconsin as a team to watch from the WCHA. ...

Duluth radio guy Bruce Ciskie is taking over the WCHA preseason media poll from the folks in Madison, and he'll be releasing the results on Sept. 29. He's hoping to get 30 voters to predict the order of finish, player of the year and newcomer of the year. Yes, PucKato will be voting in this. Got any advice? ...

It's been a wild offseason for assistant coaches in the WCHA with several openings to be filled. The latest is in St. Cloud where Eric Rud left the bench to be the head coach/GM of the Green Bay Gamblers USHL team. St. Cloud hired Fargo Force head coach/GM Steve Johnson as Rud's replacement. ...

Getting back on the subject of ex-Mavericks, many of last year's seniors will be playing in the ECHL this season, including Zach Harrison (Elmira), Geoff Irwin (Idaho), Kael Mouillierat (Idaho) and Jerad Stewart (Alaska). ...

Late addition: The MSU men's and women's hockey teams will have a fundraiser -- a pork loin feed -- at Buster's from 4 to 8 p.m. on Saturday. Cost is $15 for adults and $7 for kids.