U.S. NTDP Under-18 Team versus St. Cloud State

The WCHA Blog made the trek up to the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud to watch the U.S. NTDP Under-18 Team take on the St. Cloud State Huskies in exhibition play on Sunday night. Below you'll find some video snippets of the five players on the team that are committed to play for WCHA teams.

This first video features UW recruit Nick Pryor. For some reason I accidentally focused the video on his defensive parter Steve West, an Ohio State recruit. You can still see Pryor play in this video though; just look for No. 22, who is playing left defense.

The other videos are of UND recruit Danny Kristo, and of the three Gopher recruits (Grant Scott, Jordan Schroeder, and Sam Lofquist).

As I noted when I posted video of the Upper Midwest High School Elite League, I'm not a professional when it comes to this type of thing and short video clips aren't the best way to view a player's game, but it's better than nothing.

Minnesota recruit Ness to accelerate to 2008

Roseau High School defenseman Aaron Ness -- a Gopher recruit -- will accelerate his schooling to enroll at Minnesota in the fall of 2008, according to Brad Schlossman's blog. Minnesota is slated to lose only one defenseman after this season (senior Derek Peltier) and the only other flight risk is sophomore David Fischer, who is likely to stay in school for his junior season unless he makes major strides this upcoming season.

Ness will join U.S. NTDP member Sam Lofquist as Gopher freshmen blueliners next year. Lofquist is also accelerating his schooling to enroll next fall. Fellow NTDP member Grant Scott, who was at one time penciled in as a defenseman, shifted to forward at the Select 17s this past summer and will play the position full-time for the NTDP this year, so it appears as though his move to forward will carry over to into career at Minnesota.

Here is some recent video of Ness playing in the Upper Midwest High School Elite League last weekend.