Aaron Broten and MacInnes to be inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

USA Hockey announced today that four new members -- including former Golden Gopher Aaron Broten and former Michigan Tech head coach John MacInnes -- will be enshrined into U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame as the Class of 2007 on Friday, Oct. 12, at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in Grand Forks, N.D.

From the release about Broten:

Broten enjoyed a highly successful two-year playing career (1979-81) at the University of Minnesota before joining the professional ranks. At Minnesota, he set a record for points by a rookie (25-47—72) en route to being named the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s Freshman of the Year. The following season, he recorded a still-standing Gopher-record 106 points (47-59) to lead the team to the WCHA title and the NCAA championship game.

After leaving Minnesota, Broten went on to play 748 career games in the National Hockey League. During his 12-year career (1981-92), he played for five different NHL teams, including the Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils franchise, Minnesota North Stars, Quebec Nordiques, Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets. On the international level, Broten competed at five world championships, two Canada Cups and one world junior championship. He retired from professional hockey in 1992.

From the release about MacInnes:

The late MacInnes is one of the most renowned college hockey coaches in U.S. history. After playing two seasons (1945-46/1949-50) at the University of Michigan in goal and three years (1946-49) in the Detroit Red Wings system in the International Hockey League, he became the league director of the Ann Arbor (Mich.) Amateur Hockey League. There, he initiated the first Bantam classification. After four years in Ann Arbor, he headed to Michigan Tech University, where he began a historic 26-year (1956-82) head-coaching career.

While at Tech, MacInnes led the Huskies to three NCAA championships and seven WCHA championships, and was named the NCAA Coach of the Year twice and the WCHA Coach of the Year six times. He has already been inducted into the University Michigan Hall of Honor, Michigan Tech University Sports Hall of Fame, State of Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame. He was honored with the NHL’s prestigious Lester Patrick Award in 1986 and the Legend of College Hockey Award in 1999.

Team USA loses again

Team USA lost their second game of the 2007 Under-18 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka to Finland today by a 5-3 score. The U.S. got out to an early 2-0 lead but was unable to hold off the Fins. Team USA dropped their opener to Russia yesterday by a 5-3 score.

From a WCHA perspective, only Minnesota recruit Aaron Ness factored into the scoring, as he assisted on Team USA's third goal of the game. Ness, a defenseman, will join the Gophers in the fall of 2009.

Next up for the U.S. is Slovakia. Puck drops at 1 p.m. EST on Thursday.

Team USA falls to Russia 5-3

Team USA was defeated in their first official game in the 2007 Under-18 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka by Russia 5-3 today. Mike Cichy, who will join North Dakota in the fall of 2008, had a pair of assists for Team USA, while Nate Dewhurst, a '08 recruit for Denver, scored a goal for the U.S. Jordy Murray (Wisconsin, 2008) also had an assist.

Team USA takes on Finland in their second of three first-round games tomorrow.

UPDATE: UMD recruit Brady Hjelle (2008) started in goal for the U.S. He made 28 saves in the loss.