Mitch Bruijsten and Luka Vidmar have both been named to their respective countries IIHF Division 1 World Championship preliminary rosters. Bruijsten is on The Netherland's roster and Vidmar is on Slovenia's. IIHF D1 members are Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Poland, Korea and Great Britain in Group B with round robin play set to begin April 17th in Llubjana. Group A consists of The Netherlands, Austria, Japan, Lithuania, Serbia and Ukraine. Their round robin begins on the 19th of April and culminates on the 25th. Both teams are scheduled to play five exhibitions before the pool play begins and final rosters are set.
The top three teams from each group advance for the championship round to Germany at the beginning of May. Don't think for a second that Mitch and Luka aren't pretty fired up at a chance to play for their countries. This essentially 2nd tier tournament opens with a game in front of 75, 976 people in the Veltkins-Arena home to FC Schalka. It's an exhibition game between Team USA and Gemany arranged as the "kickoff game" for the tournament on May 7th.
It is a large indoor multi-use arena. Think watching the NCAA's live at Ford Field would be a bummer? Check out the promotional videos below (two official and one "unofficial"). Some of the descriptions are shall we say a bit over the top but they're definitely playing in big arenas. The winner of this tournament steps a step up to play with the IIHF Big Boys on the world next year. Kind of a big deal for any of these teams to accomplish. So yeah, Mitch and Luka would be pretty jazzed to get a chance to play in Germany in May. We'll provide updates as to their progress here. Good luck to Mitch and Luka; and please allow me to say Go Netherlands, Go Slovenia!
*Warning: The last vid is quite cheesy.
10 comments:
Congrats to Mitch & Luka, hope they tear it up.
Does this mean they aren't coming back next year? School isn't done for this year and I worry about them completing their course work to stay eligible.
They are returning next year. If this had been a "Bruijsten and Vidmar aren't coming back" post then I would have titled it that way.
And as to worrying about remaining eligible the Athletic Department has people that stay on top of these things to ensure all it's students remain in compliance. Online coursework and self-study and technology all help that go smoothly.
clarky assists on winning goal as moose beat league leading hamilton 2 to 1. Great road trip for clarky 2 goals 1 assist in first 7 pro games. Back to winnipeg for two final league games, than playoffs.
all the best to the moose from uaa fans.
Don't mean to be a buzzkill but if Slovenia and the Netherlands were to win their repsective groups they would be in the Championship division next year in Slovakia. They'd replace the two teams that will be relegated from this years tournament (Prediction: Kazakhstan and Italy).
Looking at the groups, I'd actually give Slovenia a pretty good chance of winning, they were second in their group last year losing only one game to Kazakhstan 2-1. The Netherlands has tougher road, Austria normally wouldn't have been relegated but since Germany is hosting the Austrians got the boot instead of the Germans and Ukraine is the other "strong" team in that group. I'd say give a look out for Great Britain and Poland as well.
Congrats to Luka and Mitch! Hup Oranje! Go Lisi!
Also that USA - Germany game is the opening game of the tournament. An actual game not an exhibition.
Listening to Carpenter and Michaels, (both are idiots), I really appreciate Kurt Haider.
Carp and Michaels have done nothing but rag on the refs and complain about all their horrible calls, over and over and over. Let the fans do that, they are supposed to be professionals. LOL
I have been listening to the broadcasts and reading the blogs and wonder why aces fans would want people to boycott the sportsman show. Don't they realize it's a great opportunity for businesses to make slot of money. This in my mind stimulates our economy and with the not so good forcasts for this year in tourism a good way to save up a bit more for tougher times. It just doesn't make any sense to me. But then again, I never could figure out why just some people don't believe in helping their neighbors out, especially when times are hard. I know it's hard to plan ahead for every event but it does come down to planning and first come first served, so quit wasting time and energy, move on and start planning for next year.
As an avid radio listener, I am so very grateful for Kurts broadcasts. We are very lucky to have him. When we play away teams and there is no video feed you can actually see the game without visually seeing it. After growing up in bush Alaska where there wasn't TV, a radio was a luxury and a good announcer was icing on the cake.
Go Seawolves!!!!!
Aces starting the playoffs in Wasilla is karma for how many years now scheduling games during the Seawolves first round of WCHA playoffs, if we got to play at home.
I guess I must be nieve, I never knew that about the Aces
scheduling. Wonder why if they disslike the Seawolves so much, they have so many former seawolves on their team?
I heard they may be losing their radio announcer? If that is true, I wonder why so many people are leaving when their team is not doing so well? It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Go Seawolves and I hope BC kicks the snot out of those
pesky rodents!!!
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