Bjugstad has shot at making U.S. team for World Juniors, Alt less likely

USA Hockey will name its preliminary roster Tuesday for the U.S. team which will play in the World Junior Championships in Buffalo, N.Y., over the holidays.

Four Gophers were invited to the August evaluation camp in Lake Placid, N.Y. Sophomore-to be defenseman Nick Leddy didn't go because he signed with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Freshman center Nick Bjugstad was the camp's leading scorer with seven goals in three scrimmages and four games against teams from Sweden and Finland.

He would have been a cinch for the team except he has struggled as a Gopher. As the second line center, he had one assist in five games before he was diagnosed with mono. He missed five games because of that illness and was switched to right wing on his return.

Bjugstad has two goals and two assists for four points in 11 games and is a minus-4. Not great numbers.

But my guess USA Hockey will want to bring him back for a look. A couple players on the preliminary roster will be cut before the World Juniors.

Zach Budish, a sophomore winger, and Mark Alt, a freshman defenseman, also were at the evaluation camp. Budish, of course, is out for the season with a knee injury. Alt is probably a longshot to make the preliminary roster. He was cut after three scrimmages in August.

Last year Jordan Schroeder was the only Gophers on the U.S. team which won the gold medal in the World Juniors in Saskatchewan.

If Bjugstad and Alt don't make the U.S. team, there still could be one Gopher player gone over the holidays. First line center Erik Haula is probaly a cinch to be named to Finland's team. He is tied for second in scoring on the Gophers with three goals and 12 assists for 15 points.

WCHA SKED GETS MUCH TOUGHER

The Gophers' WCHA schedule gets much tougher the rest of the way, starting with Minnesota Duluth this weekend. The Gophers play the Bulldogs at home this weekend, then face them in their new AMSOIL Arena on Feb. 4-5.

So far Minnesota has played six of the 11 other WCHA teams, three at home, three on the road. Those six are Nebraska Omaha, Colorado College, Wisconsin, Michigan Tech and Minnesota State Mankato.

The remaining schedule has the Gophers facing UMD twice, North Dakota, Alaska Anchorage, Denver, Wisconsin, Michigan Tech and Bemidji State.

UMD (9-2-1) has the best record in the WCHA, next is North Dakota (9-3) and Denver (8-3-1). Minnesota has not faced any of the top three teams.

The combined records of the remaining teams on the U schedule -- counting the 'Dogs twice because the Gophers play them twice -- is 48-38-8. So their winning percentage is 55.3 percent.

U WOULD BE LAST IN DQ CUP RACE

There used to be something called the DQ Cup, which stood for Dairy Queen, of course.

It's still somewhat early in the WCHA season, but trends are emerging. Minnesota Duluth seems like a MacNaughton Cup contender. The other four in-state teams seem to be middle-of-the-pack teams, all fighting for home ice in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.

Here is how the DQ Cup standings would look like if the Cup still existed. Again, I'm not sure it doesn't, but nobody is talking about it:

W L T Pts.

MSU Mankao 2 0 0 4

St. Cloud State 2 2 0 4

Bemidji State 1 2 1 3

Gophers 1 3 0 2