Sports

St. Cloud prep star picks North Dakota over Gophers, SCSU

Junior forward Austin Poganski of St. Cloud Cathedral is going to play his college hockey at The Ralph.

By Roman Augustoviz

December 20, 2012 at 4:19AM

Junior forward Austin Poganski of St. Cloud Cathedral has committed to North Dakota.

The Gophers and St. Cloud State also offered him scholarships.

He is almost 6-1, 194 pounds. He has 10 goals and seven assists for 17 points in eight games this season.

A story on him in the St. Cloud Daily Times is here.

CAPTAIN LEADING SCSU

Senior forward and team captain Drew LeBlanc is a big reason St. Cloud State is in first place in the WCHA.

LeBlanc, out all of last season with a broken leg, leads the nation with 19 assists and the Huskies with 24 points.

He had three assists as SCSU swept Colorado College last weekend. LeBlanc owns a seven-game points streak and has 34 goals and 87 assists for 121 career points. That puts 14th on the Huskies career points list just behind Dave Paradise (122 points from 1993-97).

He ranks sixth in the SCSU career assists with 87 behind Joe Motzko (90 from 1999-03). SCSU's Garrett Roe is the all-time SCSU assists leader with 113 from 2007-11. Roe is playing for Adirondack in the AHL this season.
FINISHING FROSH

Perhaps even more surprising is what SCSU rookie forward Kalle Kossila is doing.

Kossila, from Finland, leads the nation's freshmen with 10 goals. He had two goals against CC. David Morley, another freshman forward, has six goals and six assists for 12 points.

ETC.

* Junior defenseman Nick Jensen, a Detroit draft pick, is tied for first among Division I blueliners with 13 assists this season. He had two assists in the Huskies' 5-3 win over CC last Friday .

* The Huskies have outscored their opponents 62-45 this season and outshot them 532-472 this year.

* Sophomore defenseman .Andrew Prochno leads the Huskies with 18 blocked shots.

* SCSU leads the WCHA on the penalty kill in conference games at 87.8% and on defense at 2.36 goals given up per game. The Huskies have not allowed a power-play goal in its last five games, killing off 10 in a row.