Linkorama: April 17th

Ben Hanowski scored a goal for Calgary in his first career NHL game on Monday night. For being the most lopsided trade in NHL history, both Calgary and Pittsburgh have received one goal scored at the NHL level from the players they received in that trade.

The World U18 championships are starting up soon from Sochi, Russia, with exhibition play getting underway. Team USA walked past Canada 4-1 in exhibition play. We'll have more coverage on Team USA's quest for a fifth straight gold medal at this tournament as the tourney progresses.The US starts pool play with a game against the host Russians, which should be a difficult test, although the Russians are missing star Valeri Nickushkin, at least until the medal round, as his KHL team is still in the playoffs.

If you're looking to help out a good cause, the good folks at Defending the Blue Line, a hockey-themed charity for military families, are trying to keep the Cleland Ice Rink in Fort Bragg, North Carolina open. Though the arena is profitable, it has been targeted as part of sequestration cuts. To learn more about the project, along with how you can help, you can check out their petition to stop the closure.

The Green Bay Gamblers signed two players, Compuware's Jr. Gates and TPH Thunder's Aaron O'Neill, to tenders for next season. Gates is a forward that has already committed to Notre Dame. Green Bay calls O'Neill "one of, if not the best, prospect Middle Tennessee has ever produced," which....yeah, I don't think anyone is going to argue.

The tendering process is a rather new one, having just been instituted last year. Teams have the opportunity to sign up to two players prior to the Future's Draft(this year it is players born in 1997), with the condition that they play those prospects a certain amount of time. Teams were a little hesitant to use them last year, but after some of the '96s that were signed via the tender process last spring had some success in the league--Ryan Mantha, Keegan Ford, Seamus Malone, to name a few--it seems like more teams are using them this year.

Speaking of USHL tenders, there were rumors that Belle Tire forward Ryan Moore had signed a tender with Youngstown. As it turned out, Moore did sign the tender, but Youngstown never turned it into the league, presumably waiting until the last minute to make sure Moore actually planned to come. That turned out to be a good move as Moore signed with the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL on Tuesday.

Bemidji State announced their season ticket packages for next season. The cheapest package is $275 for the 20-game schedule, which works out to $13.75 a game. Last year's cheapest season ticket package cost $295, though only for an 18-game schedule, which works out to about $16.38 a game. It's also worth noting that next year will be the once-every-four years Bemidji State has Minnesota coming into town, which might inflate this year's price a little bit. Ticket prices in college hockey coming down is a great thing. But at the same time, expenses are greatly increasing at BSU next season, and they already had some noted financial difficulties last year. It's too bad there aren't more schools like, two hours away that they could load their schedule up with to cut down on some of those costs.

In Minnesota high school hockey news, St. Thomas Academy got kicked out of their conference. In the grand scheme of things, it probably doesn't mean much, especially since there appears to be some question of whether that decision will even hold, but it is funny to see something like that happen to such a deserving group. That said, maybe that is a sign of something bigger happening in Minnesota high school sports. That might get a full write-up on a day when I feel like having people yell at me.