I’m as happy as the next guy, maybe more so, regarding UMass’ performance at Northeastern on Sunday but I’m not sure I’m ready to say they’re back on track as this headline from the Republican reads.  Not to knock Northeastern who has beaten some good teams this year like Colorado College and Lowell, but they still are in a rebuilding year.  And I don’t think you can blame them if they were a little emotionally drained Sunday after clawing their way back into the game the night before against Lowell only to be heartbroken at the end.  Anyway, Sunday was one of the better games all season for the Minutemen but I’d like to see a strong effort in both games against Lowell before concluding that they’re back on track.

Redshirt defenseman Anthony Raiola is mentioned in this article about Minnesota high school defensemen.  Two of Raiola’s defensive teammates are also playing college, one at Mercyhurst the other at Wisconsin.

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Mike Pereira was ranked as the 77th best skater in the NHL Central Scouting Mid-Term Rankings that came out yesterday.

What does that mean?  It’s tough to tell.  I checked who was ranked 77th last year at this time, Willie Coetzee, and he went undrafted, though he later signed a free agent deal with the Red Wings.  Jerry D’Amigo was ranked 72nd and he has exploded onto the college (and international) scene this year.

Also, Pereira’s signing with UMass over BU and Providence are mentioned in his local paper as well as a story on his brother’s game at Fenway last week.

Colin Shea has been named to the EJHL All-Star game for the second year in a row.

I often look on youtube for videos of UMass prospects but it seems like people only take video, or at least post video, of fights.  Here’s Joel Hanley throwing some punches back in November.

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I’ve also had a few names pop up as being players that UMass is likely looking at in addition to Devin Tringale whom I wrote about last week.  I don’t know how interested or how recent UMass was looking at these prospects but here’s what I’ve found in research.

Nick Gordon is a 6’2″ 195lb captain forward at Northfield-Mount Hermon who had an official visit to UMass back in October.  He currently has 6 goals and 6 assists in 13 games.  He also played QB for NHM’s football team.

Dan Szerlip is a 5’9″ 160lbs speedy forward playing with the Boston Advantage who just started play in the Tier 1 Elite Hockey League.  So far he has 4 goals and 2 assists in 15 games.  Boston Advantage is where recruit Peter DeAngelo played last year and is run by former Minuteman and Black Bear Tim Lovell.  Previously he played with the Junior Bruins’ Empire League team and the Capital District Selects of the EJHL.  He has also received interest from Quinnipiac and Miami.

I’ve added a Recruits to KAEO page which can be accessed at the top menu.  KAEO stands for “Keeping An Eye On”, a term used on UMasshoops.com by the immortal kmac to keep track of basketball recruits.  I’ll try to keep this up to date with potential recruits as they come to my attention.