Unfortunately I was not able to get to Shane Walsh’s game on Sunday as I had hoped.  I was just too burned out from the weekend that was and felt like spending the day as far away as guys in black and white stripes as possible..  It’s too bad, because it ended up being his last of the season.

Kenny Gillespie – RW – Omaha Lancers (USHL) – 2012
30 GP / 4 G / 5 A / 9 Pts / 47 PIM / -2
Gillespie had an empty net goal for the Lancers last weekend.  I noticed some sites are still projecting him as an NHL Draft target, listed as the #68 forward on that link.

Willy Smith – LW – Springfield Pics (EJHL/EmpJHL) – 2014
EJHL: 21 GP / 1 G / 1 A / 2 Pts / 28 PIM
Empire: 22 GP / 7 G / 18 A / 25 Pts / 24 PIM
Will Smith’s season is over as the Pics were eliminated in the Empire League playoffs. You can’t blame Smith though as he was the leading scorer for the Pics with a goal and three assists in the two playoff games.

Shane Walsh – LW – South Shore Kings (EJHL) – 2012
Dubuque (USHL): 23 GP / 5 G / 7 A / 12 Pts / 0 PIM / –8
South Shore (EJHL): 9 GP / 7 G / 6 A / 13 Pts / 4 PIM
Walsh’s Kings were eliminated by the New Hampshire Monarchs in the EJHL semifinals.  Walsh had 2 goals in six playoff games.  Next stop for him: Amherst.

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College Hockey News writer and ex-Collegian Editor Joe Meloni passed along some news on a couple Minnesotans UMass is currently targeting.  First up is Zach Doerring a 6’3”, 195lb forward out of the Blake School in Minnesota.  Former Minuteman John Wessbecker also came from Blake and if I remember correctly there’s some kind of connection between Toot Cahoon and their coach.  He is the younger brother of Vermont defenseman Blake Doerring.  Zach finished the Minnesota high school hockey regular season with 13 goals and 53 points in 25 games.  His 40 assists were good for 10th in the top division of Minnesota HS.  In his final game of the season Blake lost a playoff game to Breck 7-5, by Doerring had 2 goals and 3 assists in the game.  A ‘94, Doerring would likely land in college in the fall of 2013 after spending a year with Fargo Force of the USHL.  I contacted Force beat writer Ryan S Clark and he says there are high hopes for Doerring when he gets to Fargo due to his size and his playmaking abilities.

Here’s Doerring’s profile page at Minnesota Hockey Hub.

Tim How wrote this story about Doerring being drafted by the Force.

Meloni says Northeastern is also after Doerring.  I assume a bunch of Western schools and perhaps Vermont would be as well.

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Next to keep an eye on is Eric Freschi, a former teammate of UMass commit Shane Walsh’s with Dubuque of the USHL.  Freschi is another Minnesotan, a 5’10 185lb forward who has 10 goals, 6 assists, and 50 PIM in 40 games so far.  Before this year he also played Minnesota High School hockey, scoring  22 goals to go with 19 assists in 27 games for Bloomington Jefferson.  A ‘93, Freschi might be targeted to come to campus this year.

Western College Hockey blog ranked him the 36th best MN High School player last year.

Meloni says Providence in the mix for him as well.

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Congratulations to T.J. Syner who was named an Honorable Mention Hockey East All Star.  Syner was the only Minuteman to garner any recognition at tonight’s banquet.  I would’ve liked to see Joel Hanley get in there somewhere (like in place of Tommy Cross), but he’ll have another two years to try to crack the Eagle-Terrier Hockey East awards.