National Sports Center Blog

Checking in on the USA Women's National Team camp

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

The USA Women's National Hockey Team ended their Winter Camp this morning, with a spirited game. The Blue Team got the better of the White Team 3-2. After a few words from head coach Katey Stone, the players and staff posed for their official team photo, and most headed to the airport to rejoin their college or pro teams. The next big tournament for Team USA is the Women's World Championship in Burlington, Vermont, April 7-14, where USA will be the defending champion.

Here's a photo gallery from today's scrimmage:

Two photos below: White team goalie Brianne McLaughlin, a 2010 Olympian, looking strong in goal.

Below: Blue team coach Laura Halldorson watches the action. #18 in the foreground is Jordan Smelker, who plays for RPI.

Below: Young fans give encouragement to Anne Schleper as she goes onto the ice for the third period.

Below: Team meeting with USA head coach Katey Stone immediately following the game.

And then it was time for the players and staff to gather for the official team photo!

 

 

One hour in a very busy day at the NSC

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

The week between Christmas and New Year's is a crazy busy week at the National Sports Center. As staff, we don't have much time for vacation, but it's still one of our favorite weeks of the year, because we love the diversity of what happens on our campus. Just to give you a glimpse, I went out to shoot three of the big things happening today. All three of these images were shot within an hour, from 6:15-7:15 p.m. CST.

On rink 6, the U.S. Women's National Team lined up for the National Anthem before their scrimmage during their Winter Training Camp.

 

On rink 1, I went behind the bench with the Benilde St. Margaret's high school team. The Red Knights beat Hutchinson 9-1 to earn a spot in the Schwan Cup blue division championship game tomorrow.

And over in the Sports Hall it was indoor soccer action during the 5v5 Holiday Classic.

Crazy busy week here at the NSC

By Scott Clasen, Director of Marketing

The week between Christmas and New Year's is, with the exception of USA CUP week, the busiest time of the year for us here at the National Sports Center.

We kicked off the week Monday with our Schwan Cup hockey tournament. This tournament is best known for the boys high school division that features some of the best high school teams in the state. So far, the tournament has lived up to expectations with class AA #1 ranked Duluth East beating class A #1 ranked St. Thomas Academy 5-4 in one semifinal, while #2 ranked Minnetonka blasted #5 Edina 6-0 in the other semi. This means the two top ranked teams in the state will faceoff tonight at 8:00 pm at the Excel Energy Center. Our own Chief Communications Officer, Barclay Kruse, is at the X covering the event and has been reporting on the Schwan Cup Facebook page. If you can't make it to Excel, you can watch the game live from your computer via our NSCgamecast.tv service.

Not to be forgotten is that Schwan Cup also features a girls high school division that starts today and runs through Friday with championship games at Ridder Arena. If this wasn't enough, we're also hosting a youth component to Schwan Cup that is rolling December 30-January 1 at the Schwan Super Rink.

Even though it's dead of winter (although you wouldn't know it this year!) we've also got soccer action this week. Our annual 5v5 Holiday Classic indoor soccer tournament kicked off yesterday with boys, girls and adult teams competing all week in our NSC Sports Hall. Champions will be crowned on New Year's Day.

As if all this tournament action wasn't enough, don't forget that the U.S. Women's National Hockey Team is conducting a camp this week to select players for the upcoming World Championships. All practice sessions on Rink 6 of the Schwan Super Rink are free and open to the public. The practice schedule and details about their camp can be found here.

So if you're off of school or home from work, we got plenty going on here to occupy your time!

Help raise money for Stick It to Cancer while at Schwan Cup

By Scott Clasen, Director of Marketing

While the prestigious Schwan Cup hockey tournament is fast approaching next week, Schwan's has found a way to combine that event with our Stick It to Cancer fundraising female-only tournament in April. Stick It to Cancer annually raises over $70,000 for cancer research.

On December 28 Schwan's will have one of their trucks at the Schwan Super Rink to pick up food that you've pre-orderd. All you have to do is order before December 26 at schwansfundraising.com and enter the campaign number for the Stick It to Cancer tournament: 37878. Then just place your order (you'll need the item numbers for your food to order, they can be found in the Schwan's catalog or online here) and the food will be ready for you to pick up between 12:00-5:00 pm! It's that simple and Stick It to Cancer will receive up to 20% back!

Not going to be at the Schwan Super Rink December 28? No problem, you can still be part of this campaign. Purchase a Schwan's gift card here and enter the special campaign number, 37878 in the right column where it says Campaign ID to ensure the proceeds go to the Stick It to Cancer event.

We know many of you already order food from Schwan's, so here's your chance to have that money go towards a great cause. So we'll see you at the Schwan Super Rink next Wednesday!

NSC kicks off Toys For Tots Drive

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

The NSC just kicked off our Toys For Tots drive! We have set up donation boxes at the Schwan Super Rink, Sports Hall and at the NSC office lobby. We'll be collecting toys through Sunday, December 18. Help us collect a mountain of quality toys for those in need!

Below: NSC Marketing Director Scott Clasen prepares the Toys For Tots collection boxes.

Below: NSC gathers to celebrate the donation of the ceremonial "first toy," a Lego Space Shuttle set. NSC Receptionist Mary Jane Kunza does the honors.

New Women's U18 National Hockey Team has lots of NSC connections

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

Yesterday, USA Hockey made final selections for the U18 Women's National Team that will compete in the 2012 IIHF U18 Women's World Hockey Championships, December 31-January 7 in Prerov and Zin, Czech Republic. Check out the team announcement here.

At the NSC, we paid close attention to that announcement for several reasons. First, the USA Women's National Team uses the Schwan Super Rink as its training home, so we'd seen these players in action and knew some of them personally. The U18 team was last here for a week-long training camp in August, and the team will return here December 26-28 where they will gather for a quick training camp prior to leaving for the Worlds.

Below: The U18 team (in red) goes skate-to-skate with older National Team team members at the USA Hockey training camp at the Super Rink last August.

You'll also excuse us for having a bit of home state pride tied into this team. Five Minnesota players were named to the 22-player roster, more than any other state, including two from the very same high school -- Lee Stecklein and Kate Flug, both of Roseville H.S. We thought that was unique enough that we produced a segment for NSCtv featuring those two players, which we filmed during the August camp. Watch the show. It's fun to hear Lee and Kate talk about what it's like to be a high school player matched up on the ice with hockey legends like Julie Chu, Gigi Marvin and Jenny Potter,  players they'd looked up to as kids and were now facing on the ice.

The last reason we're watching this team closely it that they're good, really good! The USA is the defending world champions, a title they won with a 5-2 victory over Canada at the 2011 Worlds in Stockholm. And in women's hockey, any time you can beat Canada in a gold medal game ... well, that's the gold standard. (pardon the pun.)

We invite you to come watch these incredible players in person during the U.S. team's Holiday Training Camp at the Super Rink, December 26-31. All the ex-Olympians will also be here, along with the future Olympians on the U18 team. All the scrimmages and practices will be open to the public. We'll publish the schedule closer to the camp, so stay tuned.