{"id":52649,"date":"2013-08-15T09:00:35","date_gmt":"2013-08-15T14:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=52649"},"modified":"2020-08-24T20:57:07","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T01:57:07","slug":"at-world-junior-camp-big-ten-had-a-big-representation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2013\/08\/15\/at-world-junior-camp-big-ten-had-a-big-representation\/","title":{"rendered":"At World Junior camp, Big Ten had a big representation"},"content":{"rendered":"
Maybe they were all brothers in one big, happy family while wearing the USA sweater at World Junior Evaluation Camp.<\/p>\n
But don’t expect that feeling of fraternity when the college season rolls around come October.<\/p>\n
After all, where would college pucks be without its conference rivalries?<\/p>\n
And of the 31 WJC hopefuls who made it to the end of the week-long stay in the idyllic Adirondacks, there was no larger college conference contingent than the sizable group from the Big Ten.<\/p>\n
Nine Big Ten players were on hand as the four-nation U20 camp wrapped up last week, four each from Minnesota and Michigan, and one (Nic Kerdiles) from Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
That’s one more than the eight from Hockey East, whose number was boosted by a pair from Team Canada.<\/p>\n
Not too shabby for a conference that has yet to play its first game.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s huge,” Michigan sophomore Boo Nieves said. “I think it makes a huge statement that guys in the conference can play with anyone. Anyone in the country, and anyone in the world.”<\/p>\n
Kerdiles, who will be a Badgers sophomore, agreed.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s pretty cool,” he said, “that we have all these guys here, and probably some of these guys are going to be on the [WJC] team. It’s nice to see them here, but when it comes to the regular season, I’m going to be playing to win. Hopefully we’ll be on the same team in the World Juniors, but obviously it’s going to be fun to play each other during the regular season. It’s going to be a good conference, I think.”<\/p>\n
The creation this year of the six-team Big Ten loop was one of the major parts of the seismic shift in the college hockey landscape.<\/p>\n
The schools — including Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan State — have been beating up on each other in other sports for decades.<\/p>\n