Hudson Thornton

They've got-- The, the maybe the one difference is they've got a couple game breakers this year that they d- haven't always had.

Uh, Oliver Peer up front, um, and Hudson Thornton on the back end.

Those guys are going to play a lot.

They are extremely talented players.

They, they took a 2-0 lead.

St.

Cloud pushed back a little bit, ties it up, goes to overtime, Hudson Thornton wins it.

Um, and, and St. ... and, and Bemidji State starts 1 and 0 at home.

Oliver Peer up front is a really high-end difference maker.

Hudson Thornton on the back end is a high-end difference maker, and he was the one that finished it off in overtime.

If you look last year, I think Oliver Peer probably had like three overtime winners.

He can really skate.

Cloud State Huskies.

Sophomore Hudson Thornton was the hero in the extra frame and an extra player up to clinch the victory.

Here's what's next in the NCHC.

Three teams officially kick off their season as Western Michigan battles a home-and-home series with in-state rival Ferris State.

And, um, to briefly sum up delayed enrollment, uh, when you see, uh, you know, especially, like, we had a couple examples of this in Bemidji last year.

Hudson Thornton comes in and for his, uh, for his rookie season, he was athletically a sophomore because of the date he enrolled, and he enrolled when he was 21 years old.

It was past that cutoff date where he'd get full four years of enrollment, so now he's athletically a sophomore, despite academically at the time being a freshman.

Uh, the same thing happened with Connor McLennan.

a toss-up, I'd say.

I think there were some good candidates, but... like there were two obvious choices for uh for forward i think uh there was certainly one obvious choice for defenseman at least with breck mckinley for me hayden hennen i think you could have swapped him out with two other augie defensemen uh you know and i i think there's another defenseman hudson thornton out of bowling green but we'll get to him in the second team and then uh Between goalie, it was either OAA or Bartoskevich for me.

But yeah, I actually thought it came together pretty easily for me.

How about you, Trent?

And you know, I, I, It was tough.

It was really, really tough to put Ben Duran over him, but I think Ben Duran deserved that third forward spot, in my opinion.

Defensively, I had Owen Baumgartner, and then I also had Hudson Thornton out of Bemidji State.

Hudson Thornton played 25 minutes a game last year, and half the season, he... didn't totally feel comfortable with a college hockey schedule and I thought he finished the season well I think my concern for Thornton last year was just the odd man rushes and that was a whole Bemidji State concern and really the big reason why I had Bemidji State fifth in the league preseason wise they just gave up way too much offensively and way too many of those odd number rushes Um, but I think he's going to, I think they're going to find the right pairing for him to play with this year and really unlock who he is defensive or offensively.

He had, what, 40-something goals? First round pick to the Washington Capitals.

Captain Hudson Thornton rewrote the franchise record book for Cougars defensemen.

So that team comes within two wins of the WHL championship series.

Lost game six to Portland, double OT.

I'll get to the goalies because I want to touch on the defensemen, too, because that's – it is a – polar opposite of, of Augustana where it, I mean, it is a, it is a new look blue line.

Obviously they're bringing back Hudson Thornton, Max and Vig and Luke Roloffs.

Uh, Luke Roloffs more of a shutdown guy.

I think he had 12 points last year.

Uh, Vig finished with seven points.

He really started to hit his stride in the second half of last year, but Hudson Thornton, obviously he was, he was the quarterback of the blue line finished with 18 points, 16 assists.

Um, He led the team in time on ice at 24 and a half minutes per game, which was six more minutes on average than any other returning defender.

With that said, I mean, they need more bodies to step up and eat some of those minutes.