The Hockey News reports that Ohio State goalie Mike Bales may pass up his
senior season at OSU and sign with the Bruins in the fall.  I wonder what
kind of pressure may have been put on Bales; he may feel he can't develop
any more at OSU and would be better served by going pro.  Boston is
desperately searching for a backup to develop under Andy Moog - question
marks exist as to whether Matt Delguidice is that man, and Reggie Lemelin
doesn't have much longer to go if he is even back next year.  The Bruins
have been courting Bales since they drafted him a few years ago and seem
pretty high on him.
 
Also, can't recall if I have seen this posted here, but UNH goalie Jeff Levy
has signed with Minnesota.  Levy would have been a junior at UNH next season.
As if Dick Umile didn't already have a huge replacement job to do with
high-scoring senior forwards Scott Morrow, Joe Flanagan, Domenic Amodeo, and
Savo Mitrovic all graduating, it now appears that backup Brett Abel will
suddenly be thrust into the limelight to replace ironman Levy.  This latest
news has to severely devastate the Wildcats, especially coming at this time.
I don't know if Umile had already been aware of Levy's possible departure and
had recruited a new dufflebag to come in as a freshman.
 
Not to turn this into an NHL-oriented discussion, but RPI fans have to be
extremely proud of the impact Joe' Juneau has made on the Bruins in the short
time he has been with them.  Juneau has been nothing short of outstanding in
the four playoff games against Buffalo and has the Boston fans raving over
his skillful, determined play.  In only 14 games, he finished as Boston's
11th-leading scorer in the regular season with 5 goals and 14 assists, +6.
I believe he has been in on over half of Boston's 13 goals in the four
playoff games.  And in this week's THN, he says that the proudest accomplish-
ment of his has been his aeronautical engineering degree from RPI.  The kid
is a superb advertisement for college hockey and its ability to both develop
world-class players and provide them an opportunity to get a great education.
 
I would bet that Juneau's affiliation with RPI is greatly aiding Buddy Powers
in his recruiting efforts as it looks like the Engineers have done an
outstanding job in that area the past two years, including landing the top
scorer from 1992 Massachusetts state champion Catholic Memorial.
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Mike Machnik    [log in to unmask]   mikem@{beanpot,bubba}.ma30.bull.com
(Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.)