Three Gophers hockey players were named to the 22-man roster of the 2001 U.S. national junior team by USA Hockey.
Sophomore Jeff Taffe, freshman Troy Riddle and freshman Paul Martin will join the national team Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Moscow.
Taffe is fourth on the Gophers in scoring with five goals and 10 assists, including three game-winning goals.
Riddle was named the preseason co-WCHA rookie of the year. He has eight goals and two assists. Martin has one assist this season.
The three Gophers are the most taken from any Division I school in the nation.
The trio will miss four games for the Gophers: The Mariucci Classic Dec. 29-30 and the Alaska-Anchorage series Jan. 5-6. They will return in time for the Gophers to host North Dakota Jan. 12-13.
All-Academic team
The Minnesota men’s cross country and football programs placed a combined 15 athletes on this year’s Academic all-Big Ten team.
Among the football notables are senior center Ben Hamilton (Civil Engineering), punter Preston Gruening (Marketing) and Derek Burns (Marketing).
On the cross country side, Joe Corr (Political Science), Andrew Kummer (Biology/Pre-Med), Luke Mullranin (Engineering) and Jason Owen (Computer Science).
To qualify, an athlete must be a letterwinner in at least their second academic year and carry a career grade-point average of 3.0.
Nine of the 15 athletes are repeat winners.