The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders’ Kent Patterson, Robin Bergman, Tommy Wingels and Matt Tomassoni have all made the National Hockey League Central Scouting Service mid-season rankings of draft eligible players. The Central Scouting rankings were released earlier this week.
Patterson, 17, ranks eleventh among North American goaltenders and is the highest rated United States Hockey League netminder. Bergman, an 18-year old forward, ranks ninety-seventh among North American-based skaters while Wingels- another 18-year old forward- is the one hundred forty-seventh ranked skater. Defenseman Tomassoni, 17, makes the list as player to watch whom NHL Central Scouting has had limited opportunities to scout.
A total of 38 players who have seen USHL action this season made the Central Scouting list.
"Our league just continues to develop an awful lot of very good players," said RoughRiders coach and general manager Mark Carlson. "So many of the players fans can watch right now at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena are going to go on and have the chance to do tremendous things both in the college and professional ranks."
Patterson has gone 11-3-1 so far this season while posting a 3.08 goals against average and a .906 save percentage. The Plymouth, Minnesota, native is tied for sixth in the USHL in wins, ranks seventh in save percentage and is tied for tenth in goals against average. Patterson joined the Riders this season after playing for the Blake School last year.
Bergman has scored 13 goals and totaled 24 points in just 21 games this season. The Notre Dame recruit is in his first season in North America. A native of Stockholm, Sweden, Bergman played for Hammarby IF in his homeland last year.
Wingels has scored six goals and notched 16 points in just 17 games. The Wilmette, Illinois native, has bounced back well after missing a dozen games with a broken jaw earlier this season. Wingels will play his college hockey at Miami of Ohio. Another first year Rider, Wingels skated for the Team Illinois midget program last season. He was selected by Cedar Rapids in the second round of the September, 2005 USHL Futures Draft with the fifteenth overall pick.
Tomassoni has scored twice and picked up one assist in 24 games this season. The Carol Stream, Illinois, native is, like Wingels, bound for Miami of Ohio. Tomassoni, who played midget hockey for Chicago Mission, was chosen by the Riders in the sixth round of last May’s USHL draft with the sixty-ninth overall pick.
The mid-season rankings are the first comprehensive list of draft-eligible player ratings released by NHL Central Scouting. The lists will be updated again in May, just weeks before the 2007 NHL Entry Draft is held June 22 and 23 in Columbus, Ohio.
Nine RoughRiders have been selected in the NHL draft since the team’s arrival in Cedar Rapids in 1999. Calgary Flames forward Dave Moss last month became the first Rider alumnus to reach the NHL. Moss, who was tabbed by Calgary in the seventh round of the 2001 draft, scored in his Flames debut and hasn’t let up since. He has now produced five goals in ten games since arriving in Calgary.
The 2006-07 RoughRiders are in action tonight at 7:05 against the Sioux City Musketeers at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. The RoughRiders (19-10-1, 39 points), who defeated the Chicago Steel 4-3 last night at the ice arena, are tied with the Waterloo Black Hawks for first place in the USHL’s East Division and are three points behind Sioux City in the race for first place overall.
Tickets for all RoughRiders home games- including tonight’s contest- can be purchased in person at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena ticket office, over the phone at (319) 261-4625 or on line at www.roughridershockey.com. The ticket office is open from noon to 5:00PM on weekdays and from noon through the end of the second period on game days, including tomorrow. Ticket prices range from $7 to $17 including a 50-cent facility fee.