USHL

The United States Hockey League (USHL) announced Tuesday its Players of the Week for Week 14 of the 2021-22 season. For a second week in a row, a team had a pair of individual winners, this time as the Fargo Force had the Forward and Goaltender of the Week respectively with Bret Link and Louden Hogg claiming their first awards of the season. The Defenseman of the Week award went to Dubuque Fighting Saints blueliner Samuel Sjolund who became the fifth different Dubuque skater to win a weekly award this season. 

Link registered six total points in a home-and-home weekend sweep of the Sioux Falls Stampede, including a career-best five-point night on New Year’s Eve. The Colorado College commit closed 2021 with a stellar performance in the Force’s 8-2 win in front of the home crowd on Friday night. Link got on the scoresheet with a pair of first period assists before his lone goal of the game, early in the second period, opened up a 5-0 Force lead. Link added a third assist later in the second before closing out the night with a final assist with nine seconds remaining in the game to close out his first five-point (1-4-5) night of his USHL career. Previously, Link’s best individual performance came on November 27, 2021 when he recorded three points (1-2-3). The Fairbanks, Alaska native added a fifth assist on the weekend in the third period of Fargo’s 4-1 win on Saturday. With points in both games last weekend, Link extended his current point streak to three games and has points in 10 of Fargo’s last 13 games, including a career-best six-game point streak from November 24 to December 10 (6-3-9), that included a goal in every game of the streak. Link currently leads the Force with 22 points (10-12-22) in 26 games this season and his 10 goals is tied for the team lead while his 12 assists is second in Fargo scoring. 

For the first time in six weekly winners for the Fighting Saints this season, a Dubuque defenseman brought home the spoils as Dallas Stars prospect (2019, Round 4, #111 Overall) Samuel Sjolund was named USHL Defenseman of the Week. The Western Michigan University commit scored his sixth goal of the season on Monday, Nov. 27 as he found the net in the second period of an eventual 5-4 loss to the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. Sjolund also picked up a powerplay assist on a go-ahead goal late in the second period. Two night’s later, the Fighting Saints closed out 2021 with an 8-0 win that featured a pair of assists from Sjolund, including the primary helper on the first goal of the game. The Stockholm native has 13 points (6-7-13) in 21 games this season, his first in the USHL. 

Hogg was the other half of the Force’s dual Weekly winners. The Cheyenne, Wyo. native posted his first back-to-back wins of the season, allowing just a trio of goals in the pair of wins for a 1.50 goals against average and impressive 0.938 save percentage as he turned aside 45 of the 48 shots he faced in the weekend series. Hogg has been reliable for the Force this season, allowing three-or-fewer goals in 10 of his 13 appearances this season, earning himself a 2.30 goals against average and 0.914 save percentage on the season. The 6-4-2-0 netmidner’s stats rank third and fourth, respectively, for GAA and SV% while his shutout on the season makes him one of ten goaltenders to record a shutout this season. Hogg’s 29 goals against this season ranks sixth among qualified goaltenders and none of the five goalies with less goals allowed have a better goals against average for the season. Hogg is in his first full USHL season after having appeared in a league game for the United States National Team Development Program (NTDP) during the 2019-20 season, a season that saw him play primarily for Edina High (Minnesota High School) and post a 1.86 GAA and 0.927 SV% in 23 regular season games. 

The 2021-22 season will be the USHL's 20th season as the nation's only Tier I junior hockey league. The USHL had 50 players selected at the 2021 NHL Draft, marking the fourth-straight season with 50-or-more USHL players selected in the Draft. More than 800 league alumni are currently on NCAA Division I rosters, further establishing the USHL as the world’s foremost producer of junior hockey talent.