Shaved Ice – Jan. 2

Happy New Year everybody! Hope you had a great first of the year, and that you’re ready for a 2012 full of hockey.

Quick hits

Jimmy Howard and Justin Abdelkader stole the show during the Wings’ annual New Year’s Eve game, helping Detroit to a 3-0 win. Howard picked up his ninth career shutout by stopping 31 shots, while Abdelkader returned from a dangerous head shot from Michigan native Ian Cole to score for the Wings. Cole received a three-game suspension for the hit, and luckily Abdelkader avoided injury on the play.

The Great Lakes Invitational took place over the weekend, culminating with a championship game between rivals Michigan and Michigan State. The Wolverines prevailed 3-2 in overtime. Meanwhile, the Michigan Tech Huskies dropped their consolation game with Boston College 2-1.

Things aren’t going well for the US team at the World Juniors. After a 5-2 loss to the Czech Republic on Friday, the American squad fell 3-2 to Canada on Saturday. They will not be able to compete for a medal in this year’s tournament.

Highlight reel

Here are the highlights from the Wings’ win on NYE.

To see the highlights of the GLI championship game, click here.

Outside the Mitten

With the US knocked out of medal contention, Team Canada seems even more likely to wrap up the gold at home in the World Juniors. They and Team Sweden were the two squads to earn byes to the semifinals for winning their grouping in the tournament.

Don’t forget about the Winter Classic today – how could you? Time change got bumped to 3 p.m. to try to avoid some bad weather, but hopefully they’re still playing hockey outside today.

Check it out

Michael Farber says the Winter Classic is a myth. Believe him?

Next up

More hockey! We’ll see you tomorrow.