[underglass]

A few posts culled from...other posts...

---Colts Hope To Incur The Rath
July 12th, 2011

The new Twin Cities?
By Kevin Gould
Posted 1 day ago
CORNWALL — They could be moving from the Twin Cities to twin city, Canada.

Identical twins Mark and David Rath are being courted by the Cornwall Colts. The Colts, of course, already have the Spink twins (Tylor and Tyson) on the team. "Yeah, we know about the Spink twins here," said Mark Rath, in Cornwall on the weekend with his brother, to meet with the Colts.

"That would be pretty cool, two sets of twins on the same team."

Cool, maybe, but nothing new for the Rath brothers, who are from Eden Prairie, Minnesota (12 miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis). "We've been playing with another set of twins our whole life pretty much," said David Rath, referring to Kyle and Curt Rau, twins who have played on the same team as the Rath brothers for most of their hockey careers, most recently last season with the Eden Prairie high school team, which won the State Championship. Kyle Rau was selected in the third round of this year's NHL draft, by the Florida Panthers.

The Raths visited Cornwall on Saturday, meeting with Colts' head coach Ian MacInnis and assistant Kenton Spink. The Colts are trying to convince the Raths to play in Cornwall next season. "I'm recruiting them, not bringing them in for a tryout," said MacInnis. "They can play."

The question is, where do they want to play?

One option is to play close to home, in the North American Hockey League (NAHL), in Austin, Minnesota. The other option would appear to be the CCHL, where Cornwall and Gloucester are vying for their services.

The Raths, who turn 19 in August, were to meet with officials from the Gloucester Rangers organization on Sunday. A teammate of theirs from last year, Joe Kerker, has already signed with Gloucester. "He really wants us to play there with him," said Mark Rath.

So where they will play is still very much undecided, but MacInnis, for one, is certain they can play, and excel in the CCHL. "I think they liked what we had to say," said MacInnis. "I?think they're going to come back later this week and have a skate, meet some of the guys." Asked if he had any inkling as to where the twins might be leaning towards playing, MacInnis offered: "I'll know more in the next few days. If they come back to have another look, then I think we're in good standing."

One factor in Cornwall's favour (and Gloucester's as well) is how heavily the CCHL is scouted by U.S. college teams in the East. "They're very good students. Academically, they can play Ivy League hockey," said MacInnis.

"One thing is, this league is scouted heavily by the East division," said David Rath, who also visited Clarkson and St. Lawrence University while in the area on the weekend. "Our goal is to play Division I hockey in the East."

The two forwards (both play any of the forward positions, though last season Mark spent the majority of his time at centre, David on the wing. And surprisingly, not always together. "We prefer to play together. I think all twins do," said Mark Rath. "We had always played together on the same line, until high school, where they split us up sometimes," added David, "though we always played together on the first power-play."

---The Colts have signed Michael Phillips, who attended the team's hockey camp last weekend. "He's a very good skater. Good sense, handles the puck quite well," said MacInnis of Phillips. "He will contribute offensively. He'll be an exciting player to watch."

---CCHL Twitter says Kemptville traded Mark Hough to Cornwall for Winchester Jr B forward Josh Stubbings and draft picks

---Colts Update
Article from the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder entitled, Still in chase for Rath twins indicates that these two players from Minnesota have not yet committed themselves to where they will be playing this upcoming season. The article lists 5 defencemen expected to play with the Colts though the status of Y. Kabbaj is still uncertain.
http://www.standard-freeholder.com/A...aspx?e=3225414