Knierim details experience at USHL Prospects Game

William Knierim, a B-rated skater on NHL Central Scouting's November players to watch list for the 2016 NHL Draft, is in his second season with the Dubuque Fighting Saints in the United States Hockey League this season. The 6-foot-2, 207-pound right wing has seven goals, 15 points and 85 penalty minutes in 26 games this season. The Skokie, Ill., native is committed to Miami University in 2016-17. Knierim has offered to maintain a blog for NHL.com leading up to the 2016 NHL Draft in Buffalo.

Hi everyone.

I had such a great experience at the USHL/NHL Top Prospects game in Omaha, Neb., on Jan. 12.

The city of Omaha and the Omaha Lancers organization put together a top-notch game. The restaurants, the hotel, the rink and everything involved with the game was phenomenal.

We had one full day, which was Monday, to get ready for the game. We had on-ice testing in the morning and had some down time in the afternoon. It was great meeting up with friends that play on other teams like defenseman Mitch Elliot of Muskegon and defenseman Andrew Peeke of Green Bay.

Once game time finally arrived I was pretty excited to see I was on a line with my Dubuque teammate Michael O'Leary. We were being centered by Ross Colton from the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, our rivals.

It ended up working out well for us because our line was able to capitalize on some chances throughout the game. I honestly don't know what clicked with us three but we just kept it simple, shared the puck and got rewarded. And Ross became the player in the history of the Top Prospects Game to with five points.

Wednesday morning my coach and I drove back to Dubuque and we hopped on a bus to head to Youngstown as soon as we got in town. I'm really excited to start the second half of the year because we have mostly home games. We get to play in front of the best fans in the USHL.

Follow William Knierim on Twitter at: @27WillieKnierim