Aug. 23—GRAND FORKS — Sam Laurila's recruitment period opened at midnight Jan. 1.

His first text message from a college hockey coach came within 15 minutes.

Laurila, a defenseman from Moorhead, has been one of the area's top hockey prospects for his class.

On Wednesday, 23 days after he was allowed to field scholarship offers and commit, his recruitment ended.

The 5-foot-11, 171-pound left-handed blue liner gave a verbal commitment to UND.

"It's the place I picture myself for four years," Laurila said. "You can pretty much live at that rink. Plus, the development of NHL players they have there and the coaching staff. . . they're all great, too."

Laurila also made visits to Colorado College and Michigan State.

Laurila's college arrival date has yet to be decided.

Although he's entering his junior year, he's planning to accelerate his education and graduate at the end of the year, giving him an option to come in 2024 if he's ready. He also could go play a year of junior hockey in 2024-25.

Laurila is the second player from Fargo-Moorhead to commit to UND since the recruiting period for high school juniors opened Aug. 1.

Fargo forward

Andrew O'Neill committed

on Aug. 7.

One more top Fargo-Moorhead junior remains uncommitted — defenseman Garrett Lindberg.

O'Neill and Lindberg will be teammates on the U.S. Under-17 Team this season.

Laurila will be teammates with fellow UND commit and

defenseman E.J. Emery

on the U.S. Under-18 Team. They played together on the U.S. Under-17 Team last season.

"I'm super excited," Laurila said. "It's going to be a really good year. We've got a really good team and I think it should be an awesome, fun year."

Laurila finished last season with four goals and 15 points in 54 games.

He's hoping to expand his offensive production this season.

One area of improvement he's targeting is his skating.

"Definitely, my first step," he said. "I want to keep adding to the offensive side of the game and get back to what I used to do."

Laurila said he visited UND in late July.

"It was good to see," Laurila said. "The guys were there working out. I think with the addition of the new assistant coach, it will be awesome, too."

UND is close to hiring former captain Dillon Simpson to work with the team's defensemen.