Friday, October 31, 2008

It's Friday, I'm in Love

Saturday, wait
And Sunday always comes too late
But Friday, never hesitate...

Badger Men @ UND -- Friday 7:30 CT, Saturday 7:00 CT
TV: Friday on NHL Network, Saturday none
Video webcast: FightingSioux.com for $5.95/day or $9.95/month
Audio webcast: yahoosports for $4.95/mo or FightingSioux.com (free w/ audio-only pass?)

(I'm a bit confused about the Sioux audio webcast -- it's listed as $7.95 or free with audio-only subscription, and the audio-only subscription is listed as free, so why would anyone pay $7.95? Perhaps a nice Sioux fan can tell me what I'm missing here.)

It sounds like Todd Milewski will be doing a live interactive game blog again, so stop by The IceHouse for that. Also, I'd expect Paul Capobianco to be blogging from the game as well.

Todd has the projected lines for Friday, same as what was posted yesterday:
Murray-Geoffrion-Davies
P. Johnson-Thurber-Stepan
Mitchell-Turnbull-Dolan
Gorowsky-Bohmbach

Smith-McBain
McDonagh-Little
Springer-Gardiner
Goloubef

Connelly
Gudmandson
Ben Grotting and Craig Johnson are also on the trip.

Series Previews
uwbadgers: Game Notes
fightingsioux: Game Notes
Milewski (TCT): Men's hockey vs. North Dakota
Worgull (BadgerNation): Looking for number one (premium content)
Breiner (Daily Cardinal): Wisconsin men's hockey travels to North Dakota this weekend
Mason (Badger Herald): Mirror Match: Badgers to face struggling Sioux
Schlossman (Grand Forks Herald): Sioux, Badgers look for spark

Other articles
Baggot (WSJ): Anatomy of a slump
Milewski (TCT): Have refs gone overboard in rules emphasis?
Hagstrom (Badger Herald): Connelly must improve for hockey to have a shot
Schlossman (Grand Forks Herald): Four questions with Jake Marto
Schlossman (Grand Forks Herald): Freshmen reign in WCHA

Notebooks from the Usual Suspects
USCHO: This week in the WCHA,
INCH: WCHA fries at the bottom of the bag, WCHA stick salute, bench minor, getaway



Badger Women v. UMD -- Friday 2:07 PM CT, Saturday 11:07 AM CT
Video Webcast and Live Stats: uwbadgers.com

Series Previes
uwbadgers: Preview, Game Notes
umdbulldogs: Bring on the Badgers
Donohue (Badger Herald): National championship rematch
Storlie (Daily Cardinal): Women's hockey ready for powerful Bulldogs

Thursday, October 30, 2008

7 Defensemen

From Todd's Thursday report, rather than take Tom Bardis or Chris Hickey along on the trip, the Badger Men will be playing 7 defensemen on Friday. All 8 defensemen are making the trip while Bardis and Hickey remain in Madison.

Here's a possible lineup for Friday, per Todd, with Craig Johnson and Ben Grotting sitting out.
Murray-Geoffrion-Davies
P. Johnson-Thurber-Stepan
Mitchell-Turnbull-Dolan
Gorowsky-Bohmbach

Smith-McBain
McDonagh-Little
Springer-Gardiner
Goloubef

Connelly
Gudmandson
Grotting should play on Saturday, so the Badger should be back to 12 forwards barring any other injuries.

It's Almost Friday Linkorama: Badger Women

  • The Badgers remain #1 in the USCHO, USA Today, and BTD polls. Minnesota remains at #2 in all polls. Duluth is #7 in the USCHP and USA Today polls; BTD has them at #4.
  • Becker Law Office and the Badger Women are want fans to "Pay it Forward".
    Fans of all ages are encouraged to submit their most creative idea of how they would choose to “Pay it Forward” if given $500. Please be as detailed as possible including who you would help, what you would do to help them and how you would do it.
    Fans who enter the contest will receive 2 free tickets to the Nov 30 game v. Mankato, and 4 winners will receive $500 to implement their plans.
  • The Badger Herald has an article about the Badger Women's trip to the US Hockey Hall of Fame, and it includes the team's reaction to Mark Johnson place in the HOF.
    “As we were in there, they had the 1980 ‘Miracle’ video — like the real video, not the movie — playing,” Lawler said. “We were just sitting there until [one of] Coach’s goals came up, and we kind of started a ruckus in there for a little bit.”

    “After we left we were like, ‘That’s so funny that our coach is famous,’” Lawler said. “You never would have known he’s a huge part of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He’s just such a humble man.”

It's Almost Friday Linkorama: Badger Men

  • Milewski has a feature article in TCT on Jordy Murray, Rink Rat. I gotta tell ya, I like this Murray kid. I like the way he plays, I like the goofy video they put up on the jumbotron when the introduce him in the starting lineup (nice hair, lol), and I like this article.
  • Jake Gardiner is at the top of THN's The Hot List. (I like Jake's scoring ability as well as anyone, and I'm a big fan of his ability to bring the puck into the offensive zone. But it's seems THN is just looking at stats, because I'm not sure they'd put him at the top of the list if they had watched his defensive game.)
    1. Jake Gardiner, D – Wisconsin Badgers (WCHA): High school draft picks make some scouts squirrelly, but Gardiner has been a madman since arriving in Madison for his frosh NCAA campaign. How does five points in six games from the blueline strike you? Drafted 17th overall by Anaheim in 2008.
    In case you're interested, CC's Richard Bachman is #3.
  • This is a week old, but I think I neglected to post it earlier. Last week Ryan McDonagh talked to the Pioneer Press about Montreal/Minnesota trade rumors and about the Badgers' then 0-4 record.
  • DPlaya has video of Badger recruit Craig Smith's OT game-winner on Saturday.
  • INCH has a column about shootouts. Scott Owens, Don Lucia, and George Gwozdecky don't like 'em, for WCHA play, anyway. Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald has an article in which Dave Hakstol says shootouts would be good for the WCHA. I was a bit surprised by that, because I recall reading earlier that the coaches' vote against the shootout was unanimous. (I'm not positive where I read that, but I think it was in a Pioneer Press article that is archived and no longer available for free.)
  • It's a couple months or so before the Badgers play Northern Michigan, but you might be interested in this CHN article about the Wildcats. And it's even longer than that 'til the Badgers host CC (we only play 'em once this year), but you might be interested in Puck Swami's profile of the Tigers.
  • USCHO has an article about coaches who are coaching at their alma maters -- accordingly, the article includes Mike Eaves and Mark Johnson.

  • Mike Chambers of the Denver post has an article about the new icing rule implemented in the WCHA this year. I use the term "implemented" loosely, as apparently the officials have had a bit of trouble with it. OSU's coach John Markell admitted to throwing lines out there so the players could rest while the refs sorted things out, and Denver's George Gwozdecky was livid about an injured player not being allowed to leave the ice after an icing, even though the rules allow injured players to be replaced.

TW weekend update (better late than never)

TW Major
Last weekend was a pretty good weekend for TW Major, as they won all three of their games. Saturday morning they defeated SW 7-6. Cody Strang had 3 assists and Matt Paape had 2 goals and 2 assists. Potential Badger recruit Wes Wauters had 2 goals and 1 assist.

Saturday evening they defeated North 4-3. Cody Strang had 1 assist but Matt Paape was held off the scoresheet. (That seems to be unusual for Matt.) Wes Wauters had 1 goal.

Sunday they closed out their weekend sweep with a 6-3 victory over NE. Matt Paape had 1 assist, but Cody Strang did not play. Wes Wauters was held off the scoresheet.

TW Minor
I checked the box scores for 10/25 and 10/26 for Team Wisconsin Minor, but as of right now they're still blank. No Sleep Til Madison indicates that they defeated Team North Dakota 7-0 Saturday morning and lost the championship game 3-0 -- so I take that to mean they defeated 2A/AA Saturday evening (score 3-2), and lost 3-0 to 7A/AA on Sunday. Perhaps tdd or some other nice reader will help clarify and provide scores. (Thanks to the anonymous poster for the Sat eve score.)

MyHockeyRankings has TW Minor ranked #4 nationally, whereas ushsho has them ranked #14.

(You know, I felt kinda bad about not getting around to this post until today, but since the TW Minor box scores aren't even posted yet, I'm feeling a bit better about myself.)

KT's Calder Campaign Part II

ESPN has a nice interview w/ Kyle Turris. He talks a little bit about Wisconsin, and about the start of his NHL career.

His season stats haven't changed much through 7 games KT is 1-3-4, -4, 12:10 TOI/G.

Looking forward to NHL Center Ice in a few weeks and having some actual game updates.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The drive for .500....by Christmas

Ok the Badgers Men are 0-5-1 (while their counterparts are comfortable at 9-0-1) and things are looking pretty dire. What we need is some optimism though, and faith in the team.

Sure A LOT of things haven't gone well to start the season. The Men have allowed 30 goals and Ben Street is likely done for the season. The defense has been poor at best, goaltending has done an ok job (at least Connelly) despite the stats, and the offense has scored 3.6 goals a game. The Badgers score like that last season and they win 25 games. Sure the schedule has been tough too, but that is no excuse. As others have said in various places, UW are a top national program, and should play like one. Teams should fear playing the Badgers, not score 6 seconds in due to complete laziness.

There is always positive, beyond the scoring, the freshman forwards have looked good. Jordy Murray is 2nd in scoring, Matt Thurber notched his first goal saturday and Derek Stepan is going to bust a few one of these nights. The defensemen are scoring, though time to concentrate on defense for awhile guys. The PP is decent this season, and the PK was strong last weekend.

Right now sittting at 0-5-1 the first thing the Badgers need to worry about is getting to .500 (beyond getting that first win), and I think they can do that by Christmas if they pull things together starting this weekend. The following is my breakdown of the remaining schedule til Christmas break, along w/ what I think should happen.

@ North Dakota - Split (1-6-1) - the Sioux are struggling too, get a win and start rolling
vs Michigan Tech - Sweep (3-6-1) - this team is not good this season
@ Duluth - 3 pts (4-6-2) - Duluth is also bad and the blog will be there to inspire the team
@ St. Cloud - Split (5-7-2) - Hopefully get some revenge for the WCHA playoffs
College Hockey Showcase - Split (6-8-2)
vs UAA - Sweep (8-8-2) - They might finish 8th in the WCHA, we can't afford a loss to them at home

There you have it, sure the Badgers don't have "a" win yet, but I think this is reasonable. After Christmas the Badgers have the Showdown, vs N. Michigan and @ UAA to start. I'm hoping by the time the boys fly back from UAA this whole start is forgotten.

Around the WCHA

Well another week, another chance for the Badgers to get a win!!!

Last week in the WCHA minnesota took 3 pts from us, while UAA took 3 pts from Duluth. Denver split w/ Ohio State, CC tied both nights w/ Clarkson and St. Cloud split w/ Bemidji State.

Here are the standings, its still early a lot of time for the Badgers to recover.

1 - minnesota, 3-0-1, 7 pts
2 - Denver, 2-0-0, 4 pts
2 - Colorado College, 2-0-0, 4 pts
4 - Alaska Anchorage, 1-0-1, 3 pts
5 - North Dakota, 1-1-0, 2 pts
5 - Mankato, 1-1-0, 2 pts
7 - Duluth, 0-1-1, 1 pt
7 - Wisconsin, 0-3-1, 1 pt
9 - St. Cloud, 0-2-0, 0 pts
9 - Michigan Tech, 0-2-0, 0 pts

Pretty full weekend of hockey in the WCHA this week.

Wisconsin @ North Dakota
Colorado College - Denver (home and home series)
minnesota - Mankato (home and home series)
UAA @ Tech
St. Cloud @ Duluth (I believe this is part of the minnesota hockey showcase or something like that this weekend and it includes the saturday um/Mankato game)

Rockford Badgers (and other alumni) update

Jack Skille had a pretty good weekend with the Rockford Icehogs. On Friday, he had 1 assist and 11 SOG as Rockford defeated Norfolk 5-4 in a shootout. On Saturday, he had 1 assist and 3 SOG as Rockford defeated Norfolk 4-0. And on Sunday he had 2 goals and 4 SOG as Rockford defeated Chicago 3-2 in a shootout. Oh yeah, Skille scored in the shootout, too.
"This is huge," said winger Jack Skille of beating the Wolves in their first meeting of the 2008-09 season. "They're really good at home and we knew that coming into this barn that we had to play hard.

"I had a couple of chances at the end there" Skille said of a chance at notching the second hat trick in IceHogs AHL history. "But it's not about me. Kontiola had a good game and we really played well as a team."
Jake Dowell had an assist and finished +1 on both Friday and Saturday. On Sunday he finished even and was held of the scoresheet. By the way, Jake was a starter on Sunday.

In other alumni news:
  • Todd Milewski notes that Matt Ford has 5 goals and 7 points in 3 games with the ECHL's Charlotte Checkers and is leading the team in both categories. Nice!
  • Tom Gilbert has another blog post. Ummm . . . it's not exactly as informative/entertaining as Burish's blog . . . but yeah, it's our Tommy and he seems like a nice guy, and it's nice to see the $24 MM contract doesn't appear to be going to his head . . .

"His name was lucy, he was an arrogant ass"

I was going to move on from the Grotting/White fight, but then I stopped by Badger Nation and read this Aaron Brenner article. It's premium content, so you gotta be signed up to read the whole article, but here's what made me laugh:
“Call (the rivalry) what you want, I don’t think the guy who got in a fight was there to score goals for them,” UM coach Don Lucia sniffed. “We’ve got guys that can do that too. I’m glad Whitey showed composure because we don’t need him getting thrown out of the next game, we need him in our lineup.”
Lucia calls Patrick White "Whitey"? Really??

And was "Whitey" composed when he grabbed Grotting from behind, wouldn't let go, and then ripped Grotting's helmet off? Ok, maybe that wasn't lack of composure, but it sure was lack of common sense. Especially if you're concerned about getting in a fight and getting thrown out of the next game. If you need to be in the next game, don't skate up behind a guy like Grotting and do what White did, lol.

Yeah, I'm easily amused, but I just thought Lucia's comments were pretty funny.

(If you don't recognize the title of this post, click here.)

"The best officials in college hockey . . . "


After reading Nicole's comments, I started wondering what the 4th official was doing during the Grotting/White fight. So I took a look at the youtube video -- it appears that both linesman were separating the other guys that were already on the ice, Marco Hunt was writing feverishly in his notebook, and Baby Shep was doing absolutely nothing. Hunt eventually did stop writing in his notebook to skate over and just look at Grotting/White for a bit before finally doing something. I can't figure out who's more clueless/useless -- Hunt or Baby Shep.

What a bunch of clowns.

Western College Hockey
had a post the other day that included a Mark Chambers blog post for the Denver Post where George Gwozdecky questioned whether Hunt had done enough to protect a player. Here's the Radke/Vossburg fight youtube video. You can see Hunt standing there watching, even after the players were down on the ice. He passively waited until the first linesman and then the 2nd linesman made their way over to break up the fight. Gwozdecky was concerned enough about his player to step on the ice himself and appears to have been almost to the fight before the 2 linesman were able to break it up.

At the end of his post, Chambers wonders if Hunt would have broken up the fight if another official were handling the penalty notebook. But clearly a 2nd referee didn't help matters, as Hunt still wrote in his notebook and Shep did absolutely nothing.

Yeah, what a bunch of clowns.

I wonder what Daddy Shep and Bruce McLeod think about this officiating mess. I'm guessing they'll maintain that the WCHA has "the best officials in college hockey" . . .

(Portrait courtesy of The Hallucination)

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Valley on ice w/ Badgers

According to Todd at TCT, "some paperwork" has gone through and Mike Valley is now the volunteer assistant coach coaching the goalies.

As Todd points out this is good news for the Badgers. Valley teaches a very similar system to Bill Howard, while Connelly is playing well despite his stats, Gudmandson has not faired so well so far this season, and hopefully this a calming influence for the whole team.

Good chance Street will not return this season

Todd at TCT has an update and nice article about Ben Street today. The timetable the doctors are giving Ben is toward the 6 months part of the 3 to 6 month recovery that was originally reported. Ben still hasn't had surgery, though it should occur in the next 10 days.

Ben should be eligible for a medical hardship redshirt, but it could be a tough decision if he is ready and the team is making a run later in the season. Ben sums things up pretty well:

"For me, does it really make sense to come back with two or three games left in the season at 50 percent, when I'm not really going to help the team, where I might be able to save myself for a whole another season and really help the team?" he said.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I would love to have Ben back next season if he can't return, he would be a great leader who would be really hunger to make the most of his ice time. Playing devil's advocate, his return removes one scholarship from the table, w/ 5 forwards looking to join us next Fall.


Todd also has another post weekend article about the team. The team is trying to figure out the little things to get past this bump in the road and notch a win. Tom Gorowsky is quoted several times in the article including:

Said fourth-line winger Gorowsky: "I think we're all kind of hungry. I was definitely hungry to get in the lineup. I hadn't played in a while and I wanted to play well."

Lastly, according to the article, Aaron Bendickson will be out again this week, missing his 5th and 6th games of the season. We could really use Bendy back in the lineup.

Monday, October 27, 2008

TG Week Wrap-up




(Photo courtesy of Redheat15)

Well, Tom Gorowsky Week is over, but I needed an excuse to post this picture from the scrimmage. (I swear the picture wasn't there when I wrote the write-up of the scrimmage.) I suppose I'll have to do another update later when RH15 gets her pics from this weekend online . . .

DPlaya thinks Goro played pretty well on Friday, and I always defer to DPlaya . . .
Tom Gorowsky made the most of his limited shifts and really showed up when he was on the ice.
Goro assisted on Podge Turnbull's goal on Friday, and he also had a screen on Podge's goal on Saturday. He finished even on Friday and +1 on Saturday.

In the Saturday post-game press conference, Eaves was complimentary of the 4th line of Bohmbach-Turnbull-Gorowsky, saying the following:
I think all weekend we were able to put them out there and they did give us a spark, gave us scoring chances, gave us hits, gave us energy, and chipped in a goal. So that's a bonus for us, I mean in terms of the offense. But they showed good chemistry, and something that we hope they can build on.
Also in the post-game presser, someone asked Goro about his line with Podge and Bohmbach, saying:
Tom, for a team struggling to get on the same page, it seems that your line with Andy and Podge has been clicking so far.
Goro indicated that they were all hungry and that he specifically was hungry to get in the lineup and wanted to play well. Regarding his linemates, he said:
I think me and Bohmber played pretty well together. We always kinda play around after practice and we played pretty well together, and Podge jumped in there and played really well and was able to pop 2 this weekend.
I think perhaps we'll have to do "Andy Bohmbach Week" next . . .

Badger Women add Exhibition

Add another date to your calendar, the Women will play the USA Select Team on January 2nd at 2 PM at the Kohl Center. The Men play Northern Michigan that weekend, so come early and have a few beers between games downtown.

Admission will be free.

Ratty Johnson owns (insert name) @ Nodak

Last week the fans voted for Ratty to own Tony Lucia, I didn't see it happen, but he'll be on the list again when the Badgers travel over the border later in the season. No one runs our goalie and gets left off the list, the whole Lucia family are class acts (sarcasm intended). I did see Ratty land a huge hit on midget blue liner Aaron Ness, he was pretty well owned.

In case you missed it Ben Grotting also owned Patrick White and made him his bitch.

Its a new week, we still don't have a win, but that isn't from Ratty giving it his all, all weekend. If everyone gave the effort he does, well I think we'd be 3-3 right now.

When I was thinking of players for Ratty to own this week, I thought maybe he should get retribution for Joe Finley's pathetic slash on Bucky Badger last season, but hitting the fighting Sioux mascot would not only be wrong, it would probably be considered a hate crime. Plus, Ratty isn't the complete embrassement of a human being that Joe Finley is. Ratty has already owned the Sioux's #1 goon, but its a new season, no reason he can't make him cry in the shower again this year.

This week's choices for players wearing green uniforms:

Choice #1 - Ryan Duncan, after a busy summer of working for travelocity, the garden gnome (who is sometimes roaming) returns to the wasteland of Grand Forks w/ out TJ Oshie AND Jonathon Toews to make him look good. The undeserving Hobey Baker winner from 2007 can easily be lost in the crowd, even behind small children. This one might be too easy for Patrick Johnson.

Choice #2 - Joe Finley, do I really need to explain this one further? When he isn't slashing mascots (and writing letters to them as directed by the WCHA), he is pulling players out of hand shake lines and overall consistently gooning up the game of hockey at rinks throughout the midwest. He was awarded WCHA D-Bag of the year by Puckem on the Buckyville message board during the 2007-2008 season.

Choice #3 - Andrew Kozek, he scored the game winner in OT against us during the NCAA Regional, in his final season w/ the Sioux, he is ready to be owned by Patrick Johnson.

Choice #4 - Derrick LaPoint, he skipped town (ok the state) to head west and play for the Sioux. Sure there might not have been room for him at Wisconsin, but the Eau Claire native did the 2nd worst possible thing and headed to Grand Forks to play hockey.

Let me know what you think, the drive for .500 needs to start sometime, and since it didn't happen last weekend, I guess its now.

Women's Hockey Review Linkorama

In case you missed it, the Women's team was also in action this weekend against the rodents.

On friday, the Women lost in a shoot-out after the game ended 1-1 after OT. The game goes down as a tie for the WCHA standings. I'd have more to say since I was there, but the Men's game, depleted my brain from friday afternoon.

On sunday, in front of 2,000+ at the KC, the Women came from behind in the 3rd to win the game 2-1. Hilary Knight (aka the Bomb) tied things up after some nice passing by her linemates, and then Tiny Captain Erika Lawler broke in for a SH and eventual GW goal later in the period. It was one of the nicest goals I've seen, and as always, Erika plays like a giant despite her 5' frame. The Badger Women didn't look too good early on, but they brought an awesome effort in the 3rd to net the victory, stay unbeaten, and stay on top of the WCHA standings at 9-0-1. As always, the minnesota women looked horrible just by wearing those ugly jerseys.

Some links:

Third period comeback nets Badgers victory - TCT by Zach Bearson (good for you Zach and nice article)
Women’s hockey gets best of Gophers - Daily Cardinal
Senior captains take charge as Johnson’s crew remains unbeaten - Badger Herald
Women’s hockey tops Gophers - Badger Herald

Next week the cheaters of Minnesota Duluth come to the Kohl Center Friday (2 PM) and Saturday (11 AM). If you are looking for European female hockey players who have played professionally or are on steriods, the Kohl Center will be the place to see them in the equally ugly bulldog uniforms.

Men's Hockey Review Linkorama

Normally 60 does the linkoramas, but I think she is thoroughly exhausted from Tom Gorowsky week, so I better link things up for everyone.

Friday the Badgers blew a 2-0 lead and hung on to tie minnesota 2-2. As a friend said after the game, "we secured a tie from the jaws of victory". Dplaya over at HIW has some great thoughts from friday, so I won't comment further. He also has video posted of the Badger goals on the weekend here, and since I haven't figured out the video posting yet, I'll direct you there.

One comment I do have, I don't know if other noticed this, but Patrick Johnson was doing everything in his power to win that game in the 3rd period friday. When is that hussle going to rub off on his teammates? He does hard every shift, all game, all 18 skaters need to do that for this team to be successful.

Other Friday articles:

Ice House - TCT (Milewski)
It's not another loss, but UW again can't hold lead - TCT (Milewski)
Badgers can't hold lead, settle for tie - WSJ (Baggot)

Saturady and Weekend Review articles:

Ice House - TCT (Milewski)
Worst start gets worse with quick goal - TCT (Milewski)
A silver lining perhaps? - Badger Blog (Baggot)
Despite home crowd and brawl, Badgers still winless - Daily Cardinal
Eaves’ defense has another lapse as unit again allows 5 goals - Badger Herald

I don't have many comments to add from saturday night. It was a rough one to sit through. Its apparent to me that bad things happen to the Badgers when they take a few shifts off or don't give it their all. The first goal 6 seconds in rings true to that. I always enjoy seeing a Badger log their first goal, and hats off to Matt Thurber for notching his 1st goal as a Badger in the 3rd period. I swear if they didn't have names on the jerseys, I could get Thurber and Patrick Johnson mixed up, or take them for brothers. They finish checks, play hard in the corners, give their best effort all game long and their mouths don't stop for the opening puck drop. Despite all the poor play saturday, I'm very happy Matt is a Badger.

Oh yeah, I really enjoyed watching Patrick White hold a towel to his face after Ben Grotting beat him down.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Brian Elliott recalled by Senators

Brian Elliott might get a chance to see some more action in the NHL after he was recalled yesterady by the Ottawa Senators from the AHL. Brian made one start for the Sens last season, winning in his debut against the Atlanta Thrashers.

Good stats this year for Brain he is 3-1-1 w/ a 2.10 GAA and 0.924 save %.

Grotting wins decision by KO in 3rd period

Don't have pictures or video yet (I'm hoping someone posts this on youtube, please comment if you find anything), but last night despite the 5-2 loss to the much hated rodents of minnesota, Ben Grotting brought his best in the 3rd period w/ about 10 minutes left when he pummelled Patrick White.

Until he is dethroned, Ben Grotting is the WCHA Heavyweight Champion.

I kinda feel bad for Patrick White (ok not really), the officials are normally suppose to jump in when the players hit the ice, but in this case Derek Sheppard decided to just let a player get beat down lying prone on the ice instead. It was the culmination of a weekend of horrible work by the zebras of the WCHA. White threw a few punches to start things, but of course they missed that only giving the game DQ to Grotting. I guess when you get you ass kicked that bad in a fight, someone needs to have sympathy for you.

As someone commented to me after the game, it was great to see the "grind" line of Mitchell/Dolan/Grotting all in the box together, they don't back down from anyone.

Ben should be suspended next friday against North Dakota. I'm sure Eaves wasn't very happy w/ Ben and I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't even make the trip to Grand Forks, but for a lackluster evening of hockey it sure put a smile on a lot of Badger fan faces.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Burish on Jerry Springer

All I can say is wow.

Link from Deadspin.com

Link from Drop the Gloves blog

New Assistant Captains & a few other items

It's a combination of who they are as players and who they are as people. -- Mike Eaves
Not suprising, Jamie McBain and Ryan McDonagh will be wearing "A"s this weekend.

Shane Connelly will be debuting his new mask tonight.

Mankato's Zach scored a short-handed natural hat trick last Friday . . . but do you know who the 1st player to do that in an NCAA game was? . . . If you guessed Badger Norm Cherrey, you're correct! Oh, and and after his shorthanded hat trick, Cherry threw in a PP goal for good measure. Nice!

Tom Gorowsky Week, Friday Edition: Mr. Hockey




















(Photo from mrhockeyaward.com)

Since Tom Gorowsky will be one of three "Minnesota Mr. Hockey"s on the ice this weekend, I thought it would be nice to take a look back today at Tom's award-winning season . . .

Centennial's Tom Gorowsky said winning the 2004 Mr. Hockey award Sunday was "icing on the cake."

Truth be told, there was already quite a bit of icing on a pretty large cake.

Centennial won just about everything imaginable this season. The Cougars went 30-1, capping the season with their state-record third consecutive shutout Saturday against Moorhead to win their first state championship; Gorowsky was named Metro Player of the Year last week; coach Erik Aus was named Class AA coach of the year; and defenseman Greg Flynn won the first Class AA Herb Brooks award.

The only thing Centennial didn't win was the Frank Brimsek Award, given to the top senior goalie. That went to Apple Valley senior Matt Lundin. Had the voting for the award come after the state tournament, the Cougars' Greg Stutz - who set a record with three shutouts - might have claimed that one, too.

"We kind of cleaned up," said Gorowsky, a senior center.

In earning the Mr. Hockey title, which goes to the top senior in the state, Gorowsky became the first player to win the award and a state championship in the same season since Bloomington Jefferson's Mike Crowley in 1994.

The other finalists were: Will Engasser, Rob Page and J.T. Wyman of Blake; Blake Friesen of Benilde-St. Margaret's; Brian Gifford of Moorhead; Alex Goligoski of Grand Rapids; Jack Hillen and Mike Taylor of Holy Angels; and Sam Kelly of Hill-Murray.

"I'm totally surprised to win," Gorowsky said. "I was just super enthused to be up at the table."

Gorowsky, who has committed to play at Wisconsin in 2005-06 after a year in the United States Hockey League, finished with 40 goals and 54 assists this season.




And here's a bit more from that season . . .

Growing up on Reshanau Lake in the northern suburb of Lino Lakes had its advantages. Every winter, Tom Gorowsky's dad, Don, would help construct a back-yard rink, complete with boards, on the lake.

"We called it `The Gorowsky Gardens,' " said Tom, now a senior at Centennial, a high school which serves Lino Lakes, Circle Pines and other northern suburbs.

Don and his brother, Dan, played hockey together at White Bear Mariner in the 1970s. Dan went on to play four years at Wisconsin; Don "was on the roster" at North Dakota, Tom said.

Many years after playing with and getting tips from his uncle and dad on Reshanau Lake, Gorowsky is a high school star. He led the metro area with 85 points during the regular season and helped Centennial reach the state tournament for the first time in history.

Gorowsky also made some individual history, becoming the first Centennial player to be named the Star Tribune's Metro Player of the Year.

"This whole year has almost been unrealistic," Gorowsky said. "Just with how much support we've gotten from people wishing us well. It's been an eye-opener."

Gorowsky's skills, too, opened some eyes. At 6-foot, 200 pounds, Gorowsky has the power to work through checks and dig pucks out of corners. But he also displays a nice passing touch and has enough finesse to skate around an opponent instead of through him.

While Gorowsky's point total benefitted from some blowout victories, he also scored big against the state's best. In five games against Class AA tournament qualifiers, Gorowsky had seven goals and six assists.

Many colleges recruited him, and Gorowsky narrowed his choices to three schools: Yale, Wisconsin and North Dakota.

The Gophers showed interest in Gorowsky early on, but that interest waned during the recruiting process. He decided to follow in his uncle's footsteps by committing to the Badgers two weeks ago.

"My dad's side of the family really wanted me to go there," Gorowsky said.

He also wears No. 15, just like Dan.

"I suppose I got that from Brett Hull, too," Gorowsky said of the number.

The only blip on an otherwise smooth season came in the final regular-season game against Totino-Grace. Gorowsky landed awkwardly and hurt his leg in the third period, causing him to miss the section quarterfinals against Tri-City.

Though he still was not 100 percent healed, Gorowsky came back for the rest of the section playoffs, recording three points against Roseville and scoring a key goal in the final against Hill-Murray.

"He's a great captain. When he came back from that injury and played, it was big for the team," said junior defenseman R.J. Anderson, another All-Metro player. "He was playing on one leg and was still one of the best players on the ice."

Said Gorowsky: "It wasn't easy to play, but our team has so much depth. I figured if I could distribute the puck a little, it would help."

It wasn't the only sacrifice Gorowsky made this season. Because he was so consumed with his senior season, the family decided not to build "The Gorowsky Gardens" this winter for the first time in many years.

The tradeoff, though, was the euphoria of leading the Cougars to their first state berth. At 27-1 and ranked No. 1 in the state, Centennial has a good chance to extend its dream season all the way to the end of the state tournament.

"Now that we're there, we want to win it," Gorowsky said.




Previous Tom Gorowsky Week posts
Thursday: Game highlights (morning post), Game highlights and other articles (evening post)
Wednesday: 2002-08 Badger Hockey Showdown, Andy Baggot: Looking for Leaders
Tuesday: This Week is Tom Gorowsky Week
Monday: Next Man In

It's Friday, I'm in Love

Monday, you can hold your head
Tuesday, Wednesday stay in bed

Or Thursday - watch the walls instead

It's Friday, I'm in love

Badger Men v. minnesota, Fri/Sat Oct 24/25 @ 7 PM CT

First, I feel that I have no choice but to reference a couple of quotes from Gandalf's biography of Alex Kangas yesterday. After all, Gandalf tells me that it's important to know your opponent.
At this point I showed the zoo keeper the picture to the left [you know the photo we're talking about . . . classic Frazee], and inquired if Alex was capable of making such a play w/ his kangaroo skills. He laughed and replied, "what the f*ck is that! Alex is a kangaroo not some drunk idiot wasted on long island ice teas. I've seen a sieve in my day, but nothing like that
So, it appears that Kangas is a sieve, but not quite as bad as Frazee. Good to know.
The zoo keeper recounted his final conversation w/ Alex before he departed for the land of 10,000 lakes. "I asked him why he would leave us here in San Diego and head way up north. He looked me straight in the eye and told me he liked the color of their jerseys, it reminded him of what it looked like when he would crap on my boots. Then he thought he was awfully funny and left me a nice parting gift right there on my new Red Wings."
Not much to learn from this; but being easily amused, I just thought it was funny.

I also thing we can learn from Gandalf's WCHA preview of minnesota, so feel free to refer to that at your convenience.

Now, let's get to business, here. If you can't make it to the KC, here's how you can follow the game:

TV: FSN (Friday), Big Ten Network (Saturday)
Radio: WIBA 131o
Audio stream: Yahoo Sports ($4.95/mo)
Stats: uwbadgers LiveStats
Game blog: I don't expect Milewski to live blog this weekend (away games only, I think), but he should have pre- and post-game entries.

Here are the Badgers' projected lines as of Thursday evening, per Todd:
Mitchell - Geoffrion - Murray
P. Johnson - Thurber - Stepan

Davies - Dolan - Grotting

Bohmbach - Turnbull - Gorowsky

Smith - McBain

McDonagh - Goloubef

Gardiner - Springer


Connelley

Gudmandson

Here are today's articles:
uwbadgers: Game notes (PDF)
gophersports: Series preview, Game notes (PDF)
Baggot (Badger blog): Helping you feel better
Storlie (Daily Cardinal): UW ready for border battle with Golden Gophers
Bleach (Badger Herald): Wisconsin finally hits home ice

And here are some additional articles that I posted yesterday:
Milewski (TCT): Men's hockey v. Minnesota
Milewski (TCT): Quality shots strain Badger goaltenders
Milewski (Icehouse): Early day for UW
Baggot (WSJ): Gardiner's play bright spot in slow start
Milewski (TCT): Minnesota banks on experience
Uwbadgers: Wisconsin honors 1983 NCAA Championship Team (includes a bunch of links!)
Uwbadgers: PB's thoughts on the 1982-83 season

Also, a couple of the Usual Suspects have posted their WCHA/NCAA notebooks:
INCH - Oct 23, Oct 21
USCHO - This Week in the WCHA (Oct 23), Tuesday Morning Quarterback (Oct 22)

If you want a brief review of what's going on in the WCHA review this weekend, please refer to Gandalf's Around the WCHA post from yesterday. You might also be interested in checking out Puck Swami's profile of Denver's opponent for the weekend -- Ohio State.

Now, before I move on to the Badger Women's series v. minnesota, let me leave you with this, courtesy of Gandalf:
I brought up the fact that reports say Alex is 1/8 human and 7/8 kangaroo. W/ a furrowed brow the zoo keeper replied, "I don't know anything about that, maybe 1/16 human at best."



Badger Women v. minnesota, Fri/Sun Oct 24/26 @ 2PM CT

Due to the all of the stuff going on Saturday (men's hockey, football homecoming), this series is an odd Fri-Sun series.

If you can't make it to the Kohl Center, you can watch the live video webstream or follow Live Stats, both on uwbadgers.

Press releases
uwbadgers: series preview, game notes (PDF)
WCHA website: short release, full release (PDF) -- full release has great team notebooks!

Articles
Baggot (WSJ): No question Knight can play
NCAA Blogs: The Meghan Duggan Blog
Autrey (Daily Cardinal): Women's hockey to play Gophers in No. 1 v. No 2 series
Mosgaller (Badger Herald): WCHA's best teams face off in Border Battle series
Donohue (Badger Herald): Top-ranked Wisconsin awaits No. 2 Minnesota

TW Minor ranked #5/#16

After a 0-1-1 weekend, TW has fallen to #5 in MyHockeyRankings and #16 in the ushsho rankings.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Tom Gorowsky Week: Thursday evening edition

As posted below, Todd has the projected lines, and Gorowsky is slated to play with Andy Bohmbach and Podge Turnbull, as so it appears the probability that TG will play this weekend is pretty high. (The lines aren't 100%, but they're usually pretty close.) Congratulations, Tom.

This morning I was temporarily foiled by the Madison Newspapers' archives being down, and I did my best with uscho recaps and box scores. However, I have circumvented the problem and now have some more articles on this morning's theme . . .

Saturday 2/10/2007 v. UAA
TG's goal in the 2nd period put the Badgers up 2-1 and became the eventual game-winning goal as the Badgers continued on to defeat the Seawolves 3-1.

First, from the Daily Cardinal:

But even with all the unorthodox scoring, the goal of the night was undoubtedly Gorowsky’s. The freshman wasn’t even slotted to play until Saturday morning, when junior Matthew Ford was injured during a morning warm-up.

Gorowsky made the most of his opportunity, and scored the game-winning goal on a one-on-one matchup.

“I was going to post up on the far blue line, just as an outlet,” Gorowsky explained. “The puck went over to the other side, me and Ben kind of made eye contact, and he tossed it out there for me, and I was lucky enough to have a step on the guys so that I could get a good shot off.”

Gorowsky’s shot was better than “good.” The freshman deked a few times, and chipped a wrist shot past Lawson into the lower left part of the net.

And from the WSJ:

No one in their right mind likes to play the role of understudy, but it's a task Tom Gorowsky does his best to embrace.

Though Gorowsky has been in the University of Wisconsin men's hockey lineup more than he's sat out this season, he's one of those guys scrapping every week for a place on the fourth line. Rarely does the sophomore winger get primetime minutes.

That changed Saturday night and Gorowsky made the most of his opportunity, scoring a huge goal that propelled the Badgers to a 3-1 victory over Alaska-Anchorage before a sellout crowd of 15,237 at the Kohl Center.

Pressed into third-line duty as well as a role on the No.2 power play when Matthew Ford was a late scratch -- he suffered an undisclosed head injury during a team workout earlier in the day -- Gorowsky converted a breakaway in the waning moments of the second period that stood up as the winning conversion.

"Every time you're not in the lineup you're itching to get in there," Gorowsky said. "You always keep yourself ready no matter what."
.
.
.
The Badgers had just failed to convert on their fifth power play of the night when Gorowsky took a heads-up pass from winger Ben Street and beat Lawson on a breakaway with 14 seconds left in the second.

"I was going to post up at the far blue line just for a quick outlet, then the puck went over to the other side and me and Ben kind of made eye contact and he (put) it out there for me," Gorowsky said.

"Up until that point, I thought we carried the play," Seawolves coach Dave Shyiak said after his club fell to 11-16-3 overall, 7-16-1 with 15 points in the WCHA.

Some karma from Ford, whose injury isn't serious, must have rubbed off on Gorowsky. Ford had the winning goal in the series opener.

"It's not the position you want to be in," Gorowsky said of his life on the lineup bubble, "but you've got to make the most of it."

From: UW EARNS SWEEP THE BADGERS GET THEIR SECOND IN WCHA PLAY IN BEATING ALASKA-ANCHORAGE.(SPORTS)
Source: The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI), 2/11/2007.
Via: HighBeam Research Logo HighBeam™ Research
COPYRIGHT 2008 Capital Newspapers



Friday 10/6/06 @ NMU (Resch Center, GB)
In the 2006-07 season opener in Green Bay, TG assisted on all 3 Badger goals as the Badgers defeated the Wildcats 3-0.
It may be better remembered for the first contribution of a rapidly ascending freshman and another shutout from its star goaltender.

The significance of the performance of two others in the University of Wisconsin men's hockey team's season-opening victory, however, may wind up being on par with those clear-cut story lines.

Mike Davies scored twice in his collegiate debut and Brian Elliott added to his school-record career shutout total as top-ranked Wisconsin began defense of its NCAA title with a 3-0 victory over No. 19 Northern Michigan Friday at the Resch Center.

Maybe it's not what many of the sparse crowd of 4,968 walked away talking about, but what Badgers forwards Matthew Ford and Tom Gorowsky -- Davies' linemates -- added to the mix could be a major boost if it's the start of a trend and not just a chance occurrence.

Badgers coach Mike Eaves said before his team opened practice that Ford and Gorowsky, veterans who had been role players in the past, would get opportunities to show they could create goals for a team that needs them.

Friday, they made the most of that chance with three assists apiece as the Badgers won their season opener for the fourth straight year and continued their run of success at the Resch Center.

"They were given an opportunity, the ball was put in their hands and they came through," Eaves said. "What you build up is a trust in what they can do. And their trust factor, their stock, went up."
.
.
.
All three members of the line spoke of a fast-evolving chemistry between them. Gorowsky and Ford also have something to prove, and they have a chance to help a team that needs scorers to emerge.

"Before we came here, we were goal scorers and we got points," Gorowsky said. "Now, just to be able to come out here in our first game and get points when us as players need them and our team needs them is really helpful for us."

Said Ford, "Tonight was a big night for us getting a little confidence back."

Gorowsky's first game of his sophomore season produced more points (three) than he had in 18 appearances last season (two). Ford, a junior, bounced around from line to line last season but never was able to find a scoring role.

To Davies, it was easy to recall the genesis of the opening-night performances by his linemates.

"They're always making the extra effort," Davies said, referencing summer workouts that, for Ford and Gorowsky, didn't end until well after others were off the ice. "I guess they just wanted it more than a lot of guys. I would, too."


Additionally, I offer 2 Todd Milewski articles that detail TG's responses during his UW career to his struggle for ice time. Both articles are very good and are worth reading. (Since I currently can't link to the articles on the TCT site, you can read them here.)

It's Almost Friday Linkorama

A few items to start getting you ready for the weekend:

Badger Women
Baggot (WSJ): No question Knight can play
NCAA Blogs: The Meghan Duggan Blog
Donahue (Badger Herald): High-octane UW offense utilizing multiple scorers (Please note that Riley Nash is a sophomore on the Cornell men's hockey team; the Badger Women's sophomore is Kelly Nash.)

Badger Men
Milewski (TCT): Men's hockey v. Minnesota
Milewski (TCT): Quality shots strain Badger goaltenders
Milewski (Icehouse): Early day for UW
Baggot (WSJ): Gardiner's play bright spot in slow start
Milewski (TCT): Minnesota banks on experience

In his 1st article listed above, Milewski has the projected lines:
Mitchell - Geoffrion - Murray
P. Johnson - Thurber - Stepan
Davies - Dolan - Grotting
Bohmbach - Turnbull - Gorowsky

Smith - McBain
McDonagh - Goloubef
Gardiner - Springer

Connelley
Gudmandson

Badger Men's 1982-83 NCAA Championship Team
Uwbadgers: Wisconsin honors 1983 NCAA Championship Team (includes a bunch of links!)
Uwbadgers: PB's thoughts on the 1982-83 season

Badger Men's Recruits
Milewski's stats report

Badger Men's Alumni
Milewski's stats report
Players' status on hold while waiting for work permits (Ryan MacMurchy, ECHL's Stockton Thunder)
Flames teammates ok with Bourque's crime (Rene Bourque gets 19 PIM for 1 play)

Around the WCHA Oct 24/25

Figured we should start a weekly feature looking at the rest of the WCHA games on tap. Every game played in the WCHA is a tough one (and indirectly effects Wisconsin) and it should be quite the battle again this season for the MacNaughton and home ice for the playoffs.

WCHA Standings

1 Colorado College 2-0-0 4 pts
1 Denver 2-0-0 4 pts
1 minnesota 2-0-0 4 pts
4 Minnesota State 1-1-0 2 pts
4 North Dakota 1-1-0 2 pts
6 Alaska-Anchorage 0-0-0 0 pts
6 Michigan Tech 0-2-0 0 pts
6 Minnesota-Duluth 0-0-0 0 pts
6 St. Cloud State 0-2-0 0 pts
6 Wisconsin 0-2-0 0 pts


Only two conference series this week:

minnesota @ Wisconsin
Duluth @ UAA

Non-conference matchups:

Ohio State @ Denver
CC @ Clarkson
St. Cloud @ Bemidji
USNTDP @ Tech (friday only)

Learning about your opponent: Alex Kangas

The real reason I went on vacation earlier this month was to get the true story about Alex Kangas, the soft goal sieve of the university of minnesota hockey team. Some will have you believe that Kangas previously played for the Indiana Ice and the Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL and before that in HS in Rochester, MN. I won't lead you down that same path.

I went right to the source of Kangas' upbringing, the San Diego Zoo. I was fortunate enough to spend the day w/ Alex's former zoo keeper, who's name will be withheld to protect his family from repercussions by intoxicated minnesota fans who might feel the need to try to hug you at Wando's at the corner of Frances and University.

At the San Diego Zoo, Alex Kangas was simply known as Alex or Alex the kangaroo. Below is a picture of a kangaroo for those of you who have never ventured to a zoo, read a children's book w/ animals in it, watched national geographic or ever heard of google or the internet.


Alex had spent most of his life at the zoo, and as the zoo keeper pointed out there was always something different about Alex, "he wasn't quite all kangaroo, I'm mean sure he spent most of the day foralicing around on his powerful hind legs, but sometimes he would just lounge around and play Xbox."

I brought up the fact that reports say Alex is 1/8 human and 7/8 kangaroo. W/ a furrowed brow the zoo keeper replied, "I don't know anything about that, maybe 1/16 human at best."

It still wasn't all adding up how Alex found his way to a hockey scholarship in minnesota, so the zoo keeper kindly explained. "Well it all started when we got cable tv here at the zoo. Alex started watching NHL games regularly, and really took a liking to that Martin Broudeur fellow w/ the NJ Devils. Let me tell ya, I once got kicked from here to right over there [pointing clear across the kangaroo pen] when I tried to turn on Seinfeld. Anyway, one day back around 2001, Alex starts carrying around a goalie stick, and after that he started organizing pick up games w/ the other kangaroos. Let me tell ya, Alex wasn't very good though, more of a Garth Snow than a Patrick Roy."

That still didn't answer my question about minnesota, but the zoo keeper continued w/ a frown on his face. "Well then one day this mullet man showed up. I use to live in LA and go to Kings games in the 90s, I've seen some mullets, but nothing like this guy's, damn. Said his name was lucy or something like that, he was an arrogant ass. Anyway, somehow he had heard about Alex and came to "recruit" him. He's a kangaroo damnit! He doesn't need this. Well anyway, he offered him a college education in exchange for his hockey skills."

At this point I showed the zoo keeper the picture to the left, and inquired if Alex was capable of making such a play w/ his kangaroo skills. He laughed and replied, "what the f*ck is that! Alex is a kangaroo not some drunk idiot wasted on long island ice teas. I've seen a sieve in my day, but nothing like that."

An agreement was struck w/ the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, MN to house Alex when he wasn't practicing w/ the team and attending classes focused largely on zoology. On his official application (filled out in crayon per u of m requirements) he listed his name as Alex Kangas, leaving Alex the kangaroo behind forever.

The zoo keeper recounted his final conversation w/ Alex before he departed for the land of 10,000 lakes. "I asked him why he would leave us here in San Diego and head way up north. He looked me straight in the eye and told me he liked the color of their jerseys, it reminded him of what it looked like when he would crap on my boots. Then he thought he was awfully funny and left me a nice parting gift right there on my new Red Wings."

Not done in San Diego, I tracked down former Anchorman Ron Burgandy to see if he could offer any insight on Alex the kangaroo from his days reading the news. "Ah the zoo, yes. Once I was at the zoo and saw my beloved Veronica in a bear pen. Needless to say my love for her forced me to jump in there w/ those Kodiaks. Luckily my pal Baxter was there to save the day. Damn I was lucky to have Baxter back after he was kicked off that bridge and all. Well, good day fine citizen...and you stay classy." W/ that he walked away w/ three other men who looked like former new casters, one holding a grenade.

I tried to reach minnesota head coach Don Lucia to ask his opinion on this story. My call to his office landed me on the phone of Kevin Gorg, ice side moron for FSN North. When I asked if I could briefly talk w/ tDon, I was told no and that Anthony LaPanta was busy trimming his mullet.

A Badger fan from Tomahawk, WI was kind enough to comment on this story before press time stating simply, "you can't spell sex with a kangaroo without Kangas."

The proceeding story may or may not have been fictional.

Tom Gorowsky Week: Thursday morning edition































Wisconsin right wing Tom Gorowsky, left, and teammate Aaron Bendickson celebrate after Gorowsky scored past Michigan Tech goalie Michael-Lee Teslak, right, in the third period of a WCHA Final Five hockey game in St. Paul, Thursday, March 15, 2007. Wisconsin shut out Michigan Tech 4-0. AP Photo by Ann Heisenfelt as posted on dailylife.com.

Today I was planning on digging up some WSJ/TCT articles from a few memorable TG games, but there appear to be issues with the WSJ/TCT archives and I couldn't do an archive search or even pull articles from specific dates. However, I was unwilling to be deterred, and despites this setback I bring you the following:

Thursday 3/15/07 -- WCHA Final Five Play-in game v. MTU
As pictured above, TG scored Wisconsin's 4th goal against Tech as the Badgers defeated the Huskies 4-0 to advance to the Final Five semifinals.

Saturday 2/10/2007 v. UAA
TG's goal in the 2nd period put the Badgers up 2-1 and became the eventual game-winning goal as the Badgers continued on to defeat the Seawolves 3-1. From uscho's game recap:

With under a minute left in the second and the Seawolves threatening, sophomore Ben Street was looking to simply clear the zone when he saw Tom Gorowsky all alone and breaking towards the Anchorage net. Street delivered a perfect pass between two UAA players that hit Gorowsky right on his stick.

Alone on the breakaway, Gorowsky buried the puck on goalie Nathan Lawson’s stick side, doubling the Badgers’ lead with 24 seconds left in the period.

“Their second goal deflated us a little bit,” Shyiak said. “We had a bad line change and it turned into a breakaway goal.”

“I was lucky that I had a step on the guy and get a good shot off,” Gorowsky added. “He was cheating a little bit and the lower right looked good. I just went for it and it went it.”

Gorowsky, who did not play in game one of the series and had done little offensively in Wisconsin's last seven games, was inserted into the lineup when forward Matthew Ford was injured in a pre-game workout and didn’t receive clearance from team doctors to suit up. With Gorowsky having had repetitions from Ford’s possession in practice, he was the obvious choice to start in his place and he ended up paying dividends for the Badgers.

“Every time you are not in the lineup, you are itching to get in there and you have to keep yourself ready no matter what,” Gorowsky said. “I just try to control things I can, work hard and try to impress coach enough to play.”


Friday 10/6/06 @ NMU (Resch Center, GB)
In the 2006-07 season opener in Green Bay, TG assisted on all 3 Badger goals as the Badgers defeated the Wildcats 3-0. I think this might have been his 1st mulit-point game, but I'm not sure about that. (If anyone knows, please let me know!) From uscho's game recap:

While the Badger youth made the tallies on the scoreboard, it was Wisconsin's inexperienced veterans that helped set up the night’s offense. Junior Matt Ford and sophomore Tom Gorowsky both assisted on all three Wisconsin goals. While both players saw minimal time on the ice last season, both also showed that they are ready to step up and fill the shoes of their predecessors.

“I got some lucky bounces there in certain opportunities that went in and there were other opportunities that didn’t,” Gorowsky said. “I’m just happy and fortunate to get some points tonight.”

With Wisconsin losing high-flying forwards Robbie Earl and Joe Pavelski to the NHL, two-thirds of their top line a season ago, the Badgers rearranged all four of their lines before the season in hopes of catching a spark. Tonight, it was the Badgers third line - Ford, Gorowsky and Davies - that accounted for all the game’s scoring.

“That whole line worked very well together,” Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said. “It’s not just one guy. [Davies] finished a couple of really nice plays. They supported each other better than any other line we had tonight.”


Previous Tom Gorowsky Week posts
Wednesday: 2002-08 Badger Hockey Showdown, Andy Baggot: Looking for Leaders
Tuesday: This Week is Tom Gorowsky Week
Monday: Next Man In

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Wisconin Men's Hockey: Looking for leaders

I thought I was done posting for today, but then I stumbled upon a post that Andy Baggot must have just put up. He indicates that 2 assistant captains will likely be appointed by Friday. He lists Jamie McBain and Ryan McDonagh as strong candidates, but he also recommends Tom Gorowsky for consideration.

A few more Badger Men's notes

Hmmm, today Gandalf and I may have set a record for our blog in the most posts per day category. Nonetheless, I still have a few things that haven't yet made their way into a post, and so here they are now:
  • Todd Milewski has a recruiting update, indicating that future Badgers Jefferson Dahl, Craig Smith, Derek Lee, Justin Schultz, and Matt Paape are all averaging over a point per game. Todd's blog post also has a link to his recruits stats report.

  • Andy Baggot makes a case for the 1982-83 Badgers' National Championship Team being the most talented, most decorated team in Badger history. As you know, the 82-83 team is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its national title and will be recognized this weekend at the hockey and football games.

  • Milewski has an interesting article on how the hockey (and other sports) teams have adjusted to try to stay within budget despite skyrocketing transportation costs.

  • The transcript of Mike Eaves' Monday presser is finally available, for those of you who weren't inclined to watch the full video posted earlier.

  • Badger blueliners Ryan McDonagh and Brendan Smith get mention in HF's 2008 system audits of the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Canadiens.
    Smith
    At the college level, both Smith and Rufenach will continue to pursue their development. Smith has been scouted as a potential top-four defenseman who has great skating ability and elite offensive skills.

    McDonagh
    Heading this heady list is 2007 first-round selection Ryan McDonagh. Combining solid size, an impressive shot, superlative skating abilities, and a two-way game that's mature for his age, McDonagh projects to a top-two blueliner in the not-too-distant future. In his rookie season, McDonagh totalled 12 points in 40 games with the University of Wisconsin. This year, in addition to taking on a greater leadership role, McDonagh is playing at a point-per-game pace in the first four games of the season. He is also expected to play a key role on Team USA at this year's World Junior Championships after being passed over last season.

TW weekend scores

Last weekend was a rough one for TW, with TW Minor going 0-1-1 and TW Major going 1-2 on the weekend.

TW Minor
TW Minor lost to SSM's Midget AAA team 4-2 (empty net) on Friday and tied 1A/AA 2-2 on Sunday. The MyHockeyRankings site is down right now, and the USHSHO rankings are not posted yet -- I'll try to link those later in the week.

TW Major
TW Major lost to SSM's prep team 3-2 on Friday, defeated MN NE 6-4 Saturday morning, and lost to MN SE 5-3 Saturday evening. Doesn't look like future Badger Cody Strang played this weekend. Future Badger Matt Paape had 3 goals and 2 assists on the weekend, and potential Badger recruit Wes Wauters had 1 assist on the weekend.

Kyle Turris' Calder Campaign

Photo from www.inahead.com

60 is probably going to chastize me for jinxing Kyle Turris w/ this post, so be it.

KT has started his first full year in the NHL, and is off to a decent start. Through 5 games this stats are 1-3-4, -3 w/ 8 SOG. This ice time is low at 12:04 minutes/game along w/ 15.4 shifts/game. In comparison, the top line for the Coyotes is around 17 to 18 minutes/game and 25 or so shifts/game. Based on his gamelog his playing time and shifts are increasing.

One stat this is not so great (though the season if VERY young) is a faceoff % of 28.2%. He's a young centerman, and as Darren Pang mentioned several times during the 3 games he played in for Phoenix last Spring, he needs to learn all the ins and outs and how to "cheat" in the face off circle.

Not a bad start for Kyle, and congrats to him on his first NHL goal against Anaheim.

James Mirtle weighed in on the very early Calder race on his blog. He also mentioned KT's smaller amount of ice time compared to other players/rookies.

The NHL season is still very young, and once I can get off the road for good, I'm looking forward to NHL Center Ice, and w/ that I'll be updating KT's season as it progresses.

NHL Central Scouting Players to Watch

NHL Central Scouting has released their list of players to watch for the 2009 draft. All of the USHL players can be found here, and Chris over at Western College Hockey has a more complete but harder to read list here.

From the USHL article:

"A" Players: A player scouts must-see who is predicted to be a potential first or second round draft selection in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft.
"B" Players: A player scouts note if they are in the area, a potential selection in the third to fifth round in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft.
"C" Players: A player that Central Scouting is tracking, a potential late round selection in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft.
Goaltenders: All goaltenders, regardless of whether they are an A, B or C player, fall into one category.
Limited Viewing: A player that intrigues scouts but, at this time, they have seen very little of. This category is for both skaters and goaltenders.


Players of interest to Badger fans are as follows:

D Chase Drake - "B" Player
F Gavin Hartzog - "B" Player
F Tyler Barnes - "C" Player
G Aaron Crandall - Goaltenders
F Tyler Lapic - Limited Viewing

Unlike the past two seasons, I don't think 2009 will be a big draft year for Wisconsin recruits. Probably a couple guys will get drafted, maybe a few freshman like Jordy Murray or Matt Thurber could go too, but it won't be like past seasons. Personally I don't think this is a bad thing, Wisconsin is still landing a fine 2009 recruiting class, even if they don't have all the top draft pick w/ in.

USA Roster for Jr A Challenge Announced

The Junior A Challenge will be held November 2-9, including two teams from Canada, and ones from Germany, Belarus and Russia along w/ the US team which has been announced. The event takes place in Camrose, Alberta.

Of note on the US team, is Madison native, and future Badger Craig Smith of the Waterloo Black Hawks. Congrats to Craig! People have been pretty down on Craig the past few seasons in the USHL, but he is starting off strong w/ 3-3-6, +4 through 4 games. Hopefully this is the breakout year for Craig and he brings that to Wisconsin next Fall and contributes right off the bat.

As was mentioned earlier on the blog (I think), Justin Schultz will be playing for Canada West in this event.

Brooke Ammerman: WCHA/BTD Rookie of the Week . . . & other items . . .

  • In recognition of her 5 point weekend (1 G on Fri, 1 G and 3 A on Sat), Brooke Ammerman was named WCHA Rookie of the Week. The uwbadgers release notes that Ammerman has scored at least 1 goal in 7 consecutive games (wow) and is currently just 1 goal shy of UW's record for goals in consecutive games. By the way, Ammerman is 2nd on the team in points and assists, and she leads the nation in points per game by a rookie. Outstanding!

  • The fine folks at Beyond the Dashers have also picked Ammerman as their NCAA DI Rookie of the Week. Nice!

  • As previously reported, the Badger Women are #1 in the USCHO and USA Today polls, and not surprisingly, BTD has picked them as #1 as well. BTD has Minnesota (who swept OSU big time) ranked #2 and UMD (who was swept by SCSU) ranked #7. Here are the poll and the poll story. (In case you forgot, USCHO and USA Today had Minn #2 and UMD #8/#4.)

  • The #1 Badgers and #2 Gophers meet this weekend at the Kohl Center. What Fun! Here's the short release from the WCHA website, and here's the full release (PDF). The UW team notebook section of the full release is nice and includes the following:
    … Wisconsin leads the nation in almost every category … Wisconsin is first in scoring offense, scoring margin, power-play, combined special teams, team winning percentage and current unbeaten streak … They are second in penalty-kill and scoring defense … Sophomore Hilary Knight not only leads the team in almost every category but also the nation …
    Also, here are series previews by uwbadgers and The Badger Herald.

  • Badger Alumna Carla MacLeod has been named CWHL/WWHL Defensive Player of the Week by Beyond the Dashers.

Tom Gorowsky Week: Wednesday edition

Today I thought we'd take a look at the last time we saw Tom Gorowsky on the ice -- last season's Badger Hockey Showdown.

If you'll remember, the Badgers lost Friday's game to Colgate in a shootout (officially it was a tie, but whatever) and then faced Bowling Green in the consolation game. On Saturday, Gorowsky scored 2 goals, earning himself headlines in the WSJ and TCT. Both articles are very good, and in addition to praising Gorowsky's performance, they praise his handling of being a bubble player -- Bohmbach refers to him as a role model in how he works during practices and handles himself off the ice despite not getting playing time, and Gorowsky talks about how he's tried to stay prepared so that he can take advantage of whatever opportunities he gets.

I'm hoping to see Gorowsky and Bohmbach on a line together this weekend -- during the Showdown they seemed to have good chemistry, and I'd like to see that again!


Previous Tom Gorowsky Week posts
Tuesday: This Week is Tom Gorowsky Week
Monday: Next Man In

(Photo courtesy of Redheat15)
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