Yeah, I've got a lot of catching up to do [hangs head]. So, I'll do my best; sorry if this is stuff you've already seen.
- I'm fairly horrified that I didn't post this earlier -- For the 3rd time in 4 years, Badger Women's coach Mark Johnson was named AHCA Women's Div I Coach of the Year. Congratulations, Coach!
A well-deserved honor for Coach Johnson. The Badgers had a pretty good regular season, but they were down-right dominant throughout the post-season.
By the way, Coach Johnson shared the WCHA Coach of the Year award with Minnesota's Brad Frost. That award was determined before the Final Face-Off, and so it makes since that Frost got a share of that award. Minnesota finished just above Wisconsin in the regular season, and to be honest, before the Badgers stepped up their game for the post-season, it appeared that Minnesota might be the team to beat in the post-season.
- I'm also fairly horrified that I completely missed Brian Elliott's 1st NHL shutout. Nice work, Brian!!
- Kevin Pates of the Duluth News Tribune has a couple of posts about the proposed expansion of the WCHA. Apparently Tuesday was the deadline for teams to apply to join the WCHA, and only Bemidj applied. That's a bit of an issue, as MacLeod and presumably current WCHA teams would prefer to have 12 teams rather than 11. UNO has already indicated they're not interested in coming along. NMU had expressed interest but has now decided to stay put in the CCHA as well. I don't know what's going to happen with the CCHA, though -- if they take on UAH, they'll be up to 13 teams, and that's not ideal for them either.
Pates thinks that things don't look very good for Bemidji right now. He also indicates that MacLeod was in Bemidji today to take a look around and that Bemidji will be pleading their case in Florida later this month, at which time the WCHA may or may vote on the matter, as MacLeod said that the expansion process may be lengthened. Bemidji would need 8 out of 10 votes to join the WCHA.
I've got to think that Bemidji's performance in the NCAA tourney so far has got to help their chances, though. Certainly can't hurt. Especially since one of the arguments against them has been that they wouldn't be bringing much to the table. I'd argue now that they'll be bringing more to the table than a number of current WCHA teams.
- Good ol' Chuck, who's always on the ball, already told us that Corbin McGuire has verballed to the Badgers. But now you can read Andy Baggot's article, which tells us a bit more about McGuire and his background. Gotta love a kid who always wanted to be a Badger!
- Earlier this week, Baggot took a look at the Badgers' NHL prospects.
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