Oooh, sparkly . . . (& other alumni updates)

- This is Jake Dowell's Stanley Cup ring. He was invited to the Sept 30 ceremony with the team and received the ring at that time. Nice and sparkly, 8 carats of diamonds I'm told. Thanks to Vicki for sharing the photo.

- Speaking of Jake, it's nice to see him record his 1st goal of the season on Wednesday. In 11 games he's 1-2-3 and has been averaging over 10 minutes per game.

- Tom Gilbert scored his 2nd goal of the year on Tuesday, and Paul Capobianco asks us if we recognize the spot from which TG scored.

- Blake Geoffrion was featured in the Badger Herald this Monday. Blake has yet to score a goal for the Admirals this season but has 4 assists in 7 games. EDIT: Thanks to Capo for pointing out this longer article on the Admirals website.

- Aaron Bendickson, who was leading the ECHL's Gwinnet Gladiators with 9 pts (2G 7A) in the 1st 4 games of the season, has signed a 25-game professional tryout agreement with the AHL's Rochester Americans. He'll potentially make his AHL debut tonight @ the Worcester Sharks.

- And since we mentioned Gwinnett, I should mention that Andy Brandt has 2 goals in 5 GP and Mike Davies has 1G and 3A in 3 GP.

- Josh Engel was recently recalled from the ECHL's Reading Royals to the AHL's Toronto Marlies. Engel played just 2 games for the Royals before being recalled.

- People keep asking me where Joe Piskula is. And so I'll tell you - he's with the AHL's Abbottsford Heat and has played in all 10 games so far this season.

Andy Bohmbach / Mike Davies / Aaron Bendickson updates

Andy Bohmbach, Mike Davies, and Aaron Bendickson will all be starting this season in the ECHL.

Bohmbach will be with the Toledo Walleye, and we hope to see him up with the Rockford Icehogs soon. Here's a nice little picture of Bohmber!

Davies and Bendickson will be with the Gwinnett Gladiators, where Andy Brandt has returned after a season with the Victoria Salmon Kings. I've been told, by the way, that Davies will be moving from wing to center and needless to say is looking to move up to the Chicago Wolves. Brandt, if you'll recall, was a fan favorite in Gwinnett before being traded to Victoria, and I expect he'll continue to be so. (Thanks to HatchetJoe for the heads-up on Davies/Bendickson and to nubeetle for the heads-up on Brandt.)

Alumni updates

• Blackhawks TV has a slow motion video of an Adam Burish body check. By the way, if you missed them earlier, check out Burish's "One Goal" spots on Blackhawks TV -- 1st spot, 2nd spot. Classic Burish.


• Adam Burish hasn't updated his blog in the past week, but Chicago Sun-Times online sports editor Roman Modrowski stopped by to take a shot at Adam and to post a Burish fight video.


• Hockey's Future has released its previews of the Rockford Icehogs, Toronto Marlies, and Manchester Monarchs. No mention of Jake Dowell in the Icehogs preview, but Robbie Earl gets some nice mention in the Marlies preview, and Joe Piskula and Davis Drewiske are briefly mentioned in the Monarchs preview.
  

  Other promising Marlie forwards include late cuts Robbie Earl and Kyle Rogers. Earl, 23, has improved consistently since joining the Marlies two years ago. In 2007-08, he notched 14 goals and 47 points in 66 games after scoring 30 points in 67 games the year before. Earl's ticket to the NHL is his speed which he uses primarily in a setup role. Leaf injuries may allow him to see a few NHL games, but he'll likely bulk up and fine tune his game in the AHL this season.
  
  Joining Martinez and Voinov on the blueline will be Davis Drewiske, Joe Piskula and Drew Bagnall. Each is returning to Manchester for his second season, albeit after only a handful of games for Drewiske. Drewiske and Piskula are solid defensive defensemen who will be looked to as the anchor of the defense and on the penalty kill.
  



• In his blog post about Badger lines, Todd mentioned several recent transactions:
  
  
  • The Los Angeles Kings assigned defensemen Davis Drewiske and Joe Piskula to Manchester (AHL).
  • The Toronto Maple Leafs sent forward Robbie Earl to their Toronto AHL affiliate.
  • The New York Rangers assigned defenseman Brian Fahey to Hartford (AHL).
    
  • Hartford, meanwhile, released forward Matthew Ford to Charlotte (ECHL).
  • The St. Louis Blues sent forward Brad Winchester and defenseman Andy Wozniewski to Peoria (AHL).
  • The Chicago Wolves (AHL) released forward Andy Brandt and defenseman Josh Engel. They'll return to Gwinnett (ECHL).

$2,500 Badgers

After clobbering the San Antonio Rampage 7-1 yesterday, the Rockford Icehogs auctioned off the jerseys worn that night. The theme was Captain Hammy Hook, so the front of the jersey featured Hammy wearing an eye patch and sporting a hook. I don't know what pirates have to do with hockey, but then again, I don't know what giant red pigs have to do with hockey, either. Personally, I'm just glad the jerseys from that night (and from this season, for that matter) don't have pig butts on the shoulders. But I digress.

Speaking of digressing, let me further digress from the real topic of this post and mention that Rampage (and former Wolverine) goaltender Al Montoya was chased out of the net after allowing 3 goals on 7 shots in the first 9:48 of the game. Remember the '05 Midwest Regionals when CC came from behind to beat Michigan? I'm pretty sure Montoya was the goaltender, and yeah, that night was a lot of fun.

Anyway, back to the jersey auction. Jack Skille's team-issue jersey and Jake Dowell's one-game-wonder went for $2,500 each. Nice work, boys! (I would like to go on the record as stating that not only did I not purchase either of these, I didn't even bid on them!) The proceeds go to various charities in the Rockford area.

I'm assuming Skille is battling an injury right now, although let me know if I'm wrong. I know he had been injured last weekend and was day-to-day. He didn't play on Mar 28 due to the injury, but he did play Mar 29 (1A, -1, 3SOG) and Mar 30 (1G, 1A, +1, 4SOG). He also played Apr 4 (held off the scoresheet, E, 2 SOG). But he didn't play yesterday, and I don't see any indication he was called up.

Looks like Dowell played pretty well this weekend. He had was held off the scoresheet but had 4 SOG and finished +1 on Friday in a 3-0 win over Quad City. And he had 1A, 2SOG, and finished +1 on Sat. And let's not forget a week ago Friday when he scored a goal RIGHT IN FRONT of me, Gandalf, nubeetle, and ltzgored. Yeah, that was fun.

Getting back to crazy expensive jerseys, I'd like to take this opportunity to mention Andy Brandt's crazy expensive one-game-wonder, just in case any of you missed it. (And no, I did not purchase or even bid on this jersey, either.) Not the most attractive jersey, but hey, the proceeds went to charity. Brandt's jersey was the highest priced jersey -- it went for $3,975. Andy's a fan favorite!! (Not that I'm surprised.) The Gwinnett newspaper had a really nice article that includes some quotes from our favorite Gwinnett Gladiator.