Michael Mersch officially commits to Wisconsin

Wisconsin State Journal writer has confirmed that Team Illinois Midget Minor forward Michael Mersch has committed to Wisconsin. He joins Team Illinois Midget Major defenseman and friend Frankie Simonelli who I had already confirmed committed last week.

Baggot claims that the earliest Mersch could get there is 2010 but from the information I have, he graduates high school in 2011. Unless he accelerates his studies he wouldn't be in Madison until the fall of 2011.

Mersch is by all accounts an extremely talented forward prospect with boat loads of potential. He, like Simonelli was invited to the NTDP tryout. If he were to be offered a spot and accept it, that could become a bit fishy for Wisconsin. He would be entering the NTDP as a sophomore in high school. That means that once he ages out of the program, he will still have 1 season left to finish of high school. This falls into the same category as Peter Mueller, Pat Kane, Phil Kessel, Nick Pryor, Etc. Mueller and Kane decided to go play major junior after they aged out (although Mueller couldn't get into school any ways), Kessel accelerated his studies to enter Minnesota a year earlier, and Pryor is going to play a season in the USHL while he finishes high school. So it should be interesting to see how this unfolds.

But regardless it's great to have these guys on board whenever they get here.

Here are some links to Simonelli and Mersch when I first found out that they may have committed to Wisconsin.

This is what his Team Illinois head coach Jon Hull had to say about him: "Michael is big and strong, and his physical play opens up the ice for Nick and Danny," said Hull, who played six years of junior hockey in Canada before evolving into coaching and transplanting to the Chicago area.

Chris Dilks (Western College Hockey): "Power forward with good scoring ability."

He also had this to say about him after the USA Select 15 camp last summer: "Finished the week as the leading scorer. Very active player that always seems to be involved in the play. Showed the ability to hit, as well as score points."

Michael Mersch was also invited to the NTDP Tryout.

USHR had this to say about Mersch at the Beantown Fall Classic: "6’1” late ’92 forward Michael Mersch was excellent, a cut above the rest and a hard worker to boot."

Here is Mersch's Point Streak Page.

I have not gotten to personally see Mersch play but he almost seems like a Blake Geoffrion type player. Ability to put points on the board but he's going to hammer it out on the boards too.

USHL Proud of Badger Alumni Brian Rafalski

USHL.com has a nice piece about Brian Rafalski, following his excellent play in helping the Red Wings to another Stanley Cup, while etching his name into the storied trophy for the 3rd time.

Brian scored the first goal in Game 6 on the PP to get the ball (puck prehaps) rolling for the Red Wings. The NBC announcers did comment that Brian was looking forward to shaving off his playoff beard, because it was itchy. While I'm disappointed in that, a big congrats to Brian and fellow Badger Alumni Chris Chelios on a very successful season.

Brian played for the Madison Capitols USHL team back in 1990-1991 before attending the University of Wisconsin and turning into an All-American.

The article also lists past USHL players who have raised the Cup. As the USHL continues to grow and produce excellent American born talent, the list of names should continue to increase.

Catching Up Catch-All

I've been AWOL for several days -- thanks to the boys for keeping things going so nicely here! -- so I have a handful of items that haven't gotten around to posting.

• The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram has a nice article on recent commit Jefferson Dahl.

• The Eau Claire WQOW Sports blog had a post earlier last month that discussed Jefferson Dahl and ECM teammates David Donnellan and Seth Soley. (Soley bypassed his senior season to play in the USHL, and he'll be going to Michigan Tech next year). The post also mentioned Badger and former Old Abe Jake Dowell, who's going to do "everything he can to earn a more permanent spot on the Blackhawks' roster".



• Todd has a nice article about recent commit Gavin Hartzog, and I don't believe we've posted it here yet. (I think we posted the IceHouse blog post but not the TCT article. If we did post it already, I apologize for the duplication.)
  


• Thanks to DPlaya for spotting this article about the Nashville Predators. The end of the article mentions Blake Geoffrion's improvement last season and says they anticipate him "playing another year or two at Wisconsin".



• Uwbadgers.com has a really nice feature interview with equipment manager Steve Castelletti.



• And speaking of equipment managers, Todd is reporting today that Rob Malnory has won the WCHA Distinguished Service Award. Congratulations, Rob!

Crazy 8's

The first Badger Women's game that I ever watched was the 2/11/05 contest v. OSU. The game was televised on CSTV, and I stumbled upon it while flipping channels. CSTV later replayed the game, and I watched parts of it again. And that's how I got hooked on Badger Women's hockey. And that's also how I became a Jinelle Zaugg fan. She scored 2 goals that night (not to mention a goal and an assist the following night), and she's been my favorite Badger ever since. (And yeah, I went wild when she scored the game winner in the 4-ot quarterfinal v. Harvard.)

I happened to end up sitting in front of Jinelle's mom at one of the game's last year. I don't think Pam stopped smiling once, and she was nice enough to chat for a few minutes with a crazy Badger Fan.

And I continue to be impressed with the Zaugg family. Thanks to MostlyFrozen on the uscho fan forum (and nubeetle for pointing out MF's post), I came across the website for the Crazy Eights Hockey Camp. The camp was started by Jinelle, her sister Jessie, and their parents. The camp was designed to help young girls devlop into better players in a fun environment and to give college players the opportunity to coach the younger girls. What a great camp! In addition to Jinelle and Jessie, the coaches include Badgers Jessie Vetter, Hilary Knight, Emily Morris, and Mikka Nordby.
















(photos from the Crazy 8's website)

Rafalski and Wings prepare for Game 6

Following monday night's outstanding Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals, I was looking for a reason to post something about it and found a nice article about tonight's Game 6.

I turned on Game 5 in the 2nd period after the Penquins had established a 2-0 lead and watched it slowly evaporate. In the 3rd period, Brian Rafalski scored a beautiful go ahead goal w/ traffic in front of the net. At the time, the way the Pens were playing, I was preparing to write about Brian's Stanley Cup clinching goal for the Red Wings, but w/ 34 seconds left, the Penquins finally put another one past Chris Osgood to tie the game.

2.5 overtimes (50 minutes of free hockey) later, Petr Sykora scores to lift the Penquins to victory. Sykora told the NBC announcer between the benches during the 2nd OT that he would score. Marc-Andre Fleury deserves the brunt of the credit for keeping the Pens in the game, making 55 saves in the game, many of which were spectacular.

The Red Wings need to regroup for tonight's Game 6. Badger Alumni Brian Rafalski felt this way about tonight's game: "It comes down to determination," he said. "It didn't happen in Game 5. You have to refocus and ready for the next game."

Good luck to both teams tonight, and if you don't have anything going on, or even if you do, consider turning on NBC around 7 PM for what should be another outstanding game of Stanley Cup Finals action.

Badgers make the Grade

Despite the fact that neither the Men's or Women's teams play in the Big 10, several young men and women are Spring All-Academic Honorees. 111 Badgers from various sports were honored and congrats to all of them for all their hardwork in the classroom.

Badger Men:

Aaron Bendickson, Wisconsin So. Undeclared Thief River Falls, Minn.
Shane Connelly, Wisconsin Jr. Sociology Cheltenham, Pa.
Matthew Ford, Wisconsin Sr. Personal Finance West Hills, Calif.
Tom Gorowsky, Wisconsin Jr. Business Lino Lakes, Minn.
Ryan Jeffery, Wisconsin Jr. Legal Studies Madison, Wis.
Ben Street, Wisconsin Jr. Real Estate Coquitlam, British Columbia

Badger Women:

Rachel Bible, Wisconsin Jr. Material Science Black River Falls, Wis.
Maria Evans, Wisconsin So. Geography Chanhassen, Minn.
Angie Keseley, Wisconsin Jr. Communication Arts St. Louis Park, Minn.
Emily Morris, Wisconsin Sr. Communication Arts Massena, N.Y.
Mikka Nordby, Wisconsin Sr. Biology Watford City, N.D.
Jessie Vetter, Wisconsin Sr. Sociology Cottage Grove, Wis.

Time to Renew Season Tickets

Today is the first day to renew season tickets for the 2008/2009 Men's Hockey Season! I'll be requesting to move my friday tickets to the location of my NCAA Regional seats, though I doubt I have any chance of getting them.

http://www.uwbadgers.com/ has a series of links regarding this. They include a little article about renewing tickets, and similar to last year there will be a series of conservations w/ Coach Eaves about the upcoming season.

The first video is already out. Coach Eaves talks about next season's schedule, its difficulty and the Badger Hockey Showdown, among other things. Coach Eaves is solo this season, last year he was joined by Brian Posiack, who interviewed him. I like the format this season, and it appears in the backdrop that UW will feature slightly different uniforms this season w/ solid lettering, I could be wrong though.

They don't tell you what the other video in the series will be, but if its like last year, there will be discussions about departing seniors, returning players and incoming freshman. I like hearing about the team directly from the Coach.

If you are looking to obtain Season Tickets, you can begin applying tomorrow.

Simonelli official, waiting on Mersch

Chris Heisenberg confirms what I had already posted on USCHO late Friday night that Team Illinois Major defenseman Frankie Simonelli has committed to the University of Wisconsin for 2010. He will be on a 90% scholarship. (In hockey this is basically considered a full scholarship)

Simonelli and Team Illinois lost in the USA Hockey National Championship at the hands of Shattuck St. Marys Prep and Wisconsin recruits Derek Stepan and Jordy Murray.

It has not been confirmed yet where Simonelli will be playing next season. He tried out with the NTDP but has not been extended an offer yet. He was also drafted by Cedar Rapids in the recent USHL draft in the 14th round #114 overall. He was 1 of only 7 other's with '92 birthdates to be drafted. He was also drafted by Plymouth in the 15th round of the OHL draft but it doesn't seem that he would go that route.

Chris from the Western College Hockey blog had this to say about him: "I saw him at the Elite League NIT, and he didn’t really stand out against older players, but everyone seems to agree that the talent is there." Chris had him rated as the 8th best available defenseman for 2010. Brandon Archibald from the Honeybaked program, who Wisconsin is also recruiting is ranked as the third best available defenseman.

Here is a link to Simonelli's point streak page which has his stats from league play last season.

I am still trying to confirm whether or not Michael Mersch has committed to Wisconsin yet. He is a late '92 birthday and would be a 2011 recruit.

USHL Recruit Preview

The Unofficial USHL Blog is almost done w/ their 2008/2009 Previews, and have recently added a preview of the Waterloo Blackhawks.

Waterloo will feature 3 Badger recruits next season, all forwards: Brock Montpetit, Craig Smith and Tyler Barnes.

Ryan who writes the USHL Blog thinks that Brock could be a force next season. Tyler Barnes should certainly add more fire power to a team that was oh so close to raising the Clark Cup this past season.

Check these kids out when they visit the Gamblers or a USHL team in your area.

NHL Draft Combine

Dplaya over at the Hockey In Wisconsin blog has had some updates recently on the NHL Draft Combine, and Derek Stepan is featured in both articles.

Also, Hockey Futures has a nice lengthy scouting report about Jake Gardiner. This is about as detailed breakdown about a player as I've seen, so check it out.

Rafalski Quietly Dominates

Here is a nice article about Brian Rafalski talking about how he goes under noticed a lot of the time, because of his pairing w/ Niklas Lidstrom, a sure Hall of Famer. In addition, during his time w/ the Devils, he was paired w/ Scott Stevens which apparently did a lot to elavate his game.

The Red Wings are up 3-1 on the Penquins, and I have a feeling Brian will have his name etched into Lord Stanley's Cup for a 3rd time following monday night's game 5 in Detroit.

Daily Cardinal excited about 2008/2009

The Daily Cardinal has an early preview of the Men's and Women's 2008/2009 Season.

Its never too early to start talking about next season and getting people excited about Badger Hockey.

RIP Luc Bourdon

This isn't Badger hockey news but it's important regardless. The hockey community lost a very good hockey player that was only 21 years old. Luc Bourdon, rookie for the Vancouver Canucks died in a motorcycle accident today. The Shippagan, NB defenseman was drafted 10th overall in the 2005 NHL Entry draft but the Canucks.

The sad thing about this is the lack of sincerity from ESPN. If this were a baseball player, a football player, a basketball player, hell even tennis, or soccer, this would be the main story on ESPN.com. While it is the main story on TSN.CA, it's not even on the ESPN.com front page anymore. Pardon my language, but thats bullshit. Deepest sympathies on behalf of the Badger Hockey blog to the Bourdon family.

Wisconsin Recruiting Pipeline

I'm pretty excited about Badger Hockey today. The season is 4 months away, but w/ all this recruiting news I'm pretty pumped up! 60 you fired up? The future looks bright in Madison, and to think only a few months back we were all on pins and needles about making the NCAA tourney. I don't think that will be an issue in the coming seasons.

W/ all the recruiting action, I thought it would be a good time to recap the top notch job the coaching staff is doing bringing in great talent to Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Recruiting Pipeline

2008 (we know they are coming)

F Derek Stepan
F Jordy Murray
F Matt Thurber
F Chris Hickey
D Jake Gardiner
D Eric Springer
D Ryan Little

2009

G Aaron Crandall
F Travis Erstad
F Brock Montpetit
F Craig Smith
F Tyler Barnes
F Derek Lee
D Nick Pryor
D Patrick Wiercioch
D Justin Schultz

2010

F Tyler Lapic
F Jefferson Dahl
F Gavin Hartzog (or 2009)
D Chase Drake

Who's next? If you want to be the best, you can accomplish that by wearing the Cardinal and White at the University of Wisconsin!

Hartzog commits to Wisconsin for 09 or 10

As I told you last night, Milwaukee Marquette forward Gavin Hartzog visited the University of Wisconsin today. It took him all of 10 minutes on his drive home to call coach Eaves and tell him he was ready to be a Badger. Heres the article from Milewski.

Hartzog was a bit of an un-known until his performance for Team Wisconsin at the Chicago Showcase. He had a phenomenal tournament and was named the Most Valuable Player.

Hartzog was drafted #36 overall by the Fargo Force in the recent USHL draft. He will have a great opportunity to grow under a great teacher in Dean Blais.

Hartzog was named First Team All State.

photo from JS Online

Don't Forget!

Don't forget to apply for tickets to the 2009 Frozen Four in DC. Applications must be completed by Sunday, June 1 at 10:59 PM CDT.

Report: Wisconsin to offer Gavin Hartzog

Milwaukee Marquette High School forward Gavin Hartzog will be visiting the University of Wisconsin tomorrow (5/29) and expects to be receiving a scholarship offer for the 2010 season. There were some reports that Hartzog had committed to the University of Maine on a full scholarship offer but now it looks like Hartzog is leaning towards Wisconsin.

Hartzog was a bit of an un-known until his performance for Team Wisconsin at the Chicago Showcase. He had a phenomenal tournament and was named the Most Valuable Player.

Hartzog was drafted #36 overall by the Fargo Force in the recent USHL draft. He will have a great opportunity to grow under a great teacher in Dean Blais.

Hartzog was named First Team All State.

Photo from www.wisconsinprephockey.net

Latest rumors say Mersch, Simonelli commit to Badgers

There is a rumor going around that Team Illinois Minor forward Michael Mersch and Team Illinois Majors defenseman Frankie Simonelli have committed to the University Of Wisconsin this week. On Chris Dilks Western College Hockey 2010 recruiting board, he has Mersch as the third best available forward recruit and Simonelli as the 8th best available defenseman. (Brandon Archibald from Detroit Honeybaked who has been to Madison for a visit is listed as the third best available defenseman)

I'll do some checking around to see what I can find out on these two men.

Update: Here are a few tidbits floating around the net on these two prospects.

Michael Mersch:

This is what his head coach Jon Hull had to say about him: "Michael is big and strong, and his physical play opens up the ice for Nick and Danny," said Hull, who played six years of junior hockey in Canada before evolving into coaching and transplanting to the Chicago area.

Chris Dilks (Western College Hockey): "Power forward with good scoring ability."

He also had this to say about him after the USA Select 15 camp last summer: "Finished the week as the leading scorer. Very active player that always seems to be involved in the play. Showed the ability to hit, as well as score points."

Michael Mersch was also invited to the NTDP Tryout.

USHR had this to say about Mersch at the Beantown Fall Classic: "6’1” late ’92 forward Michael Mersch was excellent, a cut above the rest and a hard worker to boot."

Here is Mersch's Point Streak Page.

Frankie Simonelli:

Simonelli was also invited to the NTDP Tryout Camp.

Chris Dilks at the same link I just listed said this about him: "I saw him at the Elite League NIT, and he didn’t really stand out against older players, but everyone seems to agree that the talent is there."

He was drafted in the 15th round of the OHL draft by the Plymouth Whalers, 290th overall.

Cedar Rapids took Simonelli in the 8th round of the recent USHL draft, 114th overall. He was 1 of only 7 drafted with '92 birth years.

USHR liked Frankie at the Beantown Fall classic.

Here is Simonelli's Point Streak page.

Badgers land great player, great person

When I heard the news last night that Jefferson Dahl had committed to the University of Wisconsin for 2010 I was absolutely elated. As some of you know I am from Eau Claire as well so this commitment hits a little closer to home than most. While I grew up on the other side of the river, Eau Claire Memorial stand out Jefferson Dahl has been one of my favorite hockey players for the past 6 plus years. I've gotten to know him and his family quite well and he and his family have been some of the nicest people I have ever met.

You know his accomplishments: 2008 Wisconsin Mr. Hockey, Team Captain of the 2008 undefeated and state champion Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes, member of the 2008 chicago showcase champion Team Wisconsin, and thats just the start. I'm much more happy to have a recruit that is as good of a person that Jefferson Dahl is. It's rare that you meet a high school kid that is as respectful, mature, and personable as Dahl. While he may never earn a pay check playing hockey, (he very well may some day) I have no doubts that he will be successful in whatever avenue he pursues professionally.

Wisconsin hockey fans will get a good look at Jefferson the next 2 seasons as he plays for the Green Bay Gamblers. There isn't a doubt in my mind that if he isn't captain sometime next season he will be in year 2. It's just the person that he is not only as a leader in the locker room but a leader on the ice.

Jefferson reminds me a lot of Garrett Roe when I watch him play. Maybe it's a little to do with the size. (Roe is 5'8 160, Dahl is 5'9 165) More I think it has to do with his ability to see the ice and see the play happening before it does. He's not going to take that straight line bull rush you way to the net in the way that Jack Skille plays, but his ability to maybe circle back and allow his teammates to come into the play and get themselves open is something that can't be taught. Being a smaller player he has done a very good job of learning to control the puck while taking contact. He's very good when in the corners with bigger stronger players. He'll never be confused with Matt Ford in terms of shot velocity, but he's very quick with it and always puts him self in good shooting lanes and is very good at hitting his spots. His play making ability is probably ahead of his goal scoring ability at this point but hes no slouch lighting the lamp. I think one thing that gets over looked is his ability to draw penalties. He's a greasy player and that sometimes gets confused with diving. While he's not a diver I don't know if another player in the state drew more penalties. Getting your team power play opportunities is something that shouldn't be over looked in my opinion.

Overall this looks like a great fit for everyone. I wasn't sure if Jefferson would wait the two years it was going to take to come to Wisconsin once I found out he was willing to do that it was a no brainer. Like I said hes a very, very good hockey player and 2 years in the USHL will be absolutely phenomenal for him. He will take his lumps like every one does but he will do fine there. Add in the fact that he is one of the best people I have ever met and the match with him and UW looks pretty damn good to me.

It was a no-brainer

"When I went down for the visit (Tuesday), seeing the facilities and meeting with the coaching staff, I really felt comfortable," Dahl said. "I felt like it was a no-brainer."

"I've always wanted to be a Badger," Dahl said, "and when I got notice that they were interested, it was kind of set in stone then."

The above quotes are excerpts from a really nice article by Todd Milewski. In addition to talking about how Dahl committed to the Badgers, the article also mentions how Dahl found out about his trade to the Gamblers (checking the USHL draft online during English class), previous injuries (surgeries on both shoulders), and the success of his baseball team.

Another nice excerpt from the article:

An 18-year-old center, Dahl amassed 36 goals and 76 points in 26 games as a senior at Memorial. His plus/minus rating was plus-59 in his final season and plus-155 for his career.

Dahl believes his defensive awareness is his best asset and credits his hockey smarts for helping him be in the right place at the right time.

Baggot also has a brief article in today's WSJ.