Girls High School Hockey Previews

Here is the Final Girls Hockey Top 5 for the 2006-2007 regular season:

1. Superior (was #1) (12-6-0)
2. Fondy/Waupun (was #2) (13-4-0)
3. Onalaska (was #3) (14-4-0)
4. Chippewa Falls (was HM) (11-2-1)
5. Point/Rapids (was #4) (13-5-2)

Honorable Mention:
Appleton (was #5) (10-5-2)
St. Croix Valley Fusion (was HM) (13-5-0)

You'll find the ranked teams previewed below, as well as Northland Pines, who advanced to the State Tournament.

Northland Pines

Players graduated:
D-Jamie Athens 27-21-48-First Team All-State
D-Julia Weber 4-4-8
F-Star Slade 2-6-8
F-Stephanie Zdroik 0-1-1
G-Rene Placek

12 returning skaters
1 Senior returning


St. Croix Valley

Players graduated:
Tracy Klinger-Honorable Mention All-State
Amy Pierce
Nicole Swenson
Megan Murphy
Betsy Ward-Second Team All-State

13 returning skaters
2 Seniors returning


Appleton

Players graduated:
F-Danielle McIntosh 13-9-22 Honorable Mention All-State
D-Kristina Westmark 9-3-12-First Team All-State; Player of the Year
F-Danielle Pickett 5-6-11

15 returning skaters
5 Seniors returning


Point/Rapids

No roster available
F-Emily Haluska will be a Senior and was First Team All-State last season
G-Caitlin Lacasse graduated and was Honorable Mention All-State


Chippewa Falls

Players graduated:
F-Aimee Brasseur 1-0-1

15 players returning
3 Seniors returning
Mikayla Hogan returns, she was First Team All-State as a Sophomore last season

Onalaska

Players graduated:
F-Nicole Hanson 24-28-52-First Team All-State
F-Amy Sibik 32-13-45-Second Team All-State
F-Sarah Lichtie 17-9-26
F-Hailie Meyer 10-15-25
F-Sarah Tyler 5-5-10
G-Ally Swanke-Antony15-5 record & 2.65 gaa

8 returning skaters
2 Seniors returning


Fondy/Waupun

Players graduated:
F-Amber Cmejla-Second Team All-State
D-Brittany Schleicher
D-Nicole Drews

12 skaters returning
8 Seniors returning


Superior

Players graduated:
F-Taylor VanDamme-Second Team All-State
F-Carise Hals
F-Alyssa Uotinen
D-Alicia Cummings
D-Erica VanDamme

15 returning players
7 Seniors returning


Finally, here is the list of players on Team Wisconsin this year. This gives some insight into how many upper level players made Team Wisconsin from their respective high school teams. The players and teams are pretty diverse....making the mystery of which team is going to come out on top this season even a little more cloudy....

Jersey # Name Grade Position Full Year Team
1 Ayla Jacobsen 10 G Badger Thunder Girls
3 Megan Cox 9 F/D New Richmond Girls
4 Keela Patterson 10 D Rapids Girls
5 Abbey Olejniczak12 F Northland Pines Girls
6 Sarah Suchla 12 F Menomonie Girls
7 Amy Knutson 12 F Fondy-Waupan Girls
8 Maxine Blohowiak10 D Bay Port High School Boys
9 Mikayla Hogan 11 F Chippewa Falls Girls
10 Lauren Gamble 12 F Fox City High School Boys
11 Lily Cranston 10 F St. Croix Fusion Girls
12 Joan Schumitsch 11 D Marshfield Blades
14 Hanna Turnbull 11 D Hayward Girls
15 Karlyn Sturtevant11 F St. Croix Fusion Girls
16 Danielle Cleveland12 D/F Cap City Cougars (Sun Prarie co-op)
18 Mallory Andrews 10 F Red Raiders
19 Josie Johnson 9 D Cap City Cougars
20 Abby Maier 11 F One of the Madison Girls Coops
21 Kaleigh Spickerman12 F Ashland 19u
30 Emily Engel 11 G Madison Metro Lynx

Girls Team Wisconsin Major Update

The Girls Team Wisconsin Major defeated the D C Daimonds Friday night in Fond du Lac by a score of 10 to 0. Emily Engel had the shut out facing only 3 shots on goal, all in the first peroid.

Sundays Results TW U-19 vs Madison Capitols:

Game 1 TW U19 0 Capitols 2
Ayla Jacobsen in goal had 29 saves in the loss.

Game 2 TW U19 2 Capitols 5
Emily Engle had 29 saves in the loss
TW goles scored by:Danielle Cleveland from Lily Cranston
Abbey Olejniczak from Hanna Turnbull

The next game for TW U19 will be Friday 9/21 5:00 pm at Ice Hawks Arena in Stevens Point versus Chicago Young America.

Here is a roster for the Girls Team Wisconsin Major that includes which team they play for during the regular season:

Jersey # Name Grade Position Full Year Team
1 Ayla Jacobsen 10 G Badger Thunder Girls
3 Megan Cox 9 F/D New Richmond Girls
4 Keela Patterson 10 D Rapids Girls
5 Abbey Olejniczak12 F Northland Pines Girls
6 Sarah Suchla 12 F Menomonie Girls
7 Amy Knutson 12 F Fondy-Waupan Girls
8 Maxine Blohowiak10 D Bay Port High School Boys
9 Mikayla Hogan 11 F Chippewa Falls Girls
10 Lauren Gamble 12 F Fox City High School Boys
11 Lily Cranston 10 F St. Croix Fusion Girls
12 Joan Schumitsch 11 D Marshfield Blades
14 Hanna Turnbull 11 D Hayward Girls
15 Karlyn Sturtevant11 F St. Croix Fusion Girls
16 Danielle Cleveland12 D/F Cap City Cougars (Sun Prarie co-op)
18 Mallory Andrews 10 F Red Raiders
19 Josie Johnson 9 D Cap City Cougars
20 Abby Maier 11 F One of the Madison Girls Coops
21 Kaleigh Spickerman12 F Ashland 19u
30 Emily Engel 11 G Madison Metro Lynx

Catching Up

You can find the girls State Tourney pairings on this page. Just move your cursor over the "Tournament Information" button and then click on "Tournament Bracket" on the drop down menu. Fondy/Waupun, Onalaska and Superior were obvious #1's.

The boys State Tourney pairings can be found here. Just move your cursor over the "Tournament Information" button and then click on "Tournament Bracket" on the drop down menu. Sun Prairie getting the #1 seed in their section over Edgewood caught my attention, as did Fond du Lac getting the nod over Appleton. I think Fondy and Appleton split two games with Appleton having the edge in winning margin for those two games.

Kyle Turris has moved all the way up to #3 in scoring in the BCHL in the past 1-2 weeks. Scott Gudmandson has continued his stellar play in the nets for Salmon Arm and must have cracked the top 10 in most if not all of the goaltender categories by now as he was close two weeks ago.

I'm disappointed UW lost out on Jason Gregoire and Mike Connolly. Since Skille's departure is a foregone conclusion why couldn't they offer up his scholarship money? I'm not sure I buy the argument everyone keeps tossing out that UW didn't have much scholarship money to offer, although the fact that there could be 9 defenseman on the roster next season doesn't help. I continue to believe that the Badgers' defense-first system is killing them when it comes to recruiting forwards, especially in years where there are not a top-end Wisconsin guys to fill the pipeline.

Final Girls Hockey Top 5 for the regular season:
1. Superior (was #1) (12-6-0)
2. Fondy/Waupun (was #2) (13-4-0)
3. Onalaska (was #3) (14-4-0)
4. Chippewa Falls (was HM) (11-2-1)
5. Point/Rapids (was #4) (13-5-2)

Honorable Mention:
Appleton (was #5) (10-5-2)
St. Croix Valley Fusion (was HM) (13-5-0)

I caught the Fox Sports Net replay of the Wisconsin Rapids/SPASH game at KB Willett Arena last night. The part of the game I got to see the most of was the second period where SPASH was rolling. Erstad made some great passes in that period to give SPASH needed breathing room.

Chuck Schwartz has indicated that Justin Johnson from Eau Claire North will play for Omaha of the USHL after his high school season is completed.

I'm Back Linkorama!

Sorry for the lack of posts of late. It doesn't happen very often around here, but serious illnesses to blog contributors, serious illnesses of blog contributors' family members and chasing the elusive whitetail in Northern Wisconsin have all contributed to the lack of posts since Friday. Oh well, everybody needs a break now and then....

The Badgers got lessons early and often courtesy of Colorado College this weekend. The Badgers were swept in the series and may have lost some of their early season confidence.

With injuries to Aaron Bendickson and Matt Ford on Friday, the Badgers have had to juggle their lines. The result may not be permanent for this weekend, but for now are as follows:

Street-Turris-Engel
Gorowsky-Geoffrion-Johnson
Mitchell-Dolan-Grotting
Davies-Bohmbach-Turnbull

The Badger Men fell from #9 to #12 in the polls.

The Badger Women did the unthinkable and got swept by New Hampshire this weekend, losing both games 2-1. The sweep understandably put UNH in first in the polls this week and the Badgers in second.

Both Wisconsin's Men & Women's Hockey Teams should thank the Big 10 Network for the new practice facility that is planning to be built for them to utilize. The funds from the Big 10 Network are apparently going to pay for the new facility.

The St. Croix Valley Fusion girls hockey team is off to a fantastic start defeating the last two State Champions in the form of Fondy/Waupun (with a score of 6-3) and Appleton (with a score of 5-0) in Fond du Lac this past weekend.

Wisconsin Prep Hockey has their pre-season Top Ten Poll out for boys hockey.

With a 5-0-2 record Wisconsin River-Falls has claimed the top spot in the Division III Mens Poll.

As for the Division III Women's Poll, the best placed team is Wisconsin Stevens Point in third.

Beaver Dam native Nick Sirota is absolutely tearing it up for Northern Michigan on the scoresheet this season. The Junior forward has scored ten goals and 6 assists for sixteen points in just twelve games.

High School Hockey Game Stories Linkorama

St. Croix Valley Fusion girls downed Chippewa Falls 4-3.

Onalaska girls split a pair of games defeating South Central Freeze and losing to Menomonie.

River Falls boys defeated both Eau Claire North and Chippewa Falls.

The DC Everest boys edged Stevens Point.

Appleton United shut out Beaver Dam.

High School Hockey Updates

I have added links on the side bar to the right that will take you directly into Pointstreak for both boys high school hockey scores and girls high school hockey scores.

It appears the Onalaska girls have joined with Holmen and Melrose-Mindoro in order to have enough players to field a team this year. Here's a piece on their early season struggles, both on offense and overall.

I also stumbled onto this article about St. Croix Valley Fusion girl's fast start, which I had covered previously.

Here's some articles from boys hockey games played on Tuesday:

#1 Eau Claire Memorial shut out #9 Wausau West 7 to 0
DePere over Bayport/Pulaski 6 to 2
#2 Fond du Lac defeated Green Bay United 7 to 1
Waupun doubled up (at bottom of article) Neenah 6 to 3
#7 Appleton handled Beaver Dam 6 to 3

All the boys scores from Tuesday can be found here.

Here is a nice article on Brett Olson, Seth Soley and Jake Hauswirth's commitments to Michigan Tech for 2008-2009, including comments from Head Coach Jamie Russell on Olson and Soley.

The Coulee News has an article on Alex McRae's verbal to Army.

Former Fond du Lac Head Coach, and current Woodbury, Minnesota High School Head Coach Wes Bolin gets some publicity today in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Girls Sectional Semi-Final Results

Here's the results for the girls Sectional Semi-Finals:

Sectional #1
#4 Hayward 1 vs. #1 Superior 2
#3 Blizzard 1 vs. #2 Northland Pines 3

Sectional #2

#4 Hudson 4 vs. #1 Chippewa Falls 5
#3 ECA Stars 3 vs. St. Croix Valley Fusion 7


Sectional #3
#5 Freeze 2 vs. #1 Onalaska 7
#3 Central Wisconsin Storm 0 vs. #2 Point-Rapids 6

Sectional #4
#3 Milwaukee North Shore 1 vs. #2 Appleton United 2 (2 OT)
#4 Madison 0 vs. #1 Fond du Lac/Waupun 5

While there were no upsets, there were some close games including Appleton against Milwaukee, Hudson against Chippewa Falls and Superior against Hayward. You can see the brackets here.

Other Thursday Night Girls Hockey Action

Madison and Badger Thunder ended up playing one another at the Schwan's Cup in Blaine, MN (that's a long way to go to play a team within an hour of where you live!). The score ended up as a 1-1 tie, with Madison winning the shootout.

Other scores:

Hudson 1 @ Apple Valley (MN) 6
Appleton United 6 @ Freeze 1
Point-Rapids 10 @ Rhinelander 0
St. Croix Valley Fusion @ Simley - 7:15
Menomonie 1 @ Bloomington (MN) Kennedy 5

Girls High School Battle of the Honorable Mentions

Appleton and The Central Wisconsin Storm both have obtained Honorable Mention status in the latest Hockey in Wisconsin Top 5 Poll. Last night, Appleton showed they have the upper hand on the Storm defeating them 5-1.

In other girls high school hockey action, #4 St. Croix Valley Fusion blanked New Richmond 5-0 and Menomonie downed Hayward 4-3 in overtime.

Hockey in Wisconsin Girls High School Hockey Rankings

H.I.W. Girls Top 5 Rankings
(December 11th, 2006)
1. Onalaska (6-0) Previous rank: #1 Handled Point-Rapids & Madison. The Fusion and Thunder get their shot at #1 next.
2. Superior (5-2) Previous rank #2 Beat St. Croix Valley 3-1.
3. Fondy/Waupun (4-2) Previous rank #3 Silenced the Thunder 7-2. Point/Rapids comes to town this weekend.
4. St. Croix Valley (4-2) Previous rank #4 Lost to Superior 3-1.
5. Badger Thunder (3-1) Previous rank #5 Handled Madison, but not Fondy/Waupun. Milwaukee North Shore this week will be another test.

Honorable Mention:
Central Wisconsin (3-0) Previous Rank: Not ranked. Win over Point/Rapids puts them on the board. Square off against Appleton tomorrow night.
Appleton (2-2-1) Previous Rank: Not ranked. Win over Arrowhead. Play Storm tomorrow night.

Saturday Girls High School Games

There were 3 big games in girls high school hockey last night, and all went as the Hockey in Wisconsin rankings would have predicted. You'll find the scores below along with the Hockey in Wisconsin Top 5 Rankings in parenthesis:

(#3) Fondy/Waupun 7 (#5) Badger Thunder 2
(#4) St. Croix Valley Fusion 1 @ (#2) Superior 3
(#1) Onalaska 6 @ (Honorable Mention) Madison 2

Other scores in girls high school hockey:

(Honorable Mention ) Appleton United @ Arrowhead
ECA Stars 7 @ Hayward 0
Viroqua 12 @ Tomahawk 0
Northland Pines 8 @ Blizzard 4
Culver Academy @ Milwaukee North Shore

Fond du Lac Girls High School Hockey Kickoff

I did not manage to make it back to Fond du Lac for any of the Saturday girls hockey games as I had planned. From sources I heard that Onalaska looked very good in defeating Superior 6-3, the St. Croix Valley Fusion beat Appleton 2-0, and Fond du Lac/Waupun downed Milwaukee North Shore 7-1.

Girls High School Games In Fond du Lac

I got a chance to see parts of some of the games in Fond du Lac tonight that kicked off the girls high school hockey season. They had games going in two rinks, so it was impossible to catch all the action.

In the first game, Onalaska handled Appleton 5-1. I missed all of this game, but heard from a coach that was watching that Onalaska didn't even play their best hockey in this one. I've heard some chatter from Appleton about how good they are going to be this season, but personally think Fondy/Waupun, Onalaska and Superior are probably a step above in terms of talent.

Superior faced Milwaukee North Shore in the second game. Last I saw, Superior had broken a 3-3 tie with three quick goals to lead 6-3. I'm assuming they cruised to victory. I learned that Milwaukee North Shore not only has a new Coach for this season, but their goaltender chose not to play hockey this season due to repeated (supposedly 4) concussions last season. As they did not have another goaltender, they have had to convert a skater to goaltender this season, which is likely to have predictably poor results from what I saw (which is certainly not the fill-in goaltender's fault). On top of it, their roster lists 11 players, meaning they only have 10 skaters. Anna Pettingill and Taylor Van Damme both stood out for Superior.

The final game featured State Champ Fondy/Waupun against the St. Croix Valley Fusion. This game was back and forth with a lot of scoring chances that nobody could convert. F/W is pretty talented offensively lead by Amber Cmejla and Amy Knutson, but St. Croix is pretty good defensively led by Amanda Robinson and Megan Murphy. The game ended 0-0 in regulation, but Amy Knutson was able to lead Fondy/Waupun to victory with a great overtime short-handed goal deking out both a defenseman and the goaltender for the win. St. Croix started a Freshman goaltender in net who played pretty well. Samantha Lakin has been a back-up for Fondy/Waupun and is now a Junior. She played a nice game as well, earning the shutout. I was surprised that St. Croix Valley hung in this game so well as they graduated a lot of players, especially forwards, from last year's team.

By the way, this was the first game I've seen with the new rules....and I hate them already! I can see that the way each official calls games is going to have ZERO consistency this season.

I may get a chance to catch some more action tomorrow. Unfortunately, I did not get a schedule with the rosters and am not sure which teams play one another. Oh well, I'll track down whatever info I can tomorrow and post it.

More Girls Chicago Showcase

Emily Meier, a defenseman who played for the Madison Metro Lynx, is the final player that has been added to Team Wisconsin's roster, which is now 20 strong.

Team Central District is composed of 18 players from Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. It bodes well for Wisconsin that half of those slots (nine) are filled by players from the Badger State. There are 4 players from Missouri, three from Illinois, and two from Iowa.

Kristina Westmark is a defenseman from Appleton that is a pretty good player and should do well for this team. Also on D from Wisconsin is Megan Murphy who was not only the second leading point getter on her team, but the most prolific scoring defenseman in Wisconsin girls high school hockey this season. Catherine Morrow is another D that attends West Allis High School and played for the Capitols scoring 0 pts. and racking up 20 penalty minutes in 14 MWEHL games. Finally, also listed as a defenseman is Sara Eisenhauer who apparently attends Indian Trail Academy in Kenosha.

On offense, Kelsea Martlock attended Culver Academy and appears to have played the majority of her games with the JV team. She also played with their Varsity team for 8 games this season. Heather Noble is a Capitols player that is listed as a forward/defenseman although I'd guess she'll play forward as there are 6 players listed as strictly defensemen. She's from Oak Creek High School and was the Capitols second leading point scorer in MWEHL play with 1-6=7 in 17 league games. Julie Scott played for Onalaska this season and was third in points for the Hilltoppers. Alisha Eilertson was second in points for the St. Croix Valley Fusion this season and is another forward for Team Central District.

The final Wisconsin player on the Team Central District Roster is Katelyn Herron who is a goaltender and attends Lynwood Christian Academy. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any info on her.