Elbrecht to have surgery, Lee honored

Tyler Elbrecht

Had a chance to talk with Tyler Elbrecht today. He had an old-school plaster cast on his left arm that went from his hand, past his elbow and halfway up his upper arm. The junior defenseman and co-captain broke both bones in his lower arm (the ulna and radius) when he was hit into the boards in the first game of last weekend's series at RPI. "Snapped them both," he said.

Elbrecht will have surgery on Friday to repair the broken arm, getting metal plates put on the bones. He said he hopes to be out 6-8 at weeks but said he will not rush it. He wants to be fully healed before he gets back in a game. Six weeks would be the Minnesota series on the first weekend of December. Eight weeks would get him games before Christmas. But since he hasn't had the surgery yet no one was giving a specific timeline for his return.

"When he's healthy and ready to go, that's when we'll get him back," coach Troy Jutting said. "It's not going to be tomorrow."

Elbrecht said he'll play the part of the "so called pom-pom guy" and be the team's top cheerleader until he can play again.

Mavericks coaches and players talked about how physical the RPI series was, and they came out of it pretty banged up. Besides Elbrecht, forwards Max Gaede and J.P. Burkemper and defenseman Danny Heath suffered upper body injuries and will not play in this weekend's games against UMass-Lowell. Coach Troy Jutting said the lineup is still being tweaked for the weekend but forwards Eli Zuck and Charlie Thauwald were getting some work on defense. The Mavericks are thin and experienced back there, that's for sure. Stay tuned.

Austin Lee

Meanwhile, I should have had this on Tuesday but better late than never: Goaltender Austin Lee was named WCHA co-defensive player of the week for his 36-save shutout performance on Friday. It was the second time Lee has been honored by the league in his career.

Lee shared the award with Minnesota goaltender Kent Patterson. Offensive player of the week went to Alaska-Anchorage's Mickey Spencer, and the rookie of the week was Michigan Tech's Blake Pietila.

More hockey stuff in Thursday's hockey notebook in The Free Press.