Thursday, January 5, 2012

Burkemper out and other odds and ends

The Mavericks left Mankato this morning for a long trek to northern New York (Canton) and a nonconference series against St. Lawrence. The games will take place Friday and Saturday. PucKato will not make the trip but will try to monitor the games from Mankato and have updates right here.

A few notes about the Mavericks and other happenings in college hockey to the start of the second half of the season:

• J.P. Burkemper indeed broke his wrist in Friday's game against the U.S. Under-18 Team. He said on Wednesday that he's not sure how long he'll be out and it has yet to be determined if surgery is necessary. It's just another blow to the Mavericks in what has been an injury-riddled season.

• Players not on the trip to St. Lawrence: Burkemper, Mike Louwerse, Danny Heath, Chase Grant, Evan Karambelas. Of that group, only Karambelas, the third goalie, is not injured.

• One injured player who may play this weekend is defenseman Brett Stern. Stern practiced this week but with a "red cross" helmet on, meaning no contact. Coach Troy Jutting said on Wednesday Stern is making the trip but did not know for sure if he'd put Stern in the games.

• In case you were wondering about that 3-3 tie wit the U.S. team, the U18s went to Wisconsin the next night and lost to the Badgers 4-3.

• The National Collegiate Hockey Conference on Wednesday named its first commissioner, former United States Olympic Committee CEO Jim Scherr. According to the Grand Forks Herald, Scherr, who was also the head of USA Wrestling, will make $150,000 per year over the next 4 1/2 years. The conference, which starts up after the 2012-13 season, will also be hiring a director of hockey operations since Scherr's expertise is in sports business and sports marketing. A 16-game national TV contract with the CBS Sports Network apparently is also in the works.

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