Pitlick update

I let Ben Bradlee (via Jason Robards) do the talking when I complained earlier today that I (and others) didn't have a definitive on-the-record word that Tyler Pitlick is leaving MSU to play major junior hockey in the Western Hockey League next season. Well, thanks to master web surfer Chris Dilks of Western College Hockey blog -- which this week had an NHL Draft Combine source confirming the departure -- Pitlick has spoken about the move. Read the story here.

"It's more professional style of play," Pitlick told Buzzing the Net blogger Neate Sager. "Plus it would help working through the mental blocks you deal with in a long season, getting through those long bus rides ... that's the biggest thing of my game that I have to work on, getting my body going, getting my legs under me."

Pitlick, who did not return phone calls and text messages from The Free Press when it was reported that he was exploring a move after just one year of college hockey, also said this about playing for the Mavericks:

"It was a good time (at MSU). I met  a lot of good people. I got a lot of opportunities. I got a pretty good shift. I thought I grew a lot as a player."

Back on the grid

Of course, there would be some hockey news while PucKato took a well-deserved vacation. Here's a recap ...

It looks like Minnesota State has its third goalie, as Evan Karambelas (pictured) committed to the Mavericks over the weekend. Karambelas, a Fort Saint John, B.C., native, ranked fourth in the North American Hockey League, going 22-4-1 for the Topeka Roadrunners with a 2.27 goals-against average. The 21-year-old is another big goalie, standing 6-foot-2, 205 pounds (Phil Cook and Austin Lee are both 6-3).

Western College Hockey Blog got some good info from the NHL Draft Combine last week, including news from a source "involved in the interview process" who confirmed that MSU's Tyler Pitlick is indeed leaving school and going to the Western Hockey League's Medicine Hat Tigers. No surprise here, of course, but it is the first time we've heard something that sounds definitive about the potential first-round pick. The Pitlick story isn't exactly Watergate, but ... The draft will begin on June 25.

There was a question about the Mavericks bringing in more players for next season. By my count, MSU will have a full 28 players on its roster, including three goalies (Cook, Lee, Karambelas), eight defensemen (Cooper, Youds, Elbrecht, Mosey, Davis, Boe, Nelson, Heath) and 17 forwards (Louwerse, Galiardi, Jokinen, Dorr, Sackrison, Thompson, Mueller, Hayes, Schiller, Peterson, Zuck, Burkemper, Grant, Leitner, Lehrke, Leivermann, McInnis). So it seems unlikely that anyone else is coming in at this time.

Philadelphia made it a series against Chicago in the Stanley Cup Finals on Wednesday night, winning 4-3 in OT. Ex-Mav Jon Kalinski likely was in the press box watching the win. He was called up by the Flyers during the playoffs and is practicing with the team in hopes of getting a sniff. Although it seems unlikely that he will play, stranger things have happened. Remember Ryan Carter? He get called up until the 2007 playoffs and played just 2:45 of Finals time. But that was more than enough time to get his name engraved on the Cup. Anyway, here's a story on Kalinski's experience so far.

In other MSU alumni news, Travis Morin will be playing for the Calder Cup, the American Hockey League championship, starting tonight. Morin plays fro the Texas Stars, who are taking on the Hershey Bears. Morin, a 26-year-old AHL rookie who spent the last two-plus years in the ECHL, had 52 points in 80 games during the regular season and has 13 points in 18 playoff games so far.

In more not-so-surprising news, Wisconsin junior defenseman Brendan Smith signed with the Detroit Red Wings, forgoing his senior season with the Badgers.

Not sure if I had this before but should report that Mankato East standout Dan Billiar will play D-III college hockey at St. Mary's of the MIAC next season.

Murdock not alone

Kevin Murdock isn't the only WCHA goalie who is going back to junior hockey next season. Minnesota Duluth's Brady Hjelle apparently is doing the same.

Like Murdock, Hjelle split time early in the season but eventually lost out on the No. 1 job, as Kenny Reiter played all of the Bulldogs' playoff games. Unlike Murdock, who was a freshman last season and played in just five games, Hjelle was a sophomore and played in 19 games last season. However, Hjelle was splitting time with a fellow sophomore and had a freshman, Aaron Crandall, also competing for the job.

Hjelle is expected to play with the USHL's Cedar Rapids team where he also played in 2007-08.

Comparing Murdock and Hjelle:

Kevin Murdock:  5 games, 1-3-1, .895 sv%, 3.46 gaa
Brady Hjelle:  19 games, 9-7-1, .898 sv%, 2.85 gaa

Hjelle won two games against MSU early last season, including a head-to-head game against Murdock. Duluth won 3-2 that night, scoring three power-play goals. MSU had a 2-0 lead and got into some penalty trouble after that. The game-winner was a 5x3 goal. Hjelle made 26 saves that night, and Murdock made 27.

Harold Paulsen: Unknown legend (updated)

When I arrived at work on Friday afternoon, I was handed an obituary and asked if I knew anything about Harold Paulsen. I didn't but upon reading it, I wish I had.

Harold Paulsen died on Tuesday in Mankato. He was 91 years old. He had lived in Mankato since 1962 when he began working as a physical education professor at what was then known as Mankato State College.

Updates with links can be found below.

But Paulsen's legacy dates back more than 20 years earlier when he played hockey at the University of Minnesota. In 1940, two Gophers players had All-American seasons and led the team to the UAA tournament championship, which also served as the national championship. One of those players was John Mariucci, who would go on to become the U's legendary coach and get his name attached to the Gophers' hockey arena.

The other was "Babe" Paulsen.

A year later, Paulsen succeeded Mariucci as team captain. After that, World War II prevented him from playing in the Olympics or the NHL. From there, he went on to coach high school hockey at Roseau and Thief River Falls and then was asked to start the program at Michigan State University. He coached the Spartans for two years, going 6-25 before stepping down. 

An Iron Ranger from Virginia, Paulsen earned his doctorate from the University of Michigan and was the athletic director at Slippery Rock College in Pennsylvania. In 1962, he, his wife, Clara, and their three kids moved to Mankato. In 2001, Paulsen was honored as one of the Gopher hockey program's 50 "Legends on Ice."

Word around Mankato is that Paulsen was quite the handball player, too, and played the game well into his 70s.

You can read more about Paulsen in Saturday's edition of The Free Press. ... Also, read his Free Press obituary here, and some info from U.S. College Hockey Online here and here. PucKato will stay on the lookout for more stories on Paulsen's passing.

(University of Minnesota photo)

Mavericks' '10-11 schedule released

The Minnesota State men's hockey team will open the 2010-11 season with an exhibition game against British Columbia on Monday, Oct. 4 and start the regular season four days later with a nonconference series against St. Lawrence. The WCHA season will open a week later with the Mavericks going to Michigan Tech.

Some interesting notes on the schedule:

• There will be no home-and-home series this year. Minnesota will come to Mankato for two games Dec. 3-4, and the Mavericks will go to St. Cloud State Jan 28-29.

• Nonconference opponents include St. Lawrence and American International at home and road trips to UMass-Lowell and the Notre Dame tournament in Chicago on Jan. 1-2 (Boston U and Brown are the other teams at the tournament)

• MSU will play eight straight road games that will keep them out of Mankato for the month of November. The road swing includes three flights -- Anchorage, Denver and Lowell -- surrounding the first trip to Nebraska-Omaha as a WCHA rival. It gets no easier when the Mavs return, either, as they will host Minnesota and North Dakota.

• With Omaha and Bemidji State now in the league, MSU will play four conference games (two home, two away) against Anchorage, Denver and Colorado College; single home series against Minnesota, North Dakota, Bemidji and Duluth and single road series at Tech, Omaha, Wisconsin and St. Cloud.

• Three of the Mavericks' final WCHA series will be played at home.

Here is the schedule:

Oct. 4          British Columbia (exhibition)
Oct. 8-9       St. Lawrence
Oct. 15-16   @ Michigan Tech
Oct. 22-23   Colorado College
Oct. 29-30   @ Alaska-Anchorage
Nov. 5-6      @ Nebraska-Omaha
Nov. 12-13  @ Denver
Nov. 26-27  @ Massachusetts-Lowell
Dec. 3-4       Minnesota
Dec. 10-11   North Dakota
Jan. 1-2        @ Shillelagh Tournament, Chicago
Jan. 7-8        American International
Jan. 14-15    Denver
Jan. 21-22    @ Wisconsin
Jan. 28-29    @ St. Cloud State
Feb. 4-5       Bemidji State
Feb. 11-12   @ Colorado College
Feb. 18-19   Minnesota Duluth
Mar. 4-5       Alaska-Anchorage
Mar. 11-13   WCHA first round
Mar. 17-19   WCHA Final Five

Fargo fall to Gamblers in USHL finals

The Fargo Force had a third-period lead but couldn't hold on in the decisive Game 5 of the USHL Clark Cup finals on Wednesday night. The Green Bay Gamblers clinched the championship with a 5-3 victory, and the Force were the runners-up for the second year in a row.

Minnesota State recruit Matt Leitner gave Fargo a 3-2 lead at 4:42 of the third period (it was his 10th goal of the playoffs), but Green Bay scored three unanswered goals, including an empty-netter, over the final 10 1/2 minutes in front of a sellout crowd of nearly 8,500 people. The Force were playing without two of their top players, MSU recruits Corey Leivermann and Chase Grant. Another future Maverick, J.P. Burkemper had an assist and was +2 in the game.

Fargo won the first two games of the series in Green Bay and was 49 seconds away from winning Game 3 and the title on Friday in Fargo before the Gamblers tied the game and eventually won in triple-overtime. Green Bay then won the next night in Fargo, which forced Wednesday's game.

MSU men and women announce recruits

The Minnesota State men's hockey team finally announced the three recruits who have signed national letters of intent since the signing period began about a month ago. No surprises there, as J.P. Burkemper, John McInnis and Josh Nelson joined the five players who signed with the Mavericks during the early signing period in November.

In Tuesday's Free Press, I had a story on the women's hockey team's recruits. That team announced three recruits that, with another recruit coming, will bring next fall's freshman class to a whopping 11 players.

Coach Eric Means was hired one year ago today (May 11), and, not only were most of the current players already gone for the summer, but he was able to bring in just one new player, Lauren Smith, who ended up being the team's second-leading scorer and will be the top returner next year. Means will have a much bigger impact on building his roster this year with seven players graduating and that big recruiting class coming in.

"That's half the roster," Means said. "Half the roster will have changed in a year. We'll be young, but I really like the players we have coming in, and I like the players who are returning, too."