Stevens Point (Wis.) Area High School junior defenseman Aaron Harstad visited CC last weekend and chose the Tigers over Bucky, according to the Stevens Point Journal. (Read here).

Harstad was the fifth overall pick in the USHL entry draft, which was headed by fellow CC recruit Jaden Schwartz.

With the addition of Harstad in 2010 or 2011, the Tigers’ defensive corps will be heavy with Wisconsinites: Art Bidwill and Ted Behrend, both freshmen this season, hail from America’s Dairyland.

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There’s also a nice story on the BCHL website about 2009 forward recruit Russell Goodman, who had a tough spring with a knee injury and then being passed over in the NHL draft. Goodman’s back on track now, it seems, and one only needs to look at some of the undrafted players (Denver’s Tyler Bozak comes to mind) making a major impact in the WCHA to know that it’s sometimes good to fly under the radar.

The Tigers departed this afternoon for Duluth without right wing Stephen Schultz, who is still recovering from a concussion suffered in the first period against St. Cloud State on Feb. 9. Captain Scott Thauwald will travel, but hasn’t skated since he suffered a concussion in the third period of the Feb. 9 game. Defenseman Brett Wysopal could pull spot duty on the fourth line after practicing at forward Monday and Tuesday for the first time in his life. Wysopal, who marveled at going through a whole practice without skating backwards, will be CC’s only extra skater.

Travel roster:
Sweatt–Rau–Testwuide
McCulloch–Vlassopoulos–Kilpatrick
DeBoer–Johnson–Walsky
Overman–McMillin–Quilico/Wysopal
D: Fredheim, Gannon, Hillen, Prosser, Connelly, Lowery
G: Bachman, O’Connell

UPDATE: Per Chris Heisenberg, CC landed its first Wisconsin kid since Brady Greco in defenseman Ted Behrend. Behrend hails from Oregon, Wisc., which is just south of Madison, coach Scott Owens’ hometown.

Around the league
The WCHA handed out more penalties for fights that occurred in last Saturday’s Denver-North Dakota game. Kyle Radke and J.P. Testwuide dropped gloves and squared off, which should have been an instant ejection and game disqualification, but referee Marco Hunt allowed them to go to the penalty box instead. Then, at the end of the second period, an all-out brawl broke out (YouTube) and Radke and Denver’s Brandon Vossberg went at it (from Vossberg’s perspective). Although the WCHA isn’t the first league to come out with additional penalties after the fact (this Canisius-RIT fight resulted in additional sanctions from Atlantic Hockey), when you take Hunt’s under-call into account with previous missed calls by now-suspended referee Randy Schmidt, it has been a rough year for officiating in the WCHA.

Denver, North Dakota Players Suspended for One Game
MADISON, Wisc. – The Western Collegiate Hockey Association today (Feb. 20, 2008) announced that J.P. Testwuide, a junior defenseman at the University of Denver, and Kyle Radke, a senior forward at the University of North Dakota, have been suspended for one game each as the result of an on-ice incident that occurred in the game between the two teams on Saturday, Feb. 16.

The supplemental disciplinary action was taken by WCHA Commissioner Bruce M. McLeod after a review of the incident that occurred at 6:38 of the second period and originally resulted in each player receiving two-minute slashing, two-minute roughing and 10-minute misconduct penalties.

Testwuide will be required to serve his one-game suspension during Denver’s home game against Alaska Anchorage on Feb. 22.

Radke, who also received a fighting penalty and game disqualification penalty later in the game on Feb. 16, will now be required to serve a two-game suspension during North Dakota’s upcoming home series against Bemidji State on Feb. 23-24.

Recruiting
USA Today featured CC recruit Colten St. Clair of Gilbert, Ariz., as evidence of the spread of talent beyond traditional hotbeds like Minnesota. Kevin Allen writes that St. Clair is “considered one of the top 1992-born players in the U.S. and maybe even the world.”

Tiger Tracks
–Several people brought up half-shields as I researched the concussion story that ran today with the argument being that if players wear visors, they keep their checks down and adhere to an honor code (enforced by fighting).
The American Hockey League requires half-shields, whereas the National Hockey League leaves it up to the players–visor or no visor. CC alum Noah Clarke, who plays for Lowell (AHL), may feel differently about facemasks after he was hit in the face with a slap shot last Saturday. Clarke was hospitalized. (In the notes section)
UPDATE: Clarke, who is out indefinitely, suffered a cheekbone fracture and nose damage, but his eyes are OK. Read here.
–I thought this story on former defenseman Tom Preissing, a Hobey Baker finalist in 2003, was pretty neat. The reporter got Preissing to open up about his senior thesis at CC. Paid to play hockey for the Los Angeles Kings at the moment, the 2003 WCHA student-athlete of the year has plenty to look forward to after hockey.