Wisconsin hockey had it's annual awards banquet earlier tonight and don't worry, we'll get to the team awards in a bit, but first the biggest piece of news coming out of the ceremony was head coach Mike Eaves announcing his captain and assistant captains for the upcoming season.
Leading the Badgers into a new era of Big Ten hockey will be upcoming senior defenseman Frankie Simonelli. He'll be assisted by a pair of Eau Claire, Wisc. natives in upcoming senior forward Jefferson Dahl and junior defenseman Jake McCabe. Simonelli isn't a stranger to leadership on this team, serving as an assistant captain this past season.
However, that wasn't what the night was about, it was a chance to wrap up a season, their final in the WCHA, that saw them make it back to the NCAA tournament thanks to winning the WCHA playoffs and thus the Broadmoor Trophy. Wisconsin dolled out a number of team awards and they went like this:
– Michael Mersch won the Spike Carlson Most Valuable Player award from his teammates. He led the team in goals (23) and points (36).
– Ryan Little won the Ivan B. Williamson Scholastic Award for the second-consecutive season and was also named the team's Fenton Kelsey, Jr., Most Competitive Player award for the second-consecutive season. Little had the highest GPA of all the regulars on this team once again this season and coupled with his play as an outgoing senior, leading the team with 230 hits on the year it's hard to argue with either award.
– Freshman Kevin Schultze won the Dr. Joseph Coyne Most Consistent Player award thanks to a team best plus/minus of +21 on the season (an incredible number for a defenseman btw).
– Jefferson Dahl won the Otto Breitenbach Most Improved Player award by more than doubling his goal output (7 in 2012-13) and his point total (14 in 2012-13).
– Finally John Ramage and Brendan Woods took the final two awards for the most blocked shots (121) and best face-off percentage (61.6%) respectively.
Wisconsin may be losing some talent from this team, but overall this team will return 16 upperclassmen next year and they will open the season at the Kohl Center against Northern Michigan of the WCHA (I know, strange to think that's happening, right?) in a series that starts on Oct. 11th.
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