Murdock to Mankato

I missed this on Chris Heisenberg's site, but he lists Shattuck-St. Mary's goalie Kevin Murdock as committing to Minnesota State for the 2009 season.

Murdock was the goalie on Shattuck's U16 team last year. It struck me as interesting for a couple of reasons. First off, it's another player coming down the newly-formed Shattuck-Mankato pipeline(I knew adding that second lane to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Highway would pay huge recruiting dividends). Forward Zach Harrison came to Mankato from the Sabres last season. Next year, the Mavericks will add three Shattuck alums in Austin Lee, Ben Youds, and Peter Lompado. A big part of that is that Mankato goalie coach Des Christopher also works as the goalie coach at Shattuck, and has worked with Lee and Murdock.

The second interesting part to me was that Murdock's birthdate is August of 1990, meaning he won't turn 17 until next month, which is pretty young for a goalie to commit. I didn't look too long, but there are very few goalies that committed to schools that young. The few I could find were: Jeff Frazee, Jordan Tibbett, and T.J. Massie. I'm sure I missed a few others, but it's still pretty rare.


Etc.

Former North Dakota forward Hunter Bishop will play in the BCHL next season, and then start at Ohio State as a sophomore in 2008.