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West Salem’s Plunkett wins hockey title in Alaska, gets traded home

West Salem’s Plunkett wins hockey title in Alaska, gets traded home

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Rick Solem

The senior last attended West Salem H.S. freshman year

You know you’ve reached the big time in life when you get the news that you’ve been traded.

Marshal Plunkett spent the last year of his life living in Alaska and helping the Fairbanks Ice Dogs junior hockey team win the NAHL title, the Robertson Cup.

Three days after getting back home to West Salem, Wis., he received a phone call from coach that he was being sent to the Coulee Region Chill.

“For sure it’s a little weird, a little different, to be traded as a 17-year-old kid to some other team,” Plunkett said. “I lived all year out there, some 2,000 miles away, and now I’m back here just from one phone call.”

That’s not to say Plunkett is upset by the move. He’s home.

“I was excited,” Plunkett said. “I was excited to come back here and be with all my friends and family.”

The Ice Dogs are the perennial power in Tier 2 Junior A hockey. Plunkett, a solid defenseman, was the pup on the veteran team.

Being traded to the Chill was great news, in that he could once again attend his hometown high school – he spent sophomore year in Middleton, Wis., playing hockey and attended high school online while in Fairbanks – but also because he should play a bigger role.

“I didn’t have my greatest season,” Plunkett admitted of his one year with the Ice Dogs. “We had a great team, so it was hard to get into the lineup every day. I just tried to do my part on the team, but I was still, again, the young guy.

“I’m hopefully expecting to play, hopefully a large role on (the Chill) and do the best I can.”

Plunkett (below, No. 6) spoke between Coulee Region Chill tryout games at the Green Island Ice Arena in La Crosse.

Newly hired coach Ryan Egan – who was with the La Crosse Freeze the last two seasons (tryouts for that team are Aug 5-7) – has his hands full for the five-day affair that goes through Sunday morning.

Egan has about 160 players trying out, including 24 goalies.

“We’ve got kids from all over the world here,” Egan said, mentioning players from the Cech Republic, Finland, Sweeden. “As for (in the U.S.), I bet we have kids from 30 states here.”

He’ll have to cut those numbers down to about 25-30 – two or three of them goalies – by Sunday. The way Egan and staff does that is an all-day tournament at the arena, which is open to the public if you’re dying for some quality hockey.

Plunkett is at tryouts, but guaranteed a spot on the team, as will all high school players that would make the cut.

The week started Thursday with eight teams, which will be cut in half by today, most likely. Four teams will play Saturday and then Egan will cut that into two and play an all-star game on Sunday before making his final decision on the roster.

“We kind of whittle things down the best we can in a short period of time,” Egan said.

 

Posted by 580 WKTY on Friday, July 15, 2016

During the season, Chill and Freeze players stay with host families, but right now, they’re all in hotels.

“It’s a pretty big impact on the community, what we’re doing here for a week,” Egan said. “There’s a lot of kids here.”

 

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