What are you doing tonight?

What? You have no plans?
Then head to the Kohl Center in Madison to see the defending National Champion Badgers take on the U.S. Olympic Hockey team.

Seriously, how cool does that sound?

Tickets are just $5 ($1 for military, police, et al as they are honoring service folk/heroes)

You will not find better entertainment for your dollar and you’ll be watching world class athletes on both sides of the puck.

There are multiple former and two current Badgers on the Olympic Squad including last year’s Patty Kazmeier Award winner (MVP) goalie Jessie Vetter. She is joined by alums Erika Lawler, Jinelle Zaugg-Siergiej, Kerry Weiland and Molly Engstromad current Badgers Hilary Knight and Meghan Duggan. Badger coach Mark Johnson is the Olympic coach.

That’s right – two of our current collegians are good enough to play in the Olympics – and two more just barely missed the cut. We’re talking high-quality hockey here.

As they said over on 60, parents, take your kids. Where else can you instill in them a sense of Amerian Pride as well as show them 30 or so role models. Parents of little girls should be all over this – multiple of the team members are blogging on both the Badger site and the US Olympic and Qwest Tour sites. Get your kid involved on a personal level with these amazing young women – most are between 20 and 30 years old.

The Badger women’s hockey program gets short shrift and they’ve been playing at an advanced level for multiple years. They were excited when 2,000 people showed up for the playoff games last season while men’s teams generally draw 8,000 – 10,000 for a regular weekend game.

Their should a lot of Badger Pride – both the university and the state – for the girls on the ice tonight and for a short ride and a cheap ticket you can be as excited as I clearly am.

Don’t miss out.