The Badgers earned three points with a win and a tie against the Minnesota Golden Gophers last weekend.
Freshman defenseman Ryan McDonagh opened Friday’s scoring with a goal from the blue line off a feed from freshman forward Kyle Turris. In the second period, Turris took a pass at center ice and scored a highlight-reel goal.
Minnesota cut the deficit in half when sophomore winger and top five NHL draft pick Blake Wheeler scored late in the second period. Junior forward Ben Street put the game away with a third period goal.
Wisconsin had to come back Saturday night, trailing 2-0 after the first period. The Badgers received a goal from freshman forward Patrick Johnson in the second period to cut it to 2-1. Johnson then assisted on sophomore forward Aaron Bendickson’s game-tying goal, ending the scoring for the evening.
Minnesota-Duluth swept the UMass-Lowell River Hawks by scores of 1-0 and 4-1 last weekend.
Preview
The two teams enter this weekend tied for fourth place in the WCHA with 17 points.
With each team starting to display a consistent offense, watch for the goalies to play a bigger-than-usual role in deciding this weekend’s outcome.
Bulldog sophomore goalie Alex Stalock has allowed fewer than two goals per game over the last eight games but is only eighth in the conference in GAA.
He is talented but has trouble staying in the net. Stalock has started in all but one game this season.
Wisconsin junior goalie Shane Connelly has a 10-10-3 record overall and kept the Badgers in the second game against Minnesota by stopping 22 shots in the final two periods and overtime. The numbers of these two goalies are nearly identical across the board. Both have allowed between 2.4 and 2.5 goals per game this season.
On offense, the Badgers have scored 55 percent of their goals in conference games from their top two lines led by Turris and Street, during which time Wisconsin has 2.5 goals-per-game.
Despite lacking a top scorer, the Bulldogs have a balanced offensive and have scored only three fewer goals than the Badgers in conference play this season.
While Wisconsin is starting to turn its power play around, scoring in two of the last three games with the man advantage, Duluth continues to struggle and is last in the conference with a 10-percent success rate in WCHA games.
