The Eaves family has seen very little of each other since Mike Eaves took over as head coach of the UW men's hockey team for the 2002-'03 season. This separation will end Friday night when the 3-1 Badgers face off against the 3-0 and No. 4 ranked Boston College Eagles in an away matchup. On one side of the ice, Eaves will try to figure out how to stop his two sons, Pat and Ben, while on the Eagles side, Pat and Ben will try to devise a way to break their father's defensive scheme. Eaves is in an unfamiliar position of having to coach against his two boys for the first time.
So far this year, Pat and Ben have used their chemistry to turn into quite the duo. Ben, the captain of the team, is a junior and an electric forward. Last year Ben played in only 23 games, missing 16 games due to injury. Ben, however, was still able to score 13 goals and 26 assists in his injury-shortened season.
Pat Eaves has had one of the quickest starts of any freshman in the country. As a forward, Pat has earned the Hockey East Rookie of the Week award for three straight weeks. So far, Pat has scored four goals and had five assists. One goal and three assists came against previous No. 2 Denver.
When asked about what it's like preparing to play against Pat and Ben, Eaves had to smile just a little bit.
\It's nothing much different in that we have to prepare each week for a team's top unit,"" Eaves said. ""It just so happens that two of the three are my wife's and my kids. The big bonus in all of this is that we get to spend a little time together as a family because that doesn't happen very often. To talk about what it's like, I don't really know because I've never done it before and I can only speculate.""
The Badgers have had a great week of practice and look to continue their recent winning streak of three games. Senior center Brad Winchester, junior left wing Rene Bourque and defensive senior Mark Jackson have paced the team with two goals apiece. The Badgers will need to find the back of the net several times in order to keep up with the high-flying Eagles, who have scored a total of 29 goals in four contests counting their exhibition game.
""BC has a lot of power but we're still going to go in and convert on momentum,"" Winchester said.
Senior goalie Scott Kabatoff will get the start against the Eagles, while sophomore goaltender Bernd Bruckler will be the backup. Kabatoff so far is 2-0 with 51 saves and five goals allowed on the year.
The Badgers will follow up their game with the Eagles against the 1-1-1 Northeastern Huskies. Northeastern leads a balanced attack, but may be a little worn down after they play No. 1 New Hampshire Friday night.
The Eaves reunion will take the ice at 6:05 p.m. Friday and may be seen on UPN. This family struggle will be quite entertaining to watch and it may be fitting for the game to end in a draw.
Eaves has one certainty heading into this week's matchup.
""I know as a family it will be competitive, but we will have fun with it,"" Eaves said.
