This weekend's series against No. 14 Minnesota-Duluth is the last home series for the No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers before the Christmas holidays. Even with a lot of highs and lows already this season, the Badgers find themselves in a wonderful position in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, with seven wins and only three losses, good for second place.
Only North Dakota, a team the Badgers have beaten at home twice, currently stands ahead of the Badgers at 7-4-1 in conference. However, only five points separate the top five teams in the conference, and the Badgers have played at least two more games than every team below them in the standings (except for last place Michigan Tech).
There were a lot of question marks coming into this season that the Badgers have addressed. The Badger defense had two key losses on the point with the departures of defensemen Andy Wozniewski and Ryan Suter. It was expected this was going to be a glaring weakness for Wisconsin, but this has not been the case.
Veteran defensemen junior Tom Gilbert and sophomore Jeff Likens have been very steady and the young, inexperienced players on the point-freshmen Kyle Klubertanz, Davis Drewiske, Joe Piskula, along with sophomore Matt Olinger-have stepped up and played great for the Badgers, as Wisconsin has been holding teams to a very strong 2.2 goals per game in the WCHA. They have also chipped in a great deal offensively. Klubertanz, getting plenty of special teams time, is the scoring leader of this group with nine points.
\I think the coaches have been great in helping us learn the systems,"" Piskula said. ""Also it certainly helped that we stayed together as a team during the summer all working out together.""
The Badgers returned several key players from last year's NCAA tournament team, but are also utilizing many underclassmen. In fact, the Badgers have no seniors on either offense or defense who see significant ice time.
Meanwhile, four sophomore forwards have been awesome so far for the Badgers, with three of them: Robbie Earl, Jake Dowell and Ross Carlson leading the Badgers with seven goals. Freshman Joe Pavelski has been perhaps the most pleasant surprise on the team and is second on the team in scoring with six goals and 11 assists for 17 points.
""Pavelski is very talented,"" junior captain Adam Burish said. ""Both he and Kyle have been great for us on the power play.""
The lack of seniors left major leadership issues to be addressed, but three juniors-Nick Licari, Ryan MacMurchy and Burish-have stepped in to provide leadership for the team. Licari, at only 5'8', plays very hard-nosed hockey and is not afraid of anyone. MacMurchy, an extremely tough player at 6'2', 207 lbs., is built in the mold of former Badger power forward Brad Winchester. He has a knack for scoring key goals at key times for Wisconsin. Burish, the hometown captain, leads vocally in the locker room and with his no nonsense attitude on the ice.
""The juniors have really had to sort of step up and be seniors and [our class] certainly has, but really this team is getting a lot of leadership from a lot of different players, including a lot of the sophomores,"" Burish said.
Goaltending, with senior All-American Bernd Br??ckler in the net, was the one thing that was not supposed to be an issue for the Badgers. Br??ckler got off to a slow start, looking a little shaky at times early in the year. But, as of late, he has been back to his usual awesome self, with three fantastic weekends in a row. He shut out North Dakota and allowed only one goal in three straight games, including a 3-1 win over then top-ranked Michigan.
""[Early in the year] Bernd hadn't found his groove yet, but since the Minnesota series he continued strong play right through, and that's a big thing for any hockey team,"" Eaves said.
However, the Badgers know the tough hockey is ahead. After the Holiday Badger Showdown, the Badgers have only three weekends to take advantage of their rowdy Kohl Center home crowd. Two of these series are against the current top-ranked team, archrival Minnesota, and No. 3 Colorado College. The Badgers also have a brutally tough stretch at the end of the year, facing the daunting task of finishing the season on the road at North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth.
""There really is no easy game in this league, because on any night any team in this league can beat you,"" Eaves said.
