The pressure of being one of the few returning veterans on a national championship team could be overwhelming for the average college hockey player. Fortunately, Badger senior forward Jake Dowell is anything but average.
The left-handed co-captain entered this season as one of seven Badger seniors and was excited about the prospect of taking a more central role on the ice.
""I wanted to lead the team in any way that I could along with all the older guys,"" Dowell said. ""We try to bring the younger guys up to speed by showing them what we try to do and how we try to play. My expectations were definitely to come in and try to get ourselves back in the position to win again.""
Dowell has had a very successful Badger career thus far. The team has a 75-37-15 record and earned three NCAA tournament bids during Dowell's three-plus seasons.
Dowell still remembers the impact last year's national championship had on himself and the team.
""It was awesome, you can't explain the feeling that you get,"" Dowell said. ""At the same time, it was nice having it be my junior year, to be able to come back and try to have another successful year and defend the title. I think to a lot of guys it's in the past now, we can always look back on it later in life, but right now we just really need to get ourselves going for this year.""
This season Dowell leads the Badgers with seven goals and has scored on more than 20 percent of his shots. He has placed ninth or better on the team in scoring in each of his first three seasons. Dowell registered 19 points as a freshman, 26 as a sophomore and 20 as a junior.
Over the offseason Dowell put in some serious work in hopes of improving his game.
""Our whole team was working out here,"" he said. ""We worked a lot with the strength coaches to get ourselves stronger physically and mentally. I worked a lot on leg strength and my skating so I could be bigger, stronger. It was also just paying closer attention to detail and those types of things.""
Though Dowell is originally from Eau Claire, he graduated from Huron High School in Ann Arbor, Mich. Dowell earned athlete of the year honors for northwest Wisconsin in 2002, and spent two years in the USA Hockey National Team development program—playing under Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves there.
After his freshman year, Dowell was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks 140th overall. Chicago also holds the rights of teammate sophomore forward Jack Skille and former teammate Adam Burish currently plays for the team.
""It might've been a little bit distracting my freshman year before I was drafted but since that's been done it's just been in the back of my mind,"" Dowell said. ""I really don't talk to anybody about it or need to do anything about it. It's something I'll deal with once the season's over and hopefully that works out, but right now the better I do here the better chance I have there. I have no doubt it'll all work out in the end.""
Last season he scored two game-winning goals including one against Minnesota. In Dowell's sophomore season, CBS news aired a story about his hockey career and his father's medical condition, known as Huntington's Disease.
""When we play hard and we play physical, we play really well and we're a tough team to beat,"" Dowell said. ""We play well systematically but we've had some details slip away lately and had a few nights where we just haven't played physical enough or played our game. Now we've gotten away from that style, it's come back and cost us and that's how we've lost some games.""
The Badgers have had a slow start this season, but with Dowell leading the way the prospects for the rest of the season look much brighter.
