Once finals are completed, the fall semester will finally wrap up, students jump in cars and get on airplanes for their long-awaited trips back home, it is hard for anyone to have anything on their mind besides family, food and of course... the holidays.
However, there are some students who will have something else on their minds: Wisconsin hockey.
The Badgers (5-6-1 WCHA, 7-9-2 overall) have a total of six games over winter break, including four at the Kohl Center.
UW will take on No. 15 Clarkson Dec. 29 and either Providence or Lake Superior State Dec. 30 in the annual Badger Hockey Showdown. The Badgers follow the Showdown with a weekend series at Denver Jan. 5-6, and finish the winter break with a home series against rival Minnesota Jan. 12-13.
The Badgers, coming off of a weekend sweep at North Dakota, are confident about winter break and have high expectations.
""I missed [the Showdown] my first two years, but I got to play last year and had a blast,"" senior forward Jake Dowell said. ""It was great to take a break and see family, and then come back and try to get the second half of the year started on the right foot.""
The Badgers are looking forward to the Showdown, where they will take on a Clarkson team that just recently became nationally ranked. The Badger Showdown is, and always has been, a big deal for Wisconsin. With a nationally ranked team coming in, the pressure to win is elevated.
""Anytime you have ranked opponents in a holiday tournament like this it is important to not only play well, but to beat them,"" senior forward Andy Brandt said. ""Coming into this tournament our thought process is that this is our tournament, and we want to win our own tournament.""
Even with ranked teams over the winter break, Wisconsin will have an even harder time without three key players: Jack Skille, Jamie McBain and Blake Geoffrion. All three players will be heading to Sweden to play in the 2007 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship for the U.S. National Junior Team.
However, the Badgers will only miss the three players for the Showdown and the Denver series; all three will be back in Madison in time for round two of the Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry.
After being swept by both Denver and Minnesota earlier this season, Wisconsin has much to prove. While the Minnesota series is about four weeks away, it is tough for the Badgers not to have the Gophers on their minds.
""We don't want to look too far ahead, but anytime Minnesota comes up on the schedule you want to mark it down,"" Brandt said.
It is important the Badgers come out of the winter break with a record above .500. With an unranked record below .500, Wisconsin needs to continue their high level of play in order to get back into the playoff and national title hunt.
""We need to be playing our best hockey in the second half of the season and go right into the playoffs playing well and hopefully carry that momentum so that we are still playing late in the year,"" Dowell said.
