If this was indeed Andrew Joudrey's last weekend playing at home as a Wisconsin Badger, it was a memorable one. On the other hand, if UW plays well enough in its last four games to secure at least a five seed in the WCHA playoffs and consequently host the first round, the senior captain will be at least partly the reason.
Not normally known for goal-scoring, Joudrey had three big goals this weekend for the Badgers, who added three points against St. Cloud State and moved into sole possession of sixth place in the conference.
Still, typical of his understated manner, he downplayed their importance, just saying it is ""nice to score goals every once in a while."" Instead, Joudrey talked after Saturday's tie about UW's success on the power play.
Most weekends, Joudrey's role as team captain and, as head coach Mike Eaves describes him, ""quarterback"" of the power play, goes unmentioned. But after he assumed an offensive posture against the Huskies, players were fast to highlight his abilities.
Asked if Joudrey's shot skills merited more attempts on net, senior goaltender Brian Elliott—who would know, for all the shots he defends in practice—said self-assuredly, ""Yeah, I think so. He can shoot in stride, and a lot of guys have trouble doing that.""
Then, as if to fully get his point across, Elliott compared Joudrey to one of the NHL's best sharpshooters. ""You can look at a Joe Sakic and see that type of shooting in Andrew,"" Elliott noted.
The commentary raised eyebrows and a chuckle from Joudrey, after which Elliott corrected himself with a ""maybe later in his career.""
Week in and week out, Joudrey is the consummate team leader, his teammates say.
""Andrew does a great job,"" senior defenseman Jeff Likens said. ""He gets the guys going real well, says all the right things to get everybody going.""
Joudrey's weekend was also special for off-the-ice reasons. The Hockey Humanitarian Foundation announced the Badger center was one of two finalists for the Hockey Humanitarian Award, the annual distinction presented to ""college hockey's finest citizen."" It will be given out during the Frozen Four in April.
This weekend, however, Joudrey played out his role as a leader on the ice in fine form, with the game-winner Friday and the tying goal with 4:06 remaining Saturday.
""The one thing that [captains] want to do is to be able to come through in a key moment for their teammates,"" Eaves said. ""That means more to them than anything. Andrew had that kind of weekend where he stepped up and he was able to get some things done for this team. For him, that's what it's all about.""
