There is one simple philosophy for the Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey team as it prepares for a first-round, best-of-three road series against Denver in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association tournament:
Win or go home.
A lackluster regular season— resulting in the seventh seed in the playoffs, which begin this weekend—means that NCAA tournament credentials are in short supply for UW.
Thus, the team's only way to build its case is by running together a string of wins in the conference showdown and improving their standing in the PairWise Rankings, which is the NCAA's format for selecting the 16-team field.
More expediently—and perhaps the more far-fetched idea—the Badgers could gain automatic entry to the NCAA tournament by winning the WCHA bracket outright.
Either way, the Badgers (12-13-3 WCHA, 15-17-4 overall) are intent to focus on their first-round series with Denver (13-11-4, 21-13-4), which is ranked No. 11 in the most recent USCHO.com poll. In head coach Mike Eaves' tenure, the Badgers have experienced a measure of success playing in the Pioneers' digs.
UW was just 1-3 in the regular season opposing Denver. But in early January, when UW traveled out west, the teams split at Magness Arena. Eaves hopes his squad can use that memory as a reminder that the task before it is doable.
""Going into Denver, you know, the history of our program ... is that we've pretty well there,"" Eaves said. ""So hopefully we can go and do that again. For whatever reason, it seems to be a matchup that we've gone there and gotten points before, so hopefully we can continue that trend.""
Considering the way Denver has been playing over the past month, the Badgers have to figure that the opportunity exists. The Pioneers have won only once over the past month, a span in which the team has gone 1-4-2.
Over the last four games, DU has only scored one goal in 24 power play attempts. Conversely, defending the power play has been a problem for the Pioneers. In last weekend's season finale against Colorado College—an improbable tie after DU scored two goals in the last 36 seconds—the power play defense allowed a season-high five goals.
Even as he bore those struggles in mind, though, Eaves dismissed the idea that facing off against Denver—as opposed to North Dakota—was a blessing.
Instead, Eaves spoke about how evenly matched the conference's teams are. ""We talked about parity being something that ... existed in the WCHA,"" Eaves said. ""Now it's in bold font, underlined.""
Going on the road in first round of the WCHA playoffs for only the fifth time in 36 appearances, the Badgers will be playing against a team that ranks in the middle of the conference's pack in both offense and defense.
Individually, junior forward Ryan Dingle is the WCHA's second leading goal scorer (21), and the team features two capable goalies in senior Glenn Fisher and junior Peter Mannino. Both have registered three shutouts this year.
For his part, Eaves sees this weekend as another obstacle to overcome in what has been a season of adversity.
""This is just another week for us,"" he said. ""You know, we're packing up the circus and taking it on the road again. And we've pitched our tent already. We know that we can get it up pretty quick, and we can play.""
