As the Wisconsin men's hockey team takes the ice for the first time this season, there will not be nearly as much pressure on this year's squad as there was a year ago. That is because the 37th annual Grand Forks Herald WCHA preseason coaches poll came out Wednesday, and placed the Badgers fifth in the rankings during the 2007-'08 season.
The North Dakota Fighting Sioux received seven of the 10 first-place votes.
Minnesota is picked to finish second, and received the other three first-place votes. Colorado College and Denver are slotted to finish out the top-five.
While the Badgers may not be expected to do as well this season as they have in years past, they did receive some individual accolades.
Wisconsin freshman forward Kyle Turris was almost a unanimous vote for WCHA Freshman of the Year. Turris took nine of the 10 votes, with North Dakota's Evan Trupp receiving the lone tenth vote. The Badgers already have lofty expectations for Turris, who was the third overall pick of the Phoenix Coyotes this past summer.
In a turn that leaves no one surprised, 2007 Hobey baker Award winner Ryan Duncan of North Dakota was again listed to win the award, with five of the 10 votes. Fellow Fighting Sioux forward T.J. Oshie received three votes, while UND defenseman Taylor Chorney and Minnesota Kyle Okposo earned one vote a piece.
Wisconsin opens its season with its first practice on Saturday, Oct. 6, and the season opener is the following Friday, Oct. 12 against Notre Dame at the Lefty McFadden Tournamnet in Dayton, Ohio.
- uwbadgers.com contributed to this article.
