In its opening home series, the No. 13 Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey team made several things abundantly clear.
The freshmen can play, the team can score, and Wisconsin was the better group on the ice at the Kohl Center in this two-game set.
With an offense playing like gangbusters, the Badgers swept Robert Morris, a team thought to be carrying a great deal of momentum to Madison, by scores of 7-2 Friday and 8-2 Saturday.
UW head coach Mike Eaves, who earlier in the week admitted that Robert Morris scared the heck"" out of him, credited his players with setting the tone.
""I think the major thing is that we played to our strengths and never allowed them to play their game,"" he said. ""There's no easy opponents out there ... We worked hard for everything we got.""
The numbers lay bare the extent to which UW (3-1) dominated its opponent, which scored two wins last weekend, including a victory over highly-ranked Boston University.
Nine different Badgers registered goals four of them scoring their first collegiate goals. Badger defensemen also put the puck in the net four times. UW went 8-17 on the power play. And both the Badger goalies - one a freshman making his first career start - got wins.
Both nights, UW jumped out to 3-0 leads, yet Robert Morris made it more of a game on Saturday when they got within 3-2 before the Badgers reeled off five straight goals to guarantee the series win.
Friday, after starting lineups were announced, the player who got the loudest ovation stole the show. Freshman forward Kyle Turris, the third overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft in June, scored a critical goal at the end of the second period to all but seal a win against the Colonials.
Up 3-1 after goals from junior forward Ben Street and two defensemen - senior Kyle Klubertanz and freshman Ryan McDonagh, who scored his first at UW - Turris skated into the opposing zone and rapped a powerful slap-shot from the right circle into the net with three seconds left.
Eaves joked after the game that only in his ""dream career"" had he made a shot like that, a telling statement, considering it came from UW's all-time points leader. ""It was a big-time shot, for sure,"" he said.
""I think we saw what he's capable of doing,"" Eaves added of Turris. ""We saw it last weekend to a degree and he just carried on with it this weekend.""
Turris added another goal in the third, as did Street. Sophomore Blake Geoffrion also got in on the act with his first goal of the year, making it the first game since February of 2006 in which UW scored seven times.
It took only one night, however, to upstage that performance. Eaves, with input from an assistant coach, decided to give freshman Scott Gudmandson his first career start after a 24 save performance from junior Shane Connelly on Friday. Gudmandson held his own (25 saves) while the offense provided plenty of support.
UW had a 3-0 lead on the strength of goals from Geoffrion, Turris and freshman forward Patrick Johnson 's first career score before Robert Morris made a game of it.
But UW barraged the Colonials through the second and third period with goals from freshman forward Podge Turnbull (first career), sophomore forward Michael Davies, Klubertanz, Davies again and freshman defenseman Brendan Smith, who netted his first goal as a Badger.
After making it a successful home weekend, the Badgers now have a bye week before the beginning of conference play, which Eaves said will lead to the real test for UW's young roster.
""Everybody's excited now, it's early in the season,"" Eaves said. ""When we get into that second half, it becomes a war. We've experienced that and it will be real interesting seeing if we can go to the point where we can handle that.
