No. 13 Wisconsin men's hockey head coach Mike Eaves described this year's squad as having a fire-wagon"" offense, and it did not disappoint during this weekend's home opener against Robert Morris.
Wisconsin scored a total of 15 goals over the two-game series, something that is almost unheard of in today's college hockey.
However, the weekend was not without mistakes, as both the Badgers and the Colonials had trouble getting a feel for the new officiating system.
Unlike in year's past, UW will now have to adjust to two referees and two linesmen, instead of just one referee. The addition of another referee resulted in far more penalties as Wisconsin and Robert Morris combined for 56 penalty minutes during Friday night's game, and 40 penalty minutes in Saturday's affair. Eaves knows there will be a learning curve this season with the new officiating crews.
""We are going to go through some bugs like the NHL did with their two -referee system,"" Eaves said.
With such a young team, it will be interesting to see how the Badgers adjust to two referees, but Eaves feels that his young squad will be able to handle the extra adversity.
""We talk about being a smart team and part of that is recognizing what the referees are calling and trying to stay away from those things,"" Eaves said.
The new officiating crew was not the only milestone on the ice this weekend, as four Badger freshmen notched their first career goals. Defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Brendan Smith, along with forwards Podge Turnbull and Patrick Johnson all found the back of the net over the weekend.
These freshmen - along with sterling performances by freshman forward Kyle Turris, sophomore forward Blake Geoffrion and junior forward Ben Street - led UW against the Colonials.
Turris and Street were key contributors in Friday night's 7-2 victory, as each scored two goals and added two assists. Geoffrion stole the show on Saturday, scoring the first goal of the game along with four assists.
The Badgers were able to score in rather impressive fashion. Wisconsin scored on 8-of-17 power play opportunities, a staggering statistic.
The defense also made a stand on the offensive attack. Wisconsin's defensemen have already accumulated the same point total - after only four games - that took last year's team 16 games to achieve. The Badgers are hoping the defensemen will only continue to contribute on the offensive end.
""I think it is going to be pretty important. We have got some talent back there, kids that like to go, so I think we will play a pretty big part,"" senior defenseman Kyle Klubertanz said. ""Hopefully we can chip in kind of like we did tonight with some goals. But it is going to be big for us.""
Overall, Eaves feels his team did fairly well during the weekend sweep.
""We passed a test, which was to play back-to-back nights and play at a pretty high level. I would say that of the six periods we played this weekend, we played five pretty darn well.
