Western Collegiate Hockey Association games matter most to the Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey team. On that basis, the Badgers' results over the past three weekends have been less than ideal.
After a tie and a win at the Badger Hockey Showdown in late December 2007, the Badgers faced off against two of the powerhouses in their conference, going 1-3 over that stretch. With those games in the books, they sit in a three-way tie for sixth place in the league, albeit with a favorable schedule on the horizon.
The Badgers (5-8-1 WCHA, 9-10-3 overall) would have been content with this portion of their schedule if they had not played Colorado College. A week after tying Colgate and defeating Bowling Green in the third-place game at the 19th annual Showdown at the Kohl Center, the Badgers seemingly had momentum.
Conference play picked up again on Jan. 4 at the Kohl Center, when the Badgers were looking for payback after being swept in Colorado Springs, Co., in November 2007.
UW had a chance to get to .500 in the WCHA, but playing against the No. 4 team in the country without freshman forward Kyle Turris, sophomore forward Blake Geoffrion and sophomore defenseman Jamie McBain - all three were skating in the IIHF World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic - the Badgers began a three-game slide.
A 2-0 loss in the opener and a 3-1 defeat the following night dropped the Badgers to three games under .500 in the conference and to a tie for eighth place. The only goal of that weekend came from freshman forward Sean Dolan, his third of the season. Dolan's rebound score came just 13 seconds into the game, four seconds away from the UW record.
Last weekend the Badgers traveled to Denver to take on the No. 3 Pioneers, and Friday's finish will go down as the most controversial in recent memory.
With Turris, Geoffrion and McBain all back in the lineup, the Badgers fell down 3-0 before mounting a comeback.
Sophomore forward Aaron Bendickson redirected a shot by Turris for his third goal of the year in the second period. Early in the third period, sophomore forward Ben Grotting netted his first goal of the season to cut the lead to 3-2.
Controversy began after a face-off with 3.7 seconds showing on the clock at Magness Arena, where issues with the clock that night were commonplace, according to uwbadgers.com. Senior forward Matthew Ford collected the puck off the draw and let loose on a shot that television replays showed beat Denver's goaltender before time expired.
After reviewing the play, the referee disallowed the goal, giving the Badgers their third straight loss.
In a news release on Saturday, the WCHA acknowledged that the goal should have counted, saying the league regrets"" the error. Earlier this week UW head coach Mike Eaves said the team was ""seeing what our options are."" Nevertheless, he said the WCHA considered the game to be final, and his comments seemed pointed toward putting in place a better system for the future.
After the emotional conclusion to Friday's game, the Badgers came back strong Saturday, earning their first road win of the season, 7-2. Denver scored first, but the Badgers struck back with three first-period goals from freshmen forwards Patrick Johnson, Podge Turnbull and Turris.
Both junior forward Ben Street and sophomore forward Michael Davies scored in the second period to put the Badgers up 5-1. In the third, freshman defenseman Ryan McDonagh and Turris scored to give the Badgers seven goals, the third time they have scored at least that many this season.
Now, behind a conference win, the Badgers continue their league schedule on the road against Alaska-Anchorage.
The series gives UW a chance to gain points in the standings against the league's lowest-ranking team.
- uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
