It is now crunch time for the Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey team.
With two series left in their Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular season, the Badgers (10-10-4 WCHA, 14-12-6 overall) will be fighting for playoff positioning, beginning with two games at Minnesota this weekend.
Minnesota (6-11-5, 12-13-7) would have to play nearly perfect hockey the rest of the season to play at home in the first round of the league playoffs in three weeks. The Badgers, meanwhile, are in a tie for fourth place with Minnesota State. The top five teams get home ice in the first round.
To stabilize their hold on a home-ice spot, the Badgers will need results in Minneapolis. Wisconsin was swept at Mariucci Arena last year. The year prior, it was UW who took all four points from the Gophers.
Earlier this season in a series at the Kohl Center, the Badgers posted a win and a tie over Minnesota. Since those two games, the Gophers have not won in four tries.
Badgers head coach Mike Eaves said that the Gophers nonetheless remain a dangerous team.
You can qualify their season as being down for them, but I can tell you the focus of their staff is getting ready for the playoffs and making noise,"" he said earlier this week.
Minnesota began the season as one of the capital teams in college hockey, according to the polls. But they have been on the fringes of the polls ever since the series in Madison. Since a loss and a tie to North Dakota at home the week after playing UW, they have failed to make the top-20 in USCHO.com's weekly rankings.
The Badgers go into this series ranked No. 10 in that poll and No. 12 in the USA Today rankings.
The Gophers still remain a highly competitive team, having stretched six of their last nine games into overtime. Eaves said he expects their best shot.
""They are preparing for Friday night, and they are going to prepare as well as they can to get back on track and do the things that they want to do to help them play well when they get in the playoffs,"" he said.
Coming off a bye week, Minnesota will be looking to get its offense back into gear. Over the past eight games, the Gophers have scored a mere 10 goals. Even with their stout defense, allowing on average fewer than two goals per game over that span, the offensive struggles have made wins hard to come by.
Still, the Gophers rank fourth nationally in lowest percentage of time trailing, meaning that they often score first. They are led in goals and points by junior Blake Wheeler, a 2004 draft pick of the Phoenix Coyotes. Wisconsin's leader in points, Kyle Turris, was a 2007 pick of the same team.
UW will also be going up against a solid freshman goaltender. Alex Kangas has a 1.75 goals against average in his 11 starts since the holiday break, including two that came in the cross-border rivalry.
With their post-season fate at stake, the Badgers are focused less on history and more on points.
""Nothing has changed for us in terms of that mindset of going out and getting points,"" Eaves said.
