After spending its first weekend on the East Coast, the Wisconsin men's hockey team will be going the other direction for the next two days.
The Badgers will open conference play on the road Friday night against the No. 10 Denver Pioneers. The teams met three times last season, yielding two very memorable games.
It's just two really good teams. We have mutual respect for each other, but at the same time we really don't like each other going into the game,"" senior goaltender Shane Connelly said.
In their first regular-season meeting, Wisconsin lost on a controversial disallowed goal late in the game. The Badgers, however, won the second game of the series.
The next time they met was the first round of the NCAA tournament, when Wisconsin upset Denver in the Kohl Center, ending their season.
The Pioneers returned much of their team from last season, including high-scoring forward Tyler Bozak.
""[Denver is] really strong up front.
They will shoot the puck all the time, and they're really good at special teams. That's what we're working on this week, trying to shut them down,"" junior forward Michael Davies said. ""Just like BC and [New Hampshire], their transition game is really fast, from offense to defense and defense to offense.""
The Badgers opened their season against No. 1 Boston College and No. 7 New Hampshire. They lost both games but hung with BC for much of the contest.
Coming out of those games, the team focused on special teams in hopes of taking something from the losses.
""I think we've got to start with the simple things, playing hard. Just going to start with that. Hopefully our special teams, we've been working on it all week, hopefully that improves,"" junior defenseman Jamie McBain said.
""After the first weekend we can kind of adjust to what the refs are calling and maybe not take as many penalties to give our penalty kill a rest and hopefully just click on the power play.""
Wisconsin could not convert on any of its 16 power plays in the first two games and allowed three powerplay goals. Against BC, they also gave up a pair of shorthanded goals.
One theme that came out of the first weekend was production from freshmen. First-year players accumulated half of Wisconsin's 14 points this season.
""There were some times that the young defensemen actually did some very nice things in playing their first college game,"" Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said. ""I just think overall it was a very pleasant surprise, a good start for them.""
Denver has only played one game this season, a 5-2 win over No. 8 Notre Dame.
Despite coming close to sweeping the Pioneers last season, the Badgers are preparing for a difficult road game.
""I think they're definitely going to use [the tournament loss] for motivation,"" Davies said. We're just going to come out and control the things that we can control and play our game.""
The puck drops at 8:30 p.m. Friday and 8:00 p.m. Saturday. Friday's game can be seen on Fox Sports Net.
