Facing a team that has experienced a slow start followed by an unbeaten streak, the Badgers might as well be looking in a mirror.
Wisconsin will travel to the National Hockey Center this weekend to play St. Cloud State, the team currently languishing in eighth place in the WCHA. The Huskies began their season at 4-4 but have won four consecutive games since then.
One major factor in the Huskies' start has been difficulty in putting the puck between the pipes.
The past few years they've been a high octane offense, good power play,"" senior goaltender Shane Connelly said. ""They take care of their home ice pretty well, so we've got to be ready to be disciplined out there and play shut-down defensively""
St. Cloud had the WCHA's top scorer last season in the diminutive forward Ryan Lasch. He has, however, struggled this year, scoring eight points in 11 games after collecting over 50 points in 40 games one year ago.
The Husky powerplay has also struggled, converting on 3 percent of their chances one season after being tops in the WCHA. The Wisconsin coaches are still wary, especially since Wisconsin leads the conference in penalty minutes.
""Well, I hope we don't have to kill a lot [of penalties] , and that will depend on our ability to be a little smarter in the way we play and the way the referees are calling it,"" Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said. ""Secondly we've got to have good sticks, we've got to play as a unit so that we don't get spread out and give them seams and holes to take advantage of. That would probably be the best combination for us to combat what they can do.""
Wisconsin is riding a five-game unbeaten streak of its own and will be on familiar ice for this weekend's games.
The Badgers played four consecutive games at the National Hockey Center near the end of last season, winning the first and losing the next three to end their WCHA season and WCHA playoff run.
""I'm comfortable there,"" Connelly said. ""[I am] not intimidated by the environment, I enjoy playing there, it's fun, the crowd's fun. They play hard there. There's good sight lines for me to see the puck, not too many bad bounces on the boards so I know a lot of ins, outs of that rink so that makes me feel pretty comfortable.""
A number of other Badgers played in St. Cloud's arena when they were younger, including senior forward Tom Gorowsky. The Minnesota native played his first away tournament there and said he always enjoyed playing there.
Wisconsin scored 21 goals in its last five games, usually by sticking to offensive principles and converting on powerplay. They will face a challenge in Husky netminder Jase Weslosky, who struggled in his first five games but allowed only three goals last weekend against Denver, a squad that lit the lamp 11 times against Wisconsin.
""Hopefully you catch him when he's not as hot,"" Gorowsky said. ""Either way, we've just got to stick with the gameplan, throw pucks and bodies at the net, try and create chances and get in front of him, make his job hard.
