The Badgers (10-6-2 WCHA, 13-10-3 overall) will begin their stretch run in conference play with a series against Minnesota-Duluth (7-6-3 WCHA, 13-7-6 overall) at the Kohl Center. Wisconsin is coming off of a bye week, which helped the team adjust to school and completely rid themselves of the effects of a road trip to Alaska.
Anchorage is finally kind of over with for us. Everyone's got their legs back, no one's fatigued anymore from it,"" junior defenseman Jamie McBain said. ""Then obviously it was nice to have that week to kind of get adjusted to school too, not having to worry about anything. Now I feel we've got everything organized and under our belts and we're ready for the second half.""
The Bulldogs enter Madison with the top powerplay unit in the conference, scoring 23.6 percent of the time when they have the man advantage. That could be limited as the Kohl Center rink is larger and has more open space than the one Duluth usually plays on.
""It's a different type of game in the DECC, you're in a pinball machine,"" Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said. ""Here there's a little more time and space. One thing about Duluth in watching video, they're going to try to take that time and space away. Even on a big sheet of ice, they're going to come at us '¦ try to force us to turn the puck over in spaces that we don't want to.""
Another challenge for the Badgers will be Minnesota-Duluth junior netminder Alex Stalock, who currently leads the conference in both save percentage and goals against average. Stalock, however, is not shy about escaping the crease and often playing the puck.
""That's the kind of goalie he is. We've known that,"" McBain said. ""He's like a third defenseman out there so you know he's always going to try to get out and play it, that's how he gets into the game. So we try to, for the most part, get the puck to him and then maybe hopefully take away walls and make him make a mistake and maybe cough one up for us.""
Eaves compared Stalock to Colorado College goaltender Richard Bachman in terms of his ability to play the puck.
Stalock anchors the WCHA's best defense, but will face a Badger squad that can get scoring production from any of its four lines and is averaging 3.72 goals against conference opponents this season.
The Badgers had won three straight against Alaska-Anchorage and Colorado College before the lost to the Tigers in the last game they played two weeks ago. Their schedule will get tougher as they end of the season approaches with a series against Minnesota, Denver and North Dakota, all in the top four of the conference standings, after this weekend.
The puck drops at 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. Both games will be broadcast on Wisconsin Public Television.
