The Badgers' NCAA Tournament hopes were dealt a painful blow when they lost to Denver in the semifinals of the WCHA Final Five Friday night. They rallied to beat North Dakota 4-1 in the third-place game, but Sunday morning the dream of the Frozen Four was put on ice as Wisconsin found itself outside the 16-team tournament bracket.
Entering the weekend, the Badgers were coming off a dominating sweep of Minnesota State and had never fallen to Denver in the postseason. That ended quickly, as the Pioneers limited Wisconsin's shots around the crease and on rebounds while their sophomore netminder, Marc Cheverie, fended off 42 Badger shots.
The Pioneers got goals on long shots in the first and second periods from forwards Kyle Ostrow and Brian Gifford. The Badgers had a good scoring chance late in the period when a deflected shot hit the crossbar, but it ricocheted out and no UW player could get a stick on the rebound.
Denver scored once more, and Wisconsin's quest for the conference's automatic tournament berth was over. The next day, however, Mike Eaves' squad rebounded, beating North Dakota, the regular season WCHA champions, in the third-place game.
The Badgers were down 1-0 after the first period against the Sioux, giving up a close goal to senior forward Ryan Duncan and getting out-shot 17-6.
The second period was a different story when the Badgers surged ahead, putting the puck on net 25 times and lighting the lamp three times. Junior wing Andy Bohmbach tied the game with a shot from the side of the net, and both sophomore forward Jordy Murray and sophomore defenseman Brendan Smith tallied goals.
In the third, Murray scored his eighth goal of the season and second of the game, wrapping up the win over a strong Sioux team.
At the end of the night, however, it was all for naught.
The Badgers finished in a three-way tie for 15th in the PairWise rankings, which mimics the mathematical formula used to select the NCAA tournament field.
All 15 teams ahead of Wisconsin were selected, as well as Bemidji State, which won the College Hockey America conference's automatic bid. Ohio State, which was tied with the Badgers, won the tie-breaker by a small advantage in RPI, leaving Wisconsin on the outside looking in.
McBain honored
Despite his team's late season struggles, junior defenseman Jamie McBain did receive several awards both in the conference and nationally. He was named the WCHA Player of the Year and to the all-conference first team after scoring seven goals and 30 assists this year, leading the league in defenseman point scoring. He was the seventh UW player to receive the award.
McBain was also picked as one of the 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, which is given to the most outstanding player in the country each year. No Badger has won the Hobey Baker, although goaltender Brian Elliott was one of the final three in 2006. McBain is the only WCHA player among the finalists.
—uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
