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The Daily Cardinal Est. 1892
Friday, March 29, 2024
McCabe

Jake McCabe—who has been out with a hand injury since the end of October—is nearing a return to the Badgers’ lineup.

Men's Hockey: UW to face off with No. 1 Bulldogs

Coming off of its bye-week, the Wisconsin men’s hockey team (4-7-1 WCHA, 7-8-1 overall) is hoping that that time off will have the team in top shape as it prepares to welcome No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth (9-2-1, 11-3-2) to the Kohl Center this weekend.

Head coach Mike Eaves used the Badgers week off from playing games as an excuse to push them last week in practice, and he said he was pleased with what he saw.

“We felt as a coaching staff it was a productive week,” Eaves said. “We pushed each other in practice. We did a lot of competitive drills, we had high-tempo drills, and we covered a lot of details. So, I think we walk away from this week feeling good about ourselves.”

“I think we’re a better team for the week we’ve had,” he added.

The Bulldogs will be the third top-five ranked team to play at the Kohl Center this season. Wisconsin swept then-No. 5 North Dakota in Madison in late October, and Minnesota was the top-ranked team in the nation when the Badgers split with the Gophers last month at home.

After winning the national championship last season, Minnesota-Duluth stumbled out of the gates to a 1-3 start this season, but hasn’t lost since falling 5-4 to Minnesota Oct. 15—a 12-game unbeaten stretch in which the Bulldogs have a record of 10-0-2.

Eaves led the Badgers to a national title in 2006, and he knows that defending champions face added pressure the season after a championship, but said the Bulldogs’ national championship experience will serve them well.

“They talk about championship hangovers,” Eaves said. “There is a mental state that you go through; you’ve won; it’s a new season; I think you get caught up in listening to everybody tell you what a great job you did but now it’s a new start. Maybe [Duluth’s] slow start was part of that, but they’ve played better of late.”

“They’ve got a lot of pieces. They know internally what it takes to win a championship, and that is a precious commodity to have within a locker room.”

McCabe close to return

Eaves said freshman defenseman Jake McCabe is nearing a return to the lineup. McCabe has been out since suffering a severed tendon in his finger during the North Dakota series. Eaves said McCabe was able to take full practice on Friday and Saturday and that he will be further evaluated in practice this week but that it will take some time for McCabe to fully readjust to the game.

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“I don’t think anybody truly knows where Jake is going to be when he comes back,” Eaves said. “He was just starting to come on and understand the college game when he got hurt.”

“In terms of where he is at that first game back, you’d probably think that he’s going to be a little step behind because he’s not used to the pace, but we need him to get in there and start going.”

McCabe was paired with junior defenseman Justin Schultz on the blue line before his injury, but Eaves said the pair won’t be reunited right away as he has liked what he has seen from junior defenseman Frankie Simonelli on the top defensive unit with Schultz since McCabe went out.

“They’ve grown a good chemistry together, and they are feeding off of each other a little bit,” Eaves said of Simonelli and Schultz. “We don’t have to rush Jake McCabe back in with Schultz; we can afford to leave Frank in there and see how Jake does and go from there.”

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