It was a weekend of “firsts” for the Wisconsin men’s hockey team (10-4-2 WCHA, 15-15-2 overall), as the Badgers earned their first road sweep of the season against the Bemidji State.
Wisconsin overcame back-to-back first period deficits and used big second periods on both nights to propel themselves to consecutive 4-2 victories over the Beavers (9-14-3, 15-16-3) in two strikingly similar games.
Road wins have been rare enough for the Badgers, who had won just one game away from the Kohl Center this season prior to this weekend, but with Saturday’s victory, Wisconsin clinched its first road sweep in over a year (Jan. 28-29, 2011 at Michigan Tech).
Bemidji State took an early lead Friday night as junior defenseman Jake Areshenko put a one-time shot from the point past Badger freshman Landon Peterson less than three minutes into the first period.
Wisconsin was unfazed however, scoring three second period goals to take a commanding 3-1 lead. Sophomore defenseman Frankie Simonelli tied the game at one before junior Justin Schultz scored his team-leading 14th goal of the season to put UW ahead.
Sophomore forward Michael Mersch added his 11th goal of the season and junior defenseman John Ramage put home an empty net goal with 32 seconds remaining to give Wisconsin the 4-2 victory.
“That’s huge,” Peterson said on winning on the road. “It’s a huge momentum swing because it doesn’t give [Bemidji State] momentum.”
Wisconsin overcame 1-0 and 2-1 deficits Saturday night, as well as having their captain, Ramage, ejected early in the first period for contact to the head, with offensive production from some unexpected places.
Freshman forward Brad Navin netted his third goal of the season, with an assist from sophomore Jason Clark (his first point of the season) to put UW on the board, and with just over a minute to go in the second, sophomore forward Sean Little scored his first goal as a Badger to tie the game at two.
Schultz and Mersch also added tallies in the third period to give Wisconsin its second consecutive 4-2 win.
The Badgers won in front of freshman goalie Joel Rumpel on Saturday night, who was playing in his first game since receiving a deep laceration on his leg last Friday night against Denver. The two wins this weekend also push UW ahead of Bemidji State in the WCHA standings, as they take over sole possession of ninth place in the conference.
With no more home games on the schedule and home-ice advantage an impossibility for the WHCA playoffs, the Badgers are going to have to prove they can play well on the road on a regular basis if they want to close out this season on a high note.
It may have taken until the second to last weekend of the season, but Wisconsin’s first road sweep of the year shows that they aren’t going to end this year without a fight.
Wisconsin closes out its 2011-’12 regular season schedule by traveling to Minneapolis to take on archrival Minnesota next weekend.
