Things have not come easy this season for the Wisconsin men’s hockey team (1-5-2 WCHA, 1-7-2 overall), but the team will have a chance to right the ship this weekend in the same building where it saw its 2011-’12 season end—on the road against No. 5 Denver (7-1-0, 9-3-0).
While the Badgers fell 2-1 in the best-of-three series last spring, they were playing better hockey than they had all season—a feat they will look to replicate as they try to put an end to their seven-game winless streak.
“We did play well there last year, we had great effort,” sophomore defenseman Jake McCabe said. “We were playing our best hockey at that point in time and right now we’re in a little bit of a slump. We just need to focus on getting that first win here—that’s [where] all our focus is.”
The Pioneers are in a bit of a slump themselves after dropping two games last weekend against Yale and New Hampshire.
Despite the losses, Denver is still second overall in the nation in goals per game (4.17) and have three of the top-30 point producers in the country, led by junior forward Nick Shore. The Denver native has already racked up six goals and 11 assists in his first 12 games this season.
“They’re scoring off the charts,” head coach Mike Eaves said in a press conference this week. “Right now they may have had that wind blowing at their back in terms of goal scoring—things going off legs—you don’t know how they’ve been scoring. They’ll be all ready for us now that they’ve lost a couple of games.”
While Wisconsin has had problems putting the puck in the net so far this season, it should get a boost this weekend with the debut of freshman forward Nic Kerdiles.
The Irvine, Calif., native was suspended for the first 10 games of the season by the NCAA for receiving impermissible benefits, but he is eager to step onto the ice for the first time as a Badger.
“I think my adrenaline is going to be pumping and I’ll be ready to go,” Kerdiles said. “I’m just going to keep a simple game going, try to help my team out with my energy and hopefully put a couple pucks in the net—that’d be nice, too.”
Expectations are high for Kerdiles—the second-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks in the 2012 NHL draft—but his teammates and coaches don’t want to put too much pressure on him right away.
“[We] just try to tell Nic not to try to do too much,” McCabe said. “The worst thing you can do is press yourself offensively and try to do too much. He’s a skill player, he’s just got to let the game come to him.”
Wisconsin may receive another offensive boost this weekend, as junior forward Mark Zengerle will travel with the team after missing the team’s last four games with a broken finger.
It is not known whether Zengerle—the nation’s top returning scorer from a season ago—will dress for the series, but if he is able to go, it would be a major upgrade for an offense that is averaging just 1.80 goals per game.
The Badgers and Pioneers will receive some national attention this weekend as Friday night’s game will be aired on the NBC Sports Network at 9 p.m.
