Wisconsin Badgers falling on tough times at the gate

English: Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey pregame huddle in a game against Boston University on October 8, 2010 at the 2010 Warrior Ice Breaker Tournament. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In years past, the Wisconsin Badgers hockey team have been the pace setter for attendance numbers in division I college hockey and in the WCHA.

They have the biggest building and they’ve packed it to the roof with rabid screaming fans. The Kohl Center used to be one of the most intimidating places to play in all of college hockey.

Now the Kohl center has become friendlier for the opposition teams.

This season, the Kohl season has been known more for the dwindling crowds and unimpressive showings by the home team. Currently, the Badgers have a 7-7-3 record on home ice.

The Badgers didn’t win a game at home until the December 13, 2012, when they beat lowly Huntsville 5-0.

On the road the Badgers have an impressive 6-2-4 record.

That reign as the national attendance leaders will come to an end this season, North Dakota leads the nation in attendance with 187,397 through 16 dates for an average of 11,712 per game.

If you have noticed, the Wisconsin Badgers hockey team is experiencing a decline in attendance numbers for couple of years now.  Andy Johnson from Bucky’s Fifth Quarter wrote an article about this recently.

If you watched the Badgers last two games on television, you would have noticed a lot of fans posing as empty red seats.  The Badgers aren’t packing them in like they used to.

Each year, since the 2009-10 season, the Wisconsin Badgers have been the leaders in attendance for Division I college hockey.  Since the 2010-11 season, those numbers have been in decline. There are some in the Wisconsin fan base that are already starting to point the finger. Some of the blame is landing on the shoulders of head coach Mike Eaves.

There could be some factors that are playing into this? You have to wonder, if the Badgers last series being on Sunday-Monday also figured into the poor showing, at least for this past week.  There was also a series against Huntsville earlier this season that only drew 17,011 for two games when the arena seats 15,209 for a hockey game according to the Kohl Center web site.

According to Andy Baggot of the Madison.com, there are going to be more of these odd ball non-traditional series on Sunday-Monday, but they’re certainly not going to be the norm.

Who is to blame for not the Badgers not filling the Kohl Center?

I suppose you “could” blame the economy, let’s face facts we are in an economic decline as a nation. People don’t have as much disposable income as they used to.

Barring a heroic late season run through the WCHA playoffs, culminating with a Broadmoor Trophy, the Wisconsin Badgers are probably going to miss the NCAA playoffs for the third season in a row and the fifth time in the last seven seasons. The Badgers put themselves in a tough spot starting the season off going 1-7-3 before going on an amazing run of 13-4-4.

Then there is the elephant sitting it the room. Maybe it’s the fact that no one really wants to watch the product on the ice. Not with that style of play.

But let’s be frank, who really wants to watch the Wisconsin Badgers hockey team play hockey? The casual hockey fan might not.

While I am not a fan of the team per-see, I am hardly a casual hockey fan, I tried to watch the Badgers play the other night and I found the product on the ice to be unwatchable. Honestly, I couldn’t watch them play; it was an absolutely brutal hockey game. I literally turned the game off and rented the movie Skyfall on DirecTV instead of watching college hockey. I have to admit, that doesn’t happen very often at my house. Hockey is on from the first week in October to the last face off of the Stanley Cup Finals.

I know some in Badger nation are going to be mad at me, but I am going to call it like it is.

If you want to watch a hockey team that is sound defensively, that is bookended by two great goaltenders the Wisconsin Badgers are your team.

Don’t count on the Badgers to score a lot of goals. This isn’t the 2005-06 team that won the National Championship that had two forwards with 50 or more points and two players that scored 20 or more goals. This is a team that is starved for offense, that’s going to try to slow things down and clog up the neutral zone.

The Badgers are ranked 50 out of 59 teams for offense nationally. In their 11 loses they have scored 17 goals that’s an average of 1.54 goals per game. In my opinion, the best way to beat the Badgers is to get an early lead because they’re offensively challenged.

Mike Eaves has been the Badgers head coach since the 2000-03 season and he has compiled a respectable record of 223-167-51 (.563) in eleven seasons at Wisconsin. But after eleven seasons, there are some in the Wisconsin fan base that would like to see Eaves shown the door.

During Eave’s tenure, Wisconsin hasn’t won a Broadmoor Trophy (1997- 1998) or a McNaughton Cup (1999-2000).  However, Eaves’ teams have done well in the national tourney, when they have gotten there, as the Badgers won an NCAA title in 2005-06 and were the Runner up in 2009-10.

If the Badgers don’t win some game next year, make the NCAA tourney and start playing a more exciting brand of hockey they’re going to risk alienating their fan base. That being said, I am thankful that I am not their audience, because If I had to watch their on ice product on a regular basis I would be frustrated and bored with it. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future.

Here are the Badgers Attendance numbers for the last six seasons, incase you wanted to see the numbers.

17 games — 2012-13   171,966—10,116

20 games — 2011-12   235,458—11,773

22 games — 2010-11   290,970—13,226

21 games — 2009-10   316,014—15,048

22 games — 2008-09   303,261—13,785

18 games — 2007-08    242,184—13,455

Cross Posted at the Hockey Writers Combine. 

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Weekend Match-Ups (by Sioux 7)

Here we are the start of a new year, 2013, and the start of the second half of the WCHA season.  I hope everyone enjoyed Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa and the New Year Holiday, I know I did J

WCHA STANDINGS 2012-2013

Team………………………W-L-T………Points

1. St. Cloud St………….…9-5-0………….18
2. North Dakota.………..…7-2-3…..……...17
2. Denver…………..………7-4-3………....17
4. Minnesota State……….8-6-0.…...…….16
5. Minnesota………………6-3-3………….15
5. Nebraska-Omaha………7-4-1……........15
7. Minnesota-Duluth….…..5-6-3…………..13
8. Colorado College ……..5-6-1..….……..11
8. Bemidji State……..…….4-7-3..…….......11
10. Wisconsin…....…………2-5-5………......9
10. Michigan Tech………….3-8-3……….….9
12. Alaska-Anchorage…......1-8-3…...….…..5

WCHA

Wisconsin @ Alaska-Anchorage

Last weekend both the Badgers and Seawolves were off for the holidays.

After this series these teams will be halfway through the league schedule and will be in the lower half still.  The funny thing is this is the first of two series these teams play against each other this month.  They meet again in Madison the 25^th and 26^th of January too.  The Badgers with a sweep could almost even their record, almost. The Seawolves need some wins and momentum if they want to climb their way up the ladder.  This series will likely be the last time the Badgers visit Anchorage in a long time, given the upcoming conference changes.  I’m going with the upset special to start the year.  SEAWOLVES SWEEP

Colorado College @ #16 Nebraska-Omaha

Last weekend, the Tigers were off and the Mavericks were swept by the Quinnipiac Bobcats.

The Tigers appear to be on a vegetarian diet as of late, they haven’t feed the win column in the last 5 games.  CC has only one win in its last ten games.  The Mavericks have also fallen on hard times with only one win in their last five games.  The Tigers are a respectable 3-5-0 on the road and the Mavericks are 6-3-1 in Omaha this year.  I’m taking the easy prediction here.  SPLIT

Non Conference Games

#10 Western Michigan @ Bemidji St.

Last weekend, the Broncos tied Michigan St. (1-1) and lost to MTU (4-0) at the Great Lakes Invitational tournament.  The Beavers lost to UMass (4-3) and New Hampshire (3-2 ot) in the Ledyard Bank Classic.

The Broncos are 3-3-1 away from Kalamazoo this year and the Beavers are 3-3-2 at home in Bemidji this year.  The Beavers have been play well the last month and I don’t see them getting swept at home to start 2013.  SPLIT

#12 Cornell @ #11 Denver
The Pioneers defeated Boston U (6-0) over the holiday weekend, to end an eight game winless streak.  The Big Red beat Ferris State (5-3) and lost to Maine (6-4) in the Florida College Classic last weekend.

Cornell has played only three away games this season and are 1-2-0 in those contests.  The Pioneers are 7-4-1 at home in Magnus Arena this season.  It’s hard to say if DU is off their slide after their win.  And if the pollsters are accurate, this should be a very even series with eleven versus twelve.  SPLIT

Providence @ #14 Minnesota State

The Friars were off over the holidays and the Mavericks beat Brown (3-1) and Connecticut (3-1) in the UConn Hockey Classic.

The Mavericks are still red purple hot, only losing once in their last nine games, going 8-1-0 over that span.  The Friars are on a three game winless skid going 0-1-2, and are currently sitting in fourth place in Hockey East.  I have to go with the hot hand in this series.  MAVERICKS SWEEP

Northern Michigan @ #15 St. Could St.

The Wildcats were off over the holidays and the Huskies split a series with RPI (4-3L, 2-1W) in St. Cloud.

The Wildcats have one win (over MTU) in their last six games, and the Huskies have won three of their last four games.  SCSU will be looking to build some momentum this weekend before mushing into the WCHA schedule the rest of the year.  HUSKIES SWEEP

#20 Holy Cross @ #7 North Dakota

Last weekend, the Crusaders beat Yale 5-4 and NoDak enjoying the Christmas and New Years weekends off.

The last time the Crusaders were in Grand Forks was March 24-25, 2006, for the NCAA west regional.  I’m sure many of you remember those games. HC beat the Gophers 4-3 in overtime, in the opening game, which many called the greatest upset in NCAA history of hockey.  UND beat Michigan in their first round game, and then beat HC in the regional final 5-2.  This time around I don’t think Holy Cross will leave Grand Forks with a win.  NODAK SWEEP

#3 Notre Dame @ #1 Minnesota (Tuesday)

The Irish have been off since mid-December and the Gophers beat Air Force (4-0) and Boston College (8-1) in the Mariucci Classic last weekend.

The Irish are on a 6 game winning streak (their last loss was to UND on 11-23-12) and the Gophers are on a 5 game unbeaten streak.  I’m going to say rust is going to be on the Irish and the Gophers will jump to an early lead and hold on to win.

BYE WEEK

Minnesota-Duluth
Michigan Tech

Weekend Match-Ups (by Sioux 7)

Hopefully every American enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend and spent time with family or friends.  Now that the turkey hangover should be a distant memory, we continue on our way with a full helping of WCHA games this weekend.

WCHA STANDINGS 2012-2013

Team………………………W-L-T………Points
1. Denver…………..………7-1-0………....14
2. St. Cloud St………….…5-3-0………….10
2. Minnesota………………4-2-2………….10
4. Nebraska-Omaha………4-1-1……........9
5. Colorado College ……..4-2-0..….……..8
5. North Dakota.………..…3-1-2…..……...8
7. Bemidji State……..…….2-4-2.…….......6
7. Michigan Tech………….3-5-0…………6
7. Minnesota State………..3-5-0.…...……6
10. Wisconsin…....………..1-5-2………....4
10. Minnesota-Duluth….…1-5-2………….4
12. Alaska-Anchorage…....0-3-3…...…….3

WCHA Games

#7 North Dakota @ #18 Colorado College

Last weekend NoDak split with the Irish in South Bend (2-1, 2-5) and the Tigers tied with New Hampshire (4-4ot) on Friday and lost to Yale (6-5ot), on Saturday in Colorado Springs.

ND and CC find themselves tied for fifth in the league after six games.  The Tigers are 3-3-0 at World Arena this season in NoDak is 2-3-0 away from home.  ND has won every Friday night game this season and has been less than perfect on Saturday evenings.  The Tigers have fallen on hard times, again, they are winless in their last four games, 0-3-1.  CC has gone streaking this year, 3-wins, 3-loses, 4-wins, and now 4-winless.  The Tigers have a tough stretch starting this weekend hosting NoDak, then UMinn, and then at SCSU, before the Christmas break.  I’m saying these team end the weekend they way they started, tied in the standings.  SPLIT

Wisconsin @ #5 Denver

Last weekend the Badgers were swept by the MSUM Mavericks (4-2, 4-2) in Madison and the Pioneers lost to Yale (2-1ot) on Friday and lost to New Hampshire (6-4) on Saturday in Denver.

I think the Pioneers were suffering from a double hangover last weekend, the CC games and the Thanksgiving holiday.  DU got a wakeup call with a pair of wins last weekend.  But the doctor might have the right prescription to help DU, a woefully Badger team, comes into Magnus this weekend.  UW has managed a total of 18 goals over a total of 10 games; the Badgers however have limited the damage, by only allowing 29 goals over their 10 games.  In the end, the Pioneers should bury the Badgers.  PIONEERS SWEEP

Bemidji St. @ Minnesota State

Last weekend the Beavers took 3-pts from the Seawolves (2-2ot, 5-4) in Bemidji and the Mavericks swept the Badgers (4-2, 4-2) in Madison.

With these teams in a three way tie for seventh, it should mean a couple of too close to call games.  Both are coming off successful Thanksgiving weekends, with MSUM getting four points and BSU collecting three points in the league.  Both have scored one less goal than they have allowed, overall, with the Beavers at 28-29 and the Mavericks at 35-36.  The numbers are telling me it should be a split, so that is what I’m going with.  SPLIT

Minnesota-Duluth @ Michigan Tech

Last weekend the Bulldogs split with the SCSU Huskies (2-1, 1-5) in Duluth and the MTU Huskies enjoyed their open Thanksgiving weekend.

The Bulldogs finally notched a conference win, with a 2-1 victory on Friday night.  UMD is 1-4-1 this year away from Duluth, while the Huskies are 2-3-0 in Houghton, overall.  When looking at both teams goals for and against, they are almost even, UMD has 29-37, and MTU has 31-36.  The Huskies could even their league record with a couple of wins this weekend, and but the Bulldogs further in their rear view mirror.  A pointless weekend for the Bulldogs would certainly cause further concern in Duluth.  Huskies 3-points

#14 St. Could St. @ Alaska-Anchorage

Last weekend the Huskies split with the Bulldogs (1-2, 5-1) in Duluth and the Seawolves got a point from the Beavers (2-2ot, 4-5) in Bemidji.

The Seawolves find themselves in the bottom spot in the league after six games, the upside is UAA has two games in hand on most of the league.  UAA is now the last team looking for their first conference win.  SCSU finds themselves in an excellent position, tied for second in the WCHA.  The Huskies are looking to improve on their 2-4-0 road record this weekend, and playing in Anchorage could be what they need.  Even though the Seawolves haven’t won a WCHA game this year, you still have to play your game, or UAA can/will beat you.  HUSKIES SWEEP

#13 Nebraska-Omaha @ #3 Minnesota

Last weekend the Mavericks swept the UAH Chargers (3-2, 8-0) in Omaha and the Gophers swept the Catamounts (5-1, 3-1) in Vermont.

The Mavericks trail the Gophers by a lone point in the standings, but have played two fewer games than the Gophers.  The Mavericks are currently on a 6-game winning streak and the Gophers are on a 6-game unbeaten streak, 4-0-2, so unless there is a pair of ties, somebody’s streak is going to come to an end.  SPLIT

Pre-Season Predictions (by Sioux 7)

PRESEASON PREDICTIONS The last WCHA season as we currently know it is about to start, this season will mark the end of epic an era. The WCHA has been one of the top conferences for as long as I can remember, and it will be reborn with some schools remaining (Michigan Tech, Minnesota State, Alaska-Anchorage, and Bemidji State) and new ones (Alaska (Fairbanks), Northern Michigan (they return after leaving the WCHA in ‘92), Ferris State, & Lake Superior State) joining. Before I get into this year’s predictions, let’s look back on how last year finished up, below are the final regular season records.

WCHA FINAL STANDINGS 2011-2012

Team………………..……W-L-T………Points
1. Minnesota…………...…20-8-0…..…….40
2. Minnesota-Duluth……..16-7-5….……..37
3. Denver…………...........16-8-4………....36
4. North Dakota.………....16-11-1….….…33
5. Colorado College …….15-12-1…….….31
6. St. Cloud St…………...12-12-4……..…28
7. Nebraska-Omaha……...11-12-5…….....27
8. Michigan Tech………..11-13-4………..26
9. Bemidji State……..…..11-14-3.…….....25
10. Wisconsin…....………11-15-2..….…..24
11. Minnesota State……...8-18-2..…….....18
12. Alaska-Anchorage…...5-22-1………...11

The Final 5 in St. Paul featured MTU, SCSU, UND, DU, UMD, and UM. The WCHA tournament went like this – Thursday, DU defeated MTU 3-2 in OT, and UND defeated SCSU 4-1 – Friday DU beat UMD 4-3 in a 2-ot thriller, and UND defeat UM in an exciting 6-3 comeback win – Saturday UND defeated DU 4-0, to claim their 3rd consecutive Broadmoor Trophy. With that in mind here are my less than well-educated guesses as to who will finish where…

12 – Alaska-Anchorage – Let’s face facts, the Seawolves have been in the bottom half of the standings every year. That doesn’t mean they are doormats though, they are in most of their games and they don’t give up. Dave Shyiak is a good coach; he keeps his teams competitive with the recruits/players he gets. Alaska isn’t high on most kid’s list of places to go to college, and all the long flights taking their toll on these college students. I don’t see them in the top half of the standings, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they finished out of the twelve spot.

11 – Minnesota State – The Mavericks will have a new coach this year, Mike Hastings, he replaces Troy Jutting, who was at MSUM for the previous 12 years. Hastings was an assistant coach with UNO the past 3 years, and was with Minnesota before that, he is a 1993 alumni of SCSU. With a new coach at the helm, players will have to adjust to their new leader. I think a year or two down the road these purple pucksters could make a run up the new WCHA standings.

10 – Bemidji State – The Beavers were one of four teams last year that had eleven wins in league play and where three games below .500. Like most of the bottom half teams, they need to get more scoring from their top lines, if they want to finish with a winning record.

9 – Michigan Tech – The Huskies from Houghton almost made it to an even record to end the season. But they did make the Final Five and gave DU all they could handle in their play-in game. You could say that BSU has a “favorable” schedule this year, in that they don’t play four games against many of the “powers that be”. Don’t be too surprised if you hear the Huskies do some howling this year.

8 – Wisconsin – The Badgers struggled last year, we’ll call last season a rebuilding year. They have been a defense first team, starting with the goalie and working out from there. Now that they have some experienced goaltending in their Badger burrow, they can start building themselves back up. Coach Eaves knows what it takes to win, so we’ll all have to watch and see how fast they put it all together in Madison.

7 – Nebraska-Omaha – The Mavericks lost assistant coach Mike Hastings to Mankato in the off season, but gained Mankato’s old head coach Troy Jutting as an assistant. MSUM and UNO games could turn into a rivalry now that they have swapped coaches. UNO needs to be more consistent across the board, last year it seemed as if the offense was good, then defense and goaltending were off, and vise versa. If they get that squared away they could be a top half team.

6 – Colorado College – The Tigers won four of their last twelve games to finish out their year, and lost their first round playoff series at home to visiting MTU. Last year they started off hot and cold off, I’m sure they want the same start this year, but a different finish…We’ll just have to wait and see…

5 – St. Cloud State – The Huskies have a heavy sophomore class this season, which means they should all be improved from their freshman campaign. They have three seniors and they will be the backbone for the team, seniors Hanowski and Lee will be the keys to taking this year’s Huskies back to the Final Five and beyond. This season will also mark head coach Bob Motzko’s 8th season as the lead musher of SCSU hockey.

4 – Minnesota Duluth – The Bulldogs are coming off a strong season, unfortunately they watch last year’s McNaughton cup slip away from them and into the hands of Minnesota. When you look at the losses of seniors from last year, you might think of this season as a rebuilding year. I think it’ll be more of a reloading year.

3 – Minnesota – The Gophers had excellent year last, capturing the WCHA regular season title and advancing to the Frozen Four. The maroon and gold return plenty of talent from last year team. The big question will be goaltending, with the little or no college game experience; luckily they have some seasoned d-men.

2 – North Dakota – The teams formerly known as the Fighting Sioux, now just know as North Dakota (I’ll just use ND), will be in a similar boat as Minnesota. They have a question mark about the goaltending and how that will develop through the season. Also this year ND will have brothers playing for them at the same time, the MacMillan men, Mark and Mitch. (I believe that last time that happened was 03-04, with the Parise’s Zack and Jordan.) This will be coach Hakstol’s 9th season with ND, the coach staff has changed in the off season with Cary Eades departing the program.

1 – Denver – The Pioneers are my preseason predicted number one. How can I give them that honor over my favorite ND team, you ask? They return their goalie’s from last season and they both had playing time. And as for scoring, let’s just say DU has always been offensive, wink, wink. Win or lose the last WCHA title as we currently know it, coach Gwozdecky will still be the snazziest dressed coach in the league.

UND sweeps out UW

Grand Forks, ND---There is an old saying in hockey that you sweep at home and split on the road. On Saturday night, the University of North Dakota was looking for that allusive sweep against the Wisconsin Badgers. Sweeps at home have been hard to come by as of late for UND.

At the Wednesday media day, UND head coach Dave Hakstol talked about splits not being good enough anymore, they needed to get wins.

After 26 games, UND has a grand total of two series sweeps (At UAA and C.C. home). Coming into this weekend's series against the Badgers, UND was ranked 19^th in the Pairwise Ranking and looking to move up.

In hockey there is one way to move up in the Pairwise Ranking. Your team has to string together wins, and in this case UND needs to start turning their series splits into sweeps if they want to secure an at-large bid to the NCAA tourney, because they are running out of games. Unfortunately, UND has gotten splits the last three WCHA series.

The Badgers came into tonight's series finale with a horrid road record of 1-7-1, so you had to like UND's chances of getting the series sweep on Saturday Night.

UND's fortunes would change tonight with a 4-2 win against the Wisconsin Badgers. UND was led by the trio of Brock Nelson, Ben Blood and Danny Kristo. Al three players had two points on the evening.

Another emerging story is the offensive contributions of junior defenseman Andrew MacWilliam. Over the course of his hockey career at UND,Andrew MacWilliam has not been known for his scoring prowess, until recently. It took him 102 games to score his first career goal; it only took him five more games to get his second career goal.

Macwilliams goal was what I would classify as a timely goal, and a good response to a fluky play that lead to the Badgers first goal.

Macwilliam was going for a puck that looked like it was going to be icing on the Badgers, when Badger forward Keegan Meuer appeared to trip MacWIlliam, who fell on the play. Meuer grabbed and shot the puck past UND goalie Brad Eidsness.

Macwilliam would get the last laugh as he would score the go ahead goal at the 02:05 mark of the second period, with a blast from outside of the blue line that went in top shelf of the Badger net.

After the game MacWilliam had this to say about his second career goal. "The first thing we said when I scored that goal, that's karma, so I guess I got it back and we came out even. It happens, they obviously didn’t see it. They [refs] didn't make the call, it happens. We have to forget about it going in between periods there and regroup, and that is what we did there and we came out with hard effort the rest of the game."
Coach Hakstol was impressed with his team's effort after the game. What was even more impressive was that his team shut down the Badgers Mark Zengerle and Justin Schultz all weekend long.

"They had some opportunities, they're great players, but overall, we worked hard to try to minimize those. I thought we did a good job at that," Hakstol said. "I thought we did a better job of that tonight, than we did last night, especially with Schultz. The way he jumps up, and jumps into the play."

The coach was pleased with the series sweep of the Badgers.

"Yeah a needed result. We knew coming in that we got to sit with this result for two weeks. We got a bye week next week. So we wanted to make sure that we put our best effort on the ice tonight, and I thought we did that top to bottom. We had to grind out the first two periods again, and we came out of that with a one goal lead. I thought we played an outstanding third period, we kept our foot on the gas, we pushed pucks, we took away time and space and I don't think we gave up a grade 'A' chance."

A sweep has been a long time coming for UND.

With the win tonight UND recorded their first series sweep at home since November 25-26, 2011, when UND beat C.C. (7-6 and 4-3). This was also the first series sweep against Wisconsin at home for UND since November 22-23, 2002. With the series sweep against the Badgers, UND improved their record to 5-6-1 in the last 12 games against this opponent.

Box Score

Cross Posted at Inside Hockey...

Related articles

• Series Notes: UND vs. UW (insidehockey.com)
• Birthday boy wins it for UND versus UW (insidehockey.com)
• Minnesota pastes North Dakota (insidehockey.com)
• North Dakota edges Minnesota (insidehockey.com)

A few things...

In case you haven't seen this video, it's the Justin Schultz Highlight video that someone posted on Youtube. Schultz is one of the best defensemen in the country and would be my pick for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award if I had a vote. Schultz would probably be playing in the NHL right now if he had decided to for-go his junior year of eligibility.

You can bet that UND will be aware of Schultz whenever he's on the ice and will probably have someone checking him at all times. Obviously, it will be hard to shut down Schultz's offensive production, but you can bet that UND will put their best players on Schultz to slow him down. 

Speaking of Justin Schultz – the Junior Defenseman from the Wisconsin Badgers was named the Red Baron® WCHA Defensive Player of the Week this past week. Schultz scored (1g-4a—5pts) in helping his team beat the UAA Seawolves (4-0 W, 3-2 W) in Madison Wisconsin. Schultz is second on the Badgers in scoring with (12g-25a—37pts).

Coming into this weekend’s series the Wisconsin Badgers lead the all-time series against UND 86-62-11 (.575). UND has had some tough sledding as of late against the Badgers as they have only won three times in the last 10 games going an unimpressive 3-6-1.

It looks like this will probably be the top two forward lines for the Wisconsin Badgers and they have been together for four games; LW 16 Joseph LaBate (5g-13a—18pts)- C 9 Mark Zengerle (10g-28a—38pst) RW 7 Tyler Barnes (8g-12a—20pts) and from looking at the line sheets this appears to be the second line for the Badgers - LW 8 Matt Paape (4g-4a—8pts) - C 23 Derek Lee (4g-6a—10pts) - RW 25 Michael Mersch (8g-12—20tps)

Compare and contrast this was what the top line for UND has been most of the season; LW 29 Brock Nelson (17g-10a—27pts) - C 10 Corban Knight (8g-16a—24pts)- RW 7 Danny Kristo (12g-15a—27pts) and this was the second line last weekend LW 16 Mark MacMillan (4g-6a—10pts) - C 27 Carter Rowney (8g-7a—15pts) - RW 15 Michael Parks (4g-3a—7pts).

Who is hot for UND; freshman forward Michael Parks has points in four out of his last six games. Corbin Knight broke a five game scoreless streak by recording a (2g-1a—3 pts) in Saturday's game against Saint Cloud.

Related articles

• WCHA Power Rankings: 1/22/12 (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings - January 8 (insidehockey.com)

Badgers Skate Past Sioux 5-3

Image via Wikipedia

Cross posted at Inside Hockey.

Coming into this series, the Fighting Sioux had won five of the last six games against the Wisconsin Badgers in Madison, Wisconsin.  The Badgers fortunes changed for them tonight as five different Badgers scored goals.  They got two points each from Justin Schultz (1-1-2) and Tyler Barnes (0-2-2) to lead the Badgers past the Fighting Sioux 5-3.   

The Wisconsin Badgers got off to a fast start as they opened the scoring at the 08:45 mark of the first period with a goal from Badger forward Mark Zengerle, who took a nice drop-pass from Tyler Barnes and blasted the puck past Fighting Sioux goalie Brad Eidsness, who was screened on the play by Fighting Sioux defenseman Ben Blood. 

The Sioux rang the bell 27 seconds later at the 09:12 mark of the first period with a beautiful goal by Fighting Sioux freshman forward Mark MacMillan.  The Fighting Sioux forward blew past the Wisconsin defense and shot the puck over Badger goalie Landon Peterson’s left shoulder.  That was the first career goal for Fighting Sioux forward Mark MacMillan.  

The Fighting Sioux got into penalty trouble at the 18:06 mark of the first period when Mark MacMillan took a two minute penalty for roughing.  Corban Knight followed suit and joined MacMillan in the penalty box nine seconds later for tripping.  The Badgers wasted little time on the power play and scored twenty seconds later at the 18:45 mark on a beautiful goal by Badger defenseman Justin Schultz. 

The Fighting Sioux weren’t done taking unnecessary penalties in this period, as Sioux defenseman Ben Blood continued the Fighting Sioux march to the penalty box when he took an unnecessary penalty for slashing at the 19:25 mark, to put the Fighting Sioux down two men once again, for the second time during the first period.

The Second period didn’t start well for the Fighting Sioux, as Wisconsin Badger Michael Mersch scored on the ensuing power play at the 01:16 mark of the second period.

The Badgers increased their lead when they scored again less than five minutes later, when Badger forward Matt Paape picked up a Ben Blood turnover at the top of the circle and smartly passed the puck to Derek Lee, who shot the puck past an oblivious Brad Eidsness who was caught napping on the play.  That goal ended the night for Eidsness who was relieved by Aaron Dell. 

The Fighting Sioux responded to the Badger goal 23 seconds later with an unassisted goal by Fighting Sioux defenseman Nick Mattson. The Sioux defenseman took a shot from the point that bounced off of  Badger defenseman John Ramage and into the net past Wisconsin goalie Landon Peterson. 

The Fighting Sioux got another goal on the power play at the 9:33 mark of the second period.  With Badger forward Brendan Woods off the ice for a high sticking penalty, Carter Rowney took a feed from Danny Kristo and shot the puck past the Badger goalie Peterson. 

Badgers forward Brendan Woods made up for this mistake when he put the Badgers up by two goals by blowing by Ben Blood and Derek Forbort for the goal. 

The Badgers outshot the Fighting Sioux 11-10 during the second period. 

There was no scoring by either team in the third period and Fighting Sioux coach Dave Hakstol ended up pulling his goalie with two minutes left in third period. Sioux were unable to muster any more real threats as the Badgers collapsed about their net and made it impossible for the Sioux to get any more grade “A” scoring chances. 

Box Score