Satisfaction waning for ticket buyers in two of Badgers' biggest sports

s/t Sioux Volley... There was an interesting article that was posted in the Madison Newspaper on June 11, 2013, that was written by Todd Milewski.

I think that you will find some of the points of the article to be very interesting to why Wisconsin Badgers "might" have experienced a drop off in attendance and ticket sales last season.

That comes after a season in which the Badgers did not lead the nation in men's hockey attendance for the first time since 1998.

"I think hockey's in a little bit of what will ultimately be a positive transitional phase in the scheduling in that you're going to have all the games against the Big Ten schools plus the games against nonconference opponents that people are familiar with," Doherty said.

Athletics officials received no shortage of comments from hockey fans. Among them:

• "Take steps to improve game-day atmosphere such as increased marketing to increase attendance, allow signs, etc., in student section."

• "Allow signs, noisemakers, other items to enhance the environment."

• "Allow beer sales at the Kohl Center."

• "The value is severely diminished when you do not get Minnesota and/or North Dakota at home."

Last season, the Badgers sold one of their home games against archrival Minnesota to a company that staged it outdoors at Chicago's Soldier Field.

"Sending your premier rivalry game to Chicago shows disrespect to your fan base," one comment read.

Despite the dip in game-day satisfaction with men's basketball, the report indicates that the athletic department should not expect a decline in renewal rate next season.

Read more: 

Tale of two calls (McCabe & Hartman)

Speaking of bad calls, today, USA captain and Wisconsin Badgers defenseman Jake McCabe was kicked out of the game between the USA and Canada on this play. After watching the video numberous times, I can't find a penalty. In my opinion, McCabe was incorrectly given a two minute minor and a game misconduct for contact to the head. I don't see it. Do you?



Today, the team USA had two contact to the head penalties, the second one was this hit by Ryan Hartman on Canada's Ryan Murphy and that was a legitimate contact to the head. It will be interesting to see if Hartman ends up with a disciplinary hearing for his hit on Murphy.

WCHA no comment on Michigan Tech's Jujhar Khaira penalty

This past week, Ryan Little was given an extra game suspension for his hit on Michigan Tech's Jujhar Khaira, the video of that hit can be seen here. I don’t think many of us have a problem with the extra game suspension, unless maybe you’re a Wisconsin Badger fan.

Player safety should be paramount. Yeah, I am rolling my eyes right now.

What I do have a problem with is the take down move that Khaira put on UW sophomore defenseman Jake McCabe, you can see by the pictures included that this was an egregious and dangerous move and should have warranted at least a five minute major and a game misconduct.  If look at the picture you will notice that the on ice official is looking right at the play.

I do believe that Little’s hit is grounds for a one game suspension, you have a player head hunting an unexpecting player in a vulnerable position that doesn't even appear to be looking at the player that’s bearing down on him. When I first saw this hit, I immediately thought of the Raffi Torres hit on Marian Hossa. The Little hit warrants a suspension in the NHL as well. I don’t think that many of us have a problem with that call.

What I do have a problem with is Khaira’s attempting to remove McCade’s head from the rest of his body and only receiving a two minute minor for holding.  Kind of makes one scratch their head. I have seen on line where some have likened the move to a WWE take-down. 

One question that I have is, did the refs inept response to the Khaira bush league move on Jake McCabe cause Little to take matters into his own hands? 

I asked sent an email to the WCHA’s Doug Spencer and this is the response that I got.

Eric,

We have no comment at this time. But I passed your note on to the Commissioner & Supervisor and if there is we will let you know asap.

Doug

s/t to @CJZERO

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Brianna Decker Goal vs North Dakota

This was a beautiful goal by Wisconsin Badgers's Brianna Decker, unfortunately it was scored against UND.  Decker is one of the top women's players in the WCHA and I have to give credit where credit is due.

Results of the WCHA Web Media Poll: Week 3

Each week I participate in a WCHA Web Media Poll that is put on by the Tech Hockey Guide with 11 other people that represent both the print media as well as the hockey blogosphere. Here is the week three results of the WCHA Web Media Poll.

As you can see by the standings, 11 of 12 teams moved places this week. Only the University of North Dakota remained in third place spot. The Wisconsin Badgers were the biggest mover as they moved four spots to sixth place after coming in at 10^th the week before. The UMD Bulldogs fell from fourth place to eighth place.

Here are the results of the WCHA Web Media Poll for Week 3:

	Team	Pts	Previous	Record	High	Low
1)	Denver (7)	138	2	4-0-0	1	3
2)	Minnesota (5)	136	1	4-1-0	1	3
3)	North Dakota	120	3	2-1-1	2	4
4)	St. Cloud State	109	7	4-2-0	2	5
5)	Colorado College	74	6	3-3-0	4	10
6)	Wisconsin	72	10	1-2-1	5	11
7)	Michigan Tech	69	5	2-4-0	6	10
8)	Minnesota Duluth	64	4	2-3-1	5	11
9)	Bemidji State	55	11	2-1-1	5	11
10)	Nebraska Omaha	52	8	2-3-1	6	10
11)	Alaska Anchorage	29	12	2-2-2	6	12
12)	Minnesota State	18	9	2-2-2	10	12

Representing Name Publication Twitter

Alaska-Anchorage, Taylor Hall College Hockey News @thall907
Bemidji State, Troy Mills The Beaver Pond
Colorado College, Joe Paisley, Paisley Hockey @Paisleyhockey
Denver, Mike Chambers, Denver Post @MChambersDP
Michigan Tech, Tim Braun, Tech Hockey Guide @TBraunTHG
Minnesota, Dan Myers, Minnesota Hockey Magazine @1DanMyers
Minnesota Duluth, Bruce Ciskie, The Ciskie Blog @BruceCiskie
Minnesota State, Chris Dilks, Western College Hockey @ChrisDilks
Nebraska-Omaha, Matt Semisch, Radio Free Omaha @matthewsemisch
North Dakota, Eric Burton The Hockey Writers Combine and Goon’s World @goon48
St. Cloud State, Jeremy Larson, Husky Hockey Time @jclarson02
Wisconsin, Andy Johnson, Bucky’s 5th Quarter @andyjohnsonB5Q

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Derek Stepan hits Chris Neil

This was from yesterday's Rangers and Senators game. Very nice check by the former Wisconsin Badger and Rangers forward Derek Stepan on the Senators forward and tough guy Chris Neil. It's a text book body check.

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Kyle Turris helps Sens tie series with Rangers

Former Wisconsin Badger (2007-08) forward Kyle Turris scored the game winning goal 2:42 into the first overtime to give the Ottawa Senators a 3-2 victory against the New York Rangers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Turris has been pretty good during the series against the Rangers and he has (1g-2a-3pts).

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Ramage Hit On Oliver

s/t to Chuck Schwartz... This is the hit that the Wisconsin Badgers John Ramage put on SCSU Husky Nick Oliver. The on ice officials gave Ramage a five minute major for contact to the head and a game misconduct. That was a bad call by the officials in my opinion, it looks from the video that this was a shoulder to shoulder hit.

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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...

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Weekend Match-Ups (by Sioux 7)

Looking at the calendar this is the last weekend of action in January. We all know that means the season is winding down, put the stakes are going up. After this weekend it basically leaves us the month of February in the regular season. The teams are so bunched up in the middle of standings it should be another great race for home ice in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.

WCHA STANDINGS

Team………………………W-L-T………Points
1. Minnesota………………13-5-0…..……26
2. Minnesota-Duluth……..11-3-2….…….24
3. Colorado College……..11-7-0………..22
4. Nebraska-Omaha………9-6-3……….. 21
5. Denver……………………8-5-3………..19
6. North Dakota……….…...9-9-0….……..18
7. Michigan Tech………….8-7-1…….…..17
7. St. Cloud St……………. 7-8-3……….. 17
9. Wisconsin……………....7-9-2…..…….14
10. Bemidji State….……….5-9-2…………12
11. Minnesota State………4-13-1…………9
12. Alaska-Anchorage…...3-14-1…………7


WCHA Games

Minnesota State @ Bemidji State
Last weekend the MSUM Mavericks split with the UNO Mavericks in Mankato, and the Beavers enjoyed a weekend off.

Since the calendar flipped over to 2012 the Mavericks are holding their own, going 3-3-0 in January. The Beavers have a good record this year at the Sanford Center, owning a 8-3-1 record at home. Both teams are need of points. If they want to climb the standings and make run at home ice for the first round. The Beavers look to have a better shot at hosting, since they have more points currently and two games in hand on the Mavericks. The Mavericks haven’t been to good on the road, their last WCHA road win came back on November 5 versus MTU. MSUM fans would probably say they are due for a WCHA road win. SPLIT


Wisconsin Badgers @ #18 North Dakota
Last weekend Badgers swept the UAA Seawolves at the Kohl Center in Madison and North Dakota split with the SCSU Huskies in St. Cloud.

Earlier this season the Sioux visited the Badgers in Madison and left there with no points. UND will be looking to return the favor this weekend in Grand Forks. North Dakota has suffered numerous injuries this season, making everyone step up their game night in and night out. If they can stay healthy down the stretch here, they could make a run up the standings. This would help to secure home ice in the first round. Meanwhile, the Badgers are in what most are calling a rebuilding year. NORTH DAKOTA SWEEP


St. Cloud State vs #3 Minnesota
Last weekend Huskies split with North Dakota in St. Cloud and the Gophers split with CC Tigers in Minneapolis.

This is a home-home series with the opener in Minneapolis and the finale in St. Cloud. The Gophers have dropped the last few Friday night games they played and this weekend it is even more important for the gophers to win on Friday, with Saturday’s game in St. Cloud. The Huskies have been a bit inconsistent this season, so it is hard to predict which team will show up on which night. SPLIT


#15 Denver @ Alaska-Anchorage
Last weekend the Seawolves were swept by the Badgers in Madison and the Pioneers had a weekend off to rest up.

The Pioneers take the big airplane ride this weekend up to scenic Alaska. The Seawolves have not played in front of the home town fans since December 3-4 (vs. North Dakota). I’m sure the players and fans are chomping at the bit to play a game at the Sully. The Seawolves have been lighting the lamp this year, but have been surrendering a few too many as well. If the Pioneers can take the lead and make UAA play from behind they could leave Anchorage with some points. SPLIT


Michigan Tech @ #1 Minnesota-Duluth
Last weekend Huskies lost their one game against Northern Michigan in Houghton and the Bulldogs swept the UAH Chargers in Duluth.

Tech hits the road this weekend and will be on it six of their next eight games. The Huskies last road trip was to Minneapolis, where they split with the Gophers. MTU will have to avoid getting into a shoot out with the Bulldogs, UMD packs to much firepower for the Huskies to match. The Bulldogs will need to put shots up on the Huskies; they have allowed five goals or more in six games this season. The Huskies have shown they can take on the top powers this year, so don’t be too surprised if they leave Duluth with a point or two. BULLDOGS 3-pts.



BYE WEEK
#12 Colorado College
Nebraska-Omaha

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UW vs. UND series notes

The University of North Dakota entertains the Wisconsin Badgers at Ralph Englestad Arena January 27-28, 2012.

Game Time: 7:37 pm Friday, 7:07 pm Saturday.

Television: UND Sports Network, MidcoSN3, FCS Central (Fri.), FCS Pacific (Sat.), DirecTV 617 (Fri.), DirecTV 623 (Sat.), FSN+, theScore (Fri. game tape delayed on Sat.).

Radio: The games can be heard at 96.1 the Fox and for Wisconsin Badger fans on 1310 WIBA AM locally in Madison or for free online at BadgerSportsNetwork.com.

Internet:  Both games at UNDSports.com.

Records and Rankings: University of North Dakota (13-10-2 overall, 9-9-0 WCHA); UND is ranked 18^th in the USCHO poll. North Dakota split with the Saint Cloud State Huskies last weekend (3-1 L, 3-2 W).  Official Release

The Wisconsin Badgers (12-10-2, 7-9-2 WCHA) posted a (4-0 W, 3-2 W) sweep over Alaska Anchorage last weekend. The Badgers are unranked in the USCHO and USA Today Polls. Official Release

Series History:  The Wisconsin Badgers lead the all-time series against UND 86-62-11 (.575). The University of North Dakota has only won three times in the last 10 games against the Wisconsin Badgers going 3-6-1. UND was swept by the Badgers (5-3 and 5-4) in Madison, Wisconsin earlier this season.

Players to Watch: 

For UND: Forwards: Danny Kristo (12g-15a—27pts), Corbin Knight (8g-16a—24pts) and Brock Nelson (17g-10a—27pts), Carter Rowney (8g-7a—15pts). Defense: Nick Mattson (5g-8a—13pts), Dillion Simpson, (0g-12a—11pts), Ben Blood (2g-9a—11pts).  Goaltenders: Aaron Dell .895 save percentage and a 2.80 goals against average. Brad Eidsness .919 save percentage and a 2.38 goals against average.

UND Injuries: Forward Rocco Grimaldi is out (season knee surgery), Brendan O’Donnell out, defenseman Derek Forbort questionable; Derek Rodwell is out (season shoulder surgery)

For UW: Forwards: Mark Zengerle (10g-28a—38pst), Tyler Barnes (8g-12a—20pts),  Michael Mersch (8g-12—20tps). Defense: Justin Schultz (12g-25a—37pts). Goaltender: Joel Rumpel .920 save percentage and a 2.44 goals against average.

Other games in the WCHA: Saint Cloud at Minnesota (Friday), Minnesota at Saint Cloud (Saturday), Denver at Alaska Anchorage, Michigan Tech at Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota State at Bemidji State. Idle Colorado College, Nebraska Omaha 

Cross Posted at INSIDE HOCKEY.

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Hockey's Endangered Species

This was a story that was on line this morning, I know it's about a Wisconsin Badger player, but Justin Schultz is probably one of the best defensive players that I have seen play in college hockey for a very long time. In my opinion, this kid could probably be playing for the Anaheim Ducks right now and the Ducks have to be licking their lips with the prospects of having Schultz in their line up. I think you’re also looking at one of the 2012 Hobey Baker finalists.

Mike Sielski, Wall Street Journal --- As the NCAA's statistical outlier at his position, Schultz has the potential to develop into a creature that's been all but extinct from the NHL for two decades: the dominant offensive defenseman.

In the 20 years since the New York Rangers' Brian Leetch finished the 1991-92 season with 102 points, no NHL defenseman has topped the century mark. Only one, Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom, has reached 80 in the last 15 years. And given the manner in which the sport has evolved, it's an open question whether a player of Schultz's skills and pedigree will ever approach 100 points again.