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Badgers, Bulldogs battle for 4th spot
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Also by Tyler Mason:
- Johnson picks up play (January 29, 2008)
- Storming of court losing significance (January 28, 2008)
- Men's hockey earns 3 big points (January 28, 2008)
Related Stories:
- UW enters grudge match (February 2, 2007)
- Badgers Earn First WCHA Win (November 18, 2002)
- UW faces off with top-ranked UM-D (December 9, 2005)
- Brückler, UW Face High-Scoring Bulldogs (March 5, 2004)
- Badgers to face Bobcats after layoff (December 14, 2004)
by Tyler Mason
Friday, February 1, 2008
In college hockey, it pays to play your best late in the
season.
The Wisconsin Badgers are doing just that.
Riding a five-game unbeaten streak, No. 11 Wisconsin
(11-10-5, 7-8-3 WCHA) will face off against No. 12 Minnesota-Duluth (10-8-6,
6-7-5) this weekend with a chance to pick up four points in the conference.
The Badgers and Bulldogs are currently tied for fourth in
the WCHA, each with 17 points. A sweep this weekend for UW would put them in
sole possession of the No. 4 spot in the rankings — trailing only Colorado
College, North Dakota and Denver — and continue the momentum from their
three-point series against Minnesota last weekend.
“We’re carrying a lot of confidence coming into this
weekend,” defenseman Kyle Klubertanz said. “We’re doing a lot of good things,
[but] we have to shorten up on a couple of things that we’re doing wrong right
now. But for the most part, I think we’re playing some pretty good hockey right
now.”
The Badgers’ current unbeaten streak sits at five games,
having last lost at Denver in a controversial game. Their longest streak
without a loss prior to their current run was just three games, which happened
twice.
For Klubertanz, the team’s recent strong play can be
attributed to consistency.
“I think we’re just playing to our strengths more
consistently each and every night,” Klubertanz said. He added the team needs to
“do the things that we know we can do to succeed. … We’ve got to body and get
pucks in net. I think as of late we’ve been doing that pretty consistently.”
Freshman Patrick Johnson has his own take on what has
sparked the Badgers’ recent run.
“It’s just about coming together as a team,” Johnson said.
“You throw together how many freshmen that we had, and it’s tough to … come
together as a team really quick.”
Minnesota-Duluth, on the other hand, has also been playing
well as of late. The Bulldogs are coming off a sweep of non-conference opponent
Massachusetts-Lowell last weekend and played a close series with the Gophers
the weekend before, tying one game and losing the other in a tight 2-1 contest.
Leading the Bulldogs in scoring are forward Nick Kemp and
defenseman Jason Garrison with 14 points each. Despite lacking a playmaker like
Minnesota’s Blake Wheeler or Colorado College’s Chad Rau, Klubertanz still sees
Minnesota-Duluth’s offense as a threat.
“They’ve got a lot of crafty guys on their team,” Klubertanz
said. “They move their feet; they work hard. They don’t get a lot of hype, but
we know what they’re all about, and we know that they play hard.”
UMD is anchored on defense by sophomore goaltender Alex
Stalock, whose 2.18 goals against average is nearly half a goal better than
UW’s Shane Connelly (2.5 per game). Stalock’s performance last weekend against
Mass-Lowell — which included a 26-save shutout Friday — earned him the
conference’s Defensive Player of the Week honors for the second straight week.
“He’s a very athletic goaltender, knows how to handle the
puck and if you let him handle the puck he’s like a third defenseman,” UW head
coach Mike Eaves said. “He’s one of those goalies that you can never think you
have an open net to shoot at because he has the athleticism to get across the
net.”
Coming off last weekend’s battle with Minnesota, Wisconsin
knows it will have its hands full with another tough team from across the
border, even if the rivalry may not be as intense.
“We always know teams come into Madison pumped up to play no
matter who they are,” Klubertanz said. “Duluth is a team that plays hard, so
we’ll be ready for them.”
“It’s a huge series,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter what
road team it is in our league. Every team in our league’s got a great chance of
winning every game.”
Following this weekend’s series, the Badgers will have just
four more series — three of which will be played on the road — to make a push
for postseason play. Although the thought of the playoffs may be looming as a
certain possibility, Klubertanz says his team isn’t looking too far ahead.
“We all know what could happen, but we’re not looking to it
right now,” Klubertanz said. “You can’t afford to do that. If we start worrying
about that, and we forget about right now, we’re not going to get there.”
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