The Badger Herald

SPORTS

Wisconsin travels to St. Cloud State for WCHA’s

JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo

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Also by Tyler Mason:

Finally healthy, Hill's optimistic (March 10, 2008)
Hockey loses to referees again (March 3, 2008)
Loss forces UW to sit, wait (March 3, 2008)

by Tyler Mason

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

When the Wisconsin men’s hockey team travels to St. Cloud State this weekend for the first round of the WCHA playoffs, they won’t be playing in the venue they had hoped for. After failing to secure home ice advantage in the tournament’s first round, the Badgers must win on the road to advance to the Final Five in St. Paul.

“I think this team believes in itself and the things that it can do,” head coach Mike Eaves said in a press conference Monday. “We have an opportunity to go on the road and get that done. That’s our mindset.”

It will be a familiar setting when Eaves’ squad takes on the Huskies, as the two teams met just two weeks ago. In their last series of the regular season, the Badgers managed to pick up just two points, winning 2-1 Friday but losing 3-2 Saturday.

Eaves believes having just played St. Cloud State will be advantageous to his players, as they still have the loss in the back of their minds.

“We’ll do the same thing we did, from walkthroughs to repetitions,” Eaves said. “The big thing about having just played them is the fact that we’ve seen it live. And unless they make some drastic changes, although I don’t know why they would, hopefully we’ll be able to better handle it.”

The Badger coach also said he doesn’t anticipate much of a difference in intensity between this weekend’s series and the last time the teams met.

“I think there are a lot of teams in the WCHA that have been playing, in their minds, playoff hockey for a long time,” Eaves said. “We’re one of them, so I don’t think anything changes that way. We just have to prepare as we’ve been preparing.”

Wisconsin is still not guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament, as they sit on the bubble of the PairWise rankings. Eaves knows what needs to be done to strengthen his team’s cast at a postseason berth and said the players understand what’s at stake as well.

“I’ve heard the guys talking about that,” Eaves said. “I think they’re very much aware of that, so that’s a good thing. I think the way that we practiced last week, they wanted to stay sharp. And we practiced well because of that fact.”

Week off a good thing

Often teams coming off a bye week — as the Badgers will be against the Huskies — exhibit rust after not competing for two weeks. But Eaves said the week off allowed his players to rest up and prepare themselves physically for the upcoming series.

“I’m one to believe that a week off benefits us. I like the fact that we get to have quality repetitions,” Eaves said. “After playing 10 weeks consecutively, I think it was good for us to have that rest as a time to recover and a time to re-energize. I thought we did that, and — based on the energy we saw on the ice last week and the focus — I think we accomplished the things that we wanted to do.”

In the stretch of the 10 consecutive weeks Wisconsin has played, they have gone 8-7-5, including 1-1 against St. Cloud. The two teams did face each other in Madison before the break, with UW sweeping the series.

Smith a no-go

Freshman defenseman Brendan Smith, who has not played in two months because of a back injury, will likely not suit up this weekend, according to Eaves.

“Unless we run into illness or injury this weekend or along the course of this week, I don’t think that he will play this weekend,” Eaves said. “I think that still, watching him practice, looking at his conditioning level, we still have a ways to go.”

Fellow freshman Craig Johnson has seen some increased playing time on the blue line in Smith’s absence, but two weeks ago against the Huskies, Eaves moved senior Josh Engel from forward to defense.

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