Sports: Men's Hockey

Despite captains’ injuries, Wisconsin stays on track

The captains for the Wisconsin hockey team are given a “C” patch on the front of their jersey at the beginning of the season.

Perhaps they should be given a red cross.

The Badgers swept the University of Alaska-Anchorage this weekend, but lost junior captain Blake Geoffrion to an ankle injury during the second period Friday night.

After losing senior captain Ben Street to an ACL tear four games into the season, UW has lost both their captains in less than two months.

“It’s unfortunate,” assistant captain Jamie McBain said. “Obviously, we are hoping that Blake comes back quick.”

The Badgers carried a 3-0 lead into the third period after Geoffrion went down, but allowed two goals in the final frame to finish the game with a 3-2 victory.

The injury to Geoffrion — along with a concussion suffered by freshman defenseman Jake Gardiner — seemed to leave the Badgers deflated on the ice.

“It was a wacky night, but it was a different team without Blake,” head coach Mike Eaves said. “He is our captain. He is a guy who carries the message. He is a guy who leads by example, so again, it was like flying a plane that had lost one of (its) engines and we were trying to land the darn thing.”

Although Eaves’ team finished with the victory, the coach was solemn after the game, choosing to focus on what he considered an average showing by his players, instead of the injuries.

“It was not only guys that had been lost, but the way we were playing,” Eaves said. “We had a lead and we hadn’t played the type of hockey that we were capable of. There was a good news, bad news thing. It was about focusing on going back and trying to play the way we were capable of — that was the message.”

Playing Saturday without Geoffrion, Gardiner or Ben Grotting, the Badgers outperformed the Seawolves in every category en route to a 7-2 win. The win was UW’s fifth in a row, and possibly the most impressive of the season.

“People stepped up to the plate tonight,” Eaves said. “With Blake being down, you kind of look around the room — and we talked about it — this has to be done collectively. And it was done collectively, as the score sheet shows.”

Though Geoffrion leads the team with eight goals for the season, he doesn’t quite fit the bill of a go-to scorer, and the Badger offense wasn’t set back without him.

“You know last year we had Kyle Turris, who is a goal scorer,” junior Michael Davies said. “We don’t look up to anyone — I guess a committee is how we are doing it. We are all just out there playing and anyone can put the puck in the net.”

Of the four players with letters on their jersey — Street, Geoffrion and assistants McBain and Ryan McDonagh — Geoffrion is easily the most vocal on and off the ice. Through his absence, however, other players stepped up to fulfill that role.

“I think we have got a bunch of leaders on this team,” Smith said. “We look to the people that got letters right now, but everybody talks in the room … everybody speaks up and does their own part. I don’t think that losing Blake or Street or anything makes our team nervous. I think everybody has a leadership role and they play to it.”

With the Badgers riding a five-game winning streak — and having only lost once in their past 11 contests — conventional wisdom says the team would be lamenting their three-week break. But with three injuries on this weekend alone, the time off should serve UW well.

“Obviously, we want to keep playing — everyone does,” sophomore Sean Dolan said. “I mean, we all love the game, but part of me thinks that maybe it is good for our bodies to get rested up, and come back for the second half. We need to keep climbing this mountain and put our foot on the gas pedal even harder.”