Sports: Men's Hockey

Men’s hockey team to host rival Minnesota

After sweeping New Hampshire, Eaves’ squad switches attention to Golden Gophers in WCHA clash

The women’s soccer team got the Border Battle off to a start with a loss. Then the football team kept the Axe, but the volleyball team lost in straight sets. Women’s hockey upset Minnesota last weekend and now the task of beating the Gophers falls on the Wisconsin men’s hockey team.

Both the Badgers and Gophers swept their series last weekend to earn their first winning streaks of the season. Wisconsin beat New Hampshire 4-1 and 6-1, while Minnesota defeated Alaska-Anchorage 5-1 and 4-1.

Junior captain Ryan McDonagh noted the similarities between the 3-2-1 Badgers and 2-3-1 Gophers.

“I think we’re both kind of in the same spot right now, if you look at our records and where we’re at, coming off the weekends we had,” he said. “We were struggling similar to them, and we both finally put together a solid two-win weekend. So I think it’s going to be a real intense series for everyone.”

The Gophers enter the series with the news that senior forward Jay Barriball will have a season-ending knee surgery. Barriball was tied for second on the team in points with two goals and two assists. He also has the most career points of any current player on the UM roster.

Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said he does not want his team underestimating Minnesota because of that injury.

“Some of them may think like that, and part of our job as coaches is to raise a conscious level of awareness to the fact that a wounded animal is very dangerous,” Eaves said. “And when you lose a player like that … they’re looking for somebody to step up, somebody’s getting an opportunity — heck, we’ve been in that boat before, we’ve had people step up. “Our hope is the guys have been around athletics long enough to know that if you’re thinking like that, you’re falling into a false trap.”

Eaves also stressed that the Badgers couldn’t allow Minnesota to get its power play going. Minnesota is next to last in the nation in power play percentage and didn’t get its first goal with the man advantage until this past Sunday. The Gophers’ 1-for-29 power play will go up against the Badgers’ 30-for-32 penalty kill, which is second in the nation.

“It’s one of those deals, I think, you talk about the fact, you know what — they’re due,” Eaves said of the Gophers. “When Michael Jordan missed seven shots … he was still going to shoot and he was going to get himself going. So they’re a good team, and we’re going to have to be good when we’re on the penalty kill.”

Wisconsin comes into the weekend with less worries, and Eaves said he was pleased with how the Badgers practiced during the week. Senior forward Andy Bohmbach stressed how important the momentum the team gained from last weekend would be.

“I think it’s a lot easier, coming off a big weekend like we had with the two wins,” Bohmbach said. “It’s definitely a lot better than coming off a weekend with two losses, that’s for sure. Everyone’s more excited, everyone’s a little bit more happy in the locker room.”

The two wins couldn’t have come in more convincing fashion for UW, which outshot New Hampshire 96-35 and outscored the Wildcats 10-2. UNH looked lost on both offense and defense against UW, a stark contrast to the Badgers’ previous series.

Wisconsin struggled in its season opener, losing and tying against Colorado College and splitting against Minnesota State the next week. Before the UNH series, the Saturday game was a weakness for UW, who had trouble carrying momentum from the night before.

“That’ll be the biggest test, and that’s what we’ve been talking about all week,” McDonagh said. “Finally last weekend we put together back-to-back wins, and in order to be successful in the long run at the end of the season, you’ve got to be tough to play against both nights.”

The Badgers’ performance last weekend was enough for Eaves to keep his lines somewhat unchanged. Notably, freshman forward Craig Smith, who was suspended for last weekend’s series, will skate on the first line with Bohmbach and Blake Geoffrion. Eaves noted effort in practice was going to continue to be a factor in ice time and he wouldn’t shy away from playing the hot hand.

“Who’s playing well right now, that’s who we look at, and that’s what we work with,” he said. “Even a stronger point is the fact that the guys who played last week played well [and] deserve to get back in the lineup and play again.”

Bohmbach and Geoffrion will look to improve on their line’s 11-shot, one-assist effort against New Hampshire. Bohmbach noted the fact that UW’s fourth line had two goals and three assists can only bode well for the Badgers.

“That says a lot about our team, we’re going to be really tough to beat if we can roll out four lines consistently throughout the year,” Bohmbach said. “We’re in really good shape because of that also. We can really beat up on teams if we can go one, two, three, four lines and they’re only playing three.”