The leading goal scorer in the nation is Brett Sterling with 27 goals. Marty Sertich leads the nation in total points with 58. They happen to play on the same line for Colorado College, and as such they command the respect of every opponent they play.
The Wisconsin Badgers are no different, shuffling their lines before the series in hopes of putting together a line that could shut that duo down. Wisconsin’s head coach Mike Eaves paired Nick Licari, Ryan MacMurchy and Andrew Joudrey together and gave them the difficult task of containing CC’s top line. Eaves struck gold as the trio not only held the nation’s top two scorers to a single goal for the entire weekend but also provided some offensive punch as well.
“They were given the task of keeping [Sertich and Sterling] off the score sheet, and they did a nice job,” Eaves said.
During Friday’s 5-1 win, the Badger trio not only did the job on defense, they also were responsible for three of Wisconsin’s five goals.
“We just thought of shutting them down first, and we kind of countered on transition and caught them a couple times,” MacMurchy said.
It was MacMurchy who scored the first of the Badgers four third-period goals by creating a turnover in the neutral zone and then doing the rest of the work himself by skating in and beating CC goaltender Matt Zaba with a backhanded shot.
MacMurchy would pick up a pair of assists as well as he helped Licari score a pair of goals to seal the victory for the Badgers.
“It was nice to contribute offensively, but our main job was to shut that line down, and I think we did a pretty good job of that,” Licari said.
On the night the trio ended up with a collective plus eight rating compared to their Tiger counterparts who managed a collective negative six rating. While it wasn’t their main task, it was no surprise to Eaves that the group contributed on the offensive end.
“One of the things they provide for us, other than being responsible without the puck, once they get in the offensive zone, they can make some things happen because of their abilities,” Eaves said.
The task of shutting down Colorado College’s top line wasn’t thrust entirely on the trio of MacMurchy, Licari and Joudrey. The defensive pairing of Jeff Likens and Tom Gilbert also were on the ice nearly every time that Sertich and Sterling were.
“We know they’re a great offensive line, and we knew we had to keep it simple,” Gilbert said. “It worked out tonight; like they say ‘good defense leads to great offense.'”
Unfortunately for the Badgers, good defense doesn’t always lead to great offense. In Saturday’s 2-1 defeat, the Sertich/Sterling duo were held without a point for only the second time all season, but the rest of the Tigers still found a way to get the job done.
“[Wisconsin] did a phenomenal job on [Sertich and Sterling], and it was the only way we could win without them scoring was a 2-1 type of game,” Colorado College coach Scott Owens said.
The Badgers meanwhile were left wondering what might have been after again coming up with the necessary game plan to stop the high powered CC duo.
“If we would have done what we did tonight and even had an average offensive night, I think we might have been able to get some points,” Eaves said. “Unfortunately, we had a below-average offensive night.”
While Wisconsin could only manage a split, it was not because of the work done by their top line. MacMurchy, Licari and Joudrey did everything they were asked to do and more, but they needed just a little more help from the rest of the team.
Eaves had plenty of praise for the line that for all intents and purposes kept Sertich and Sterling quiet all weekend. “If you were going to grade out that line, you’d have to say they did their job this weekend.”
