It took the defending national champions almost five months, but the Wisconsin Badgers finally were able to put together two solid nights of hockey at the Kohl Center.
It may seem hard to believe to the college hockey world, but with Wisconsin (13-15-2, 10-11-1 WCHA) getting only their second sweep this late in the season, the Badgers have seemed to finally garner some momentum heading into the stretch run.
"There were a lot of messages this weekend, but we wanted to play on how we played last night — hard, focused and consistent," Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said. "There's a satisfaction that we worked hard, did our part and accomplished what we needed to have done."
A variety of factors went into Wisconsin's first home sweep of the season as they beat the visiting Seawolves 4-0 Friday night and 3-1 Saturday. One of the main reasons was the sudden offensive production from Wisconsin's blueliners and stellar play by Badger goalie Brian Elliott.
Wisconsin's offense, which had scored only five goals in their last 29 games, scored seven points on the weekend, including two big goals Saturday night, while goalie Brian Elliott stopped 39 of 40 shots that he faced in the series.
"I thought in the first period when we were back on our heels that [Elliott] was pretty good for us and made some big saves," Eaves said. "We've been encouraging our defensemen to get in the gaps and support the rush … and they had a big weekend."
The Badgers were also given plenty of scoring chances on the man advantage. After giving Wisconsin nine power play opportunities on Friday night, Anchorage (11-16-3, 7-16-1 WCHA) gave the Badgers six more chances with an extra attacker on Saturday. With their 15 opportunities on the weekend, Wisconsin scored two goals, the most they have scored in a series in three weeks.
"We feel pretty good about [the power play]," defenseman Jamie McBain said. "We're working on it in practice and we feel we are generating offense through the power play, even though we aren't scoring a lot of goals."
Not to be outdone by the defense, the Badgers newly formed second line — comprised of seniors Ross Carlson and Jake Dowell and freshman Michael Davies — stole the show against an Alaska-Anchorage team giving up more than three goals per game. The trio produced eight points — two goals and an assist from Davies, a goal and assist from Dowell and three assists from Carlson — on the weekend.
"Jake is a very physical guy that creates space and that complements Ross who is a very offensive guy," Eaves said. "Mike prides himself on being an offensive guy [as well] and tonight was a great offensive night for him and his linemates."
The freshman forward, who had scored only one goal since Nov. 24, was honored when he found out who his linemates were going to be on Friday night and had one of his most productive games of the season.
"Getting to play with the two best forwards on the team is an honor as a freshman," Davies said. "I just wanted to go there and play hockey with them."
Wisconsin even got production from a player not even expected to step foot on the ice this weekend.
With the Badgers already up 1-0 on Saturday night and the second period winding down,
forward Tom Gorowsky, off a perfect pass from linemate Ben Street, scored on a breakaway goal with only 24 seconds left to double the Wisconsin lead.
"I was lucky that I had a step on the guy and get a good shot off," Gorowsky added. "He was cheating a little bit and the lower right looked good. I just went for it and it went in."
Gorowsky, who had struggled offensively in Wisconsin's last seven games and did not play in game one of the series, was inserted into the lineup when forward Matthew Ford was injured in a pregame workout and didn't receive clearance from team doctors to suit up. With Gorowsky having had repetitions from Ford's possession in practice, he was the obvious choice to start in his place and he ended up paying dividends for the Badgers.
"Every time you are not in the lineup, you are itching to get in there and you have to keep yourself ready no matter what," Gorowsky said. "I just try to control things I can, work hard and try to impress coach enough to play."
When the final horn sounded signifying the Badgers series sweep, there was little jubilation from the Wisconsin bench, as it was clear that the team was dead tired from the amount of effort that had spent this weekend. Even so, the Badgers now know the formula they need to use next weekend in their regular season home finale against second place St. Cloud State to be successful.
"We just need to play our hockey for 60 minutes and stick to our game plan," McBain said.
