[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Off the rink, the responsibilities of a hockey captain are obvious: give pep talks, meet with the coach, and make sure the general cohesion of the team is in good standings.

According to UW head coach Mike Eaves, the main thing a captain can do on the rink, in contrast, is to make the big play when it really counts.

Andrew Joudrey did just that this weekend, scoring three power-play goals in two games to help the Badgers grab 3-of-4 potential points against the No. 4-ranked team in the country, St. Cloud State. Wisconsin (14-15-3, 11-11-2 WCHA) was near-dominating in a 3-1 win Friday night and skated to an emotional 2-2 tie Saturday in what could have been the last game at the Kohl Center for Joudrey and Wisconsin's six other seniors.

Trailing 2-1 with 4:06 remaining Saturday, Joudrey's shot was deflected in, with assists going to senior Ross Carlson and freshman Jamie McBain. The Badgers had been scrambling to tie it for more than 12 minutes after a Justin Fletcher goal gave SCSU a lead, and the emotion shone through when senior Jake Dowell lifted Joudrey up off the ice after the captain's third power-play goal of the weekend.

"I thought down the stretch, we hung in there, showed our resilience," Joudrey said. "The building was as loud as I've heard in a while — we played off that and played on emotion the last 25 minutes or so. We gave ourselves the best chance to win the game, even though it didn't happen."

With a few precious seconds remaining in overtime, the pass-first Joudrey was patient enough to hold onto the puck in front of the net, and gave junior Ben Street a wide-open look with a backhand pass. SCSU goaltender Bobby Goepfert came up with the most important save of the series, and UW was barely denied the chance at an improbable sweep of the Huskies (18-6-6, 12-6-6).

"I'm not sure what happened," Street said. "Joudrey had the puck in front and got it over to me. I got everything on it, just didn't get it up high enough.

"I wish I could do that again. I definitely wouldn't do the shot I did, but that's the way it goes, I guess."

The Badgers, perhaps as a result of the pre-game Senior Night festivities, were a little flat to start the game, and were fortunate to skate to a scoreless first period.

"We talked about things that the kids could do — they needed to talk to their folks and say, 'Look, I need to keep my routine,'" Eaves said. "But the emotion that they spent entertaining their parents and their family and their relatives, it's hard to measure.

"I'm sure it had an effect on us. But the kids played their hearts out at the end there and they can be proud of what they did."

The Badgers were somewhat satisfied with the tie Saturday, but were extremely proud of their 3-1 win in the series opener. Even senior Andy Brandt got into the act.

Brandt, a fourth-liner who had just 10 career points in 119 games when the series began, set up sophomore Jack Skille for a point-blank shot as part of a nice give-and-go play, and Skille ripped home the one-timer for the series' first goal at 9:18 of the first period.

After that, it was all Joudrey, earning just the third multi-goal of his career — the first this season — on nearly identical plays, both coming on the power play and with assists from Carlson and freshman Michael Davies.

At the 12:50 mark of the first period, the defense collapsed on Carlson in the corner, so Carlson hit Joudrey at the point and the Badgers captain slapped it home for a 2-0 lead. Then, when SCSU's Aaron Brocklehurst earned a five-minute major and game misconduct for hitting McBain from behind, the Badgers capitalized again on the same play, only it was Davies who got the pass off to Joudrey.

The goal, just two minutes into the third, put the Badgers back up by two scores and was all they would need for the win.

"We were laughing, I don't think I'd scored since the four-man groups in September," Joudrey joked. "It was the whole effort by the power play. We did a good job to be patient in the third and take what's given."

Eaves was quick to give credit to Dowell, who was a major contributor to Wisconsin's offense this weekend despite tallying no points.

"The unsung hero was Jake," Eaves said. "[He] was in front taking eyes away and not letting the goaltender really have a good vision of that puck. Here's that wide body in front of [Goepfert], he's trying to look through and find pucks. Jake made the job harder by his physical presence."