[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]With their chances of home ice on life support, the Wisconsin men's hockey team is trying to stay focused on its final test of the regular season. Although not a difficult task on paper, the Badgers can ill-afford any mistakes when they travel to last-place Minnesota-Duluth this weekend.

Right now, Wisconsin's return to the Kohl Center for the postseason looks extremely bleak, as UW sits in eighth place in the WCHA. Since fifth-place Colorado College and sixth-place Michigan Tech hold tiebreakers over Wisconsin, the Badgers need to surpass C.C., Tech, Minnesota State and at least tie North Dakota. Although it is all a possibility, head coach Mike Eaves is more concerned about regaining the mojo the team had a few weeks go when the Badgers went on a four-game unbeaten streak.

"It was just one of those weekends that just things weren't aligned," Eaves said. "Did we give up? No. Did we work hard right until the end? Yes."

All in all, it was just a weird weekend for Wisconsin and the one that has epitomized their season.

"Sometimes you have a day or a couple stretches a day that just aren't good, but, you know, I give the kids credit because they left it on the ice," Eaves said. "And that's all you can ask at the end of the day."

After having flight problems leaving Madison, the Badgers were forced to spend another night in the Upper Peninsula because of the snowstorm that blanketed the Midwest. Even more painful than spending another night in a town they just got swept in was to face facts that Wisconsin could be without their senior captain for another week.

Andrew Joudrey, Wisconsin leading scorer and emotional leader, battled health issues on Friday night and couldn't play Saturday due to bronchitis. Battling through 20- and 30-second shifts, the illness proved too much for Joudrey, as he was forced to sit out the second game of the weekend.

"We knew that he was not feeling well during the week," Eaves said. "We had Tuesday off for him. He feels pretty good Wednesday and Thursday. Show up Friday, and he can only go that long."

Eaves couldn't overemphasize Joudrey's importance to the team.

"I know last year, even on the team that we had last year, when he wasn't in the mix, he was a big piece," Eaves added. "This year, he's our leading scorer, our captain, and so it was a tall order. Unfortunately, we didn't get it done [and] the bottom line is that we missed him."

Even the bounces Wisconsin got on the small sheet of ice rubbed salt in the wounds for UW. Two big goals scored by Michigan Tech last weekend were Husky shots that ricocheted off Badger players and snuck into Wisconsin's goal. With the Badgers losing another offensive weapon in Joudrey, the hockey gods seemingly weren't with Wisconsin in Houghton.

"I looked at those two goals that they scored — the difference in the game [was] two pucks that went off us and into the net," Eaves said. "You make your own puck luck is one of the beliefs, but the fact is that a couple pucks went off us. We worked hard until the end, but just didn't have enough to overcome [it]."

With Wisconsin needing a sweep and help to stay home for the playoffs, the Badgers have to prepare for the Bulldogs not knowing if Joudrey will play.

"He went back and saw the doctor and they upped his dosage of medicine," Eaves said. "We can do a lot of neat things that we couldn't do a couple years ago, but when it comes to stuff like this, the trainer said we do everything we could and cover all our bases to give Andrew the best chance to be in the lineup and be 100 percent."