But since Connelly got the start against Minnesota-Duluth last Saturday — in Elliott's final regular season game — and notched his third shutout of the year, speculation is abound that Elliott may not be the guy now with the Badgers (15-17-4, 12-13-3 WCHA) in a do-or-die situation.
Not so, said head coach Mike Eaves at his Monday press conference.
"Brian is the man," Eaves said. "We talked about Shane's development — he's followed the same path as Brian did his sophomore year."
Elliott knows what it's like to be in Connelly's position — as a sophomore, Elliott was the backup to All-American Bernd Brückler. That year, Elliott started game two of the 2004-05 WCHA opening round and lost to Alaska-Anchorage 2-1; Elliott also saw some ice time the previous night in UW's game one victory.
But it doesn't appear Eaves will be employing the same system against Denver, at least not with a defending national champion goaltender and Hobey Baker finalist on his roster.
"In college hockey, he's as veteran as they get, going into this playoff for us," Eaves said.
"He's been there, he's won it, he's dealt with the expectations and pressure of doing it again. He's come back and done some very good things, so … he comes into this playoff at a pretty good spot for us.
"Unless something happens physically to Brian, he's going to be the man."
Road warriors
The 2006-07 regular season schedule had the Badgers on the road for their last two series of the year.
Wisconsin ran into some travel troubles due to weather, getting stranded in Houghton, Mich., two weekends ago and leaving for Duluth, Minn., one night early to beat the blizzard-like conditions.
UW recovered from a disastrous series against Michigan Tech to take three out of four points from UMD, earning a 2-1-1 record on the road swing.
"We handled a lot of adversity, and I think for the most part, the guys did a pretty good job," Eaves said.
In recent weeks, players have mandated their late road trip has built character for the team, and Eaves agreed it'll come in handy now that Wisconsin won't play another game this year at the Kohl Center.
"This is just another week for us," Eaves said. "We're packing up the circus and taking it on the road again."
So close, yet so far
Take a look at the WCHA standings without the top two teams and bottom three teams — just four points separate the five teams in between.
The parody of the league showed this year, and the Badgers are well-aware their seventh seed going into the WCHA playoffs could very well have been a third seed.
"I think that makes us take a look at our schedule and not getting any points in Michigan Tech when [captain] Andrew [Joudrey] got sick … and losing that game in overtime at CC," Eaves said. "You talk about details, all of a sudden, we could be up in that upper half so easily, but unfortunately it didn't shake out that way, and we can't change that."
By the same token, Wisconsin isn't that far behind the rest of the pack.
For further perspective, No. 8 North Dakota has the third seed in the WCHA playoffs — and tallied just one more win (13) in conference play than the Badgers did.
Eaves says the exodus of great WCHA players who leave school early for the professional ranks lumps all the teams together at the end of the season.
"We talked about parody being something that has existed in the WCHA, now it's in bold font, underlined, bull's-eye on it," Eaves said. "That's why the league is the way it is."
