Chalk one up for the Madison natives.

On a night where Patrick Johnson and Craig Smith both scored goals, the two were asked who scored the prettier one. Johnson dove to get a stick on a pass and poked it by the goaltender, while Smith bullied his way to the net before firing a shot in.

“Not me, I’ll tell you that much. I couldn’t score with my feet, so I’ve got to dive for one,” Johnson said.

Style points don’t show up in the box score, though, so both goals counted evenly as the Wisconsin men’s hockey team won 6-2 over Alaska Anchorage Saturday night. The Badgers (6-3-1, 4-3-1 WCHA) swept the Seawolves (4-8-0, 2-6-0 WCHA) after winning 5-1 Friday night and have won five of their past six games.

A quick look at the box score doesn’t tell the whole story of Saturday’s game, however. While UW outscored UAA 6-2 and outshot the Seawolves 42-13, the game was tied 1-1 until almost halfway through the second period. The biggest thing UW head coach Mike Eaves wants to take away from the game was how quickly the Badgers responded to both Seawolves’ goals.

“The response that the guys gave on the first goal — two great passes from Derek Lee to Ben Grotting, and Ben showed some great hands — that was a terrific saucer pass. And Ben Street put it away,” Eaves said. “And then the goal by Craig Smith to create that two-goal lead again was so important.”

After UAA’s Josh Lunden put the Seawolves up 1-0 15:32 into the first period, Street took all of 11 seconds to tie it back up, burying a pass from Grotting. When Lunden scored again in the third period to make it 3-2, Smith used his strength to drive to the net and rip a shot past UAA goaltender Bryce Christianson 66 seconds later.

“That was the game in a nutshell — people will look at the box score and say, ‘Well, it was 6-2, and the shots were 42-13 — they must have dominated the whole game. Must not have been much of a game,'” Eaves said. “There were those two critical moments, turning points.”

Freshman Justin Schultz also got his first goal as a Badger with an empty-netter, and Street scored again on the power play with 12 seconds left in the game to seal the win for Wisconsin. All in all, UW saw four players record their first goals of the season, with Smith leading the way.

The freshman forward was third on the team in points with six assists heading into the series and didn’t waste any time getting his first collegiate goal Friday night. Just 14 seconds in, he skated up the left wing and snuck a snap shot past UAA’s Jon Olthuis.

“Smitty and I talked about getting his first goal this week in practice, and he’s been looking forward to it. So that was a big weight off his shoulders,” Eaves said. “He’s a young man that’s used to getting points and scoring, and it was good for him to get that, because it gets back that feeling. And we need for him to get that feeling.”

“Just getting the monkey off my back [was nice],” Smith said. “Just trying to play simple and play hard, and I knew eventually one was going to pop in.”

Senior Aaron Bendickson also got his first two goals of the season Friday, highlighted by a shorthanded goal 5:36 into the third period. Street fired a shot on net Olthuis couldn’t handle, and Bendickson knocked in the rebound.

And while Wisconsin’s offense was on display again this weekend, scoring 11 goals on 79 shots, the defense was just as strong. UW gave up 20 shots on goal Friday and just 13 Saturday, giving Wisconsin goaltenders Brett Bennett and Scott Gudmandson lots of downtime. Gudmandson attributed the low shot totals by UAA to the defense in front of him. The UW defense blocked 13 shots Saturday and was aggressive on the penalty kill, a big reason the Badgers are fifth in the nation in scoring defense, giving up 1.90 goals per game.

“They’re just so steady. Everybody on the ice is contributing, and if one person messes up, the other guys are there to back him up,” Gudmandson said. “I know that one thing that we do really well is we block a ton of shots and that makes it easier on me.”

While the Badgers certainly looked strong, and at times dominating against the Seawolves, Eaves was frustrated with his team’s play Friday. There were numerous near-fights Friday and as a result, the game produced 11 roughing penalties. All in all, both teams racked up 63 penalty minutes Friday, which Eaves was able to characterize in one word.

“I think the word to describe the night would be ‘exasperated,'” he said. “At times, we were brilliant, and (other) times we felt exasperated by what was going on the ice — by our play and the peripheral stuff that was going on,” he said.

UW captain Blake Geoffrion found himself involved in most of the pushing, taking four roughing penalties in the two games. Smith, who skated on Geoffrion’s line, had a goal and an assist early in Friday’s game and looked to have had a golden opportunity to complete the Gordie Howe hat trick by getting into a fight.

“Uh, yeah, there was a lot of chippiness going around. But that’s part of the game, though; everybody’s paying hard,” Smith said. “That stuff’s bound to happen. I wasn’t really thinking about that during the game, but it definitely could have happened.”