Both Wisconsin and Colorado College were well aware they might be playing each other not only in the regular season finale, but in the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs as well. Lo and behold, the Badgers will indeed head to Colorado Springs for a best-of-three series with the Tigers.
So in a way, it’s a best-of-five series with a weeklong break in the middle, which gives the teams plenty of time to reassess each other.
“This reminds you a little bit of the NHL playoffs, especially when you’ve played a team twice already,” UW head coach Mike Eaves said. “So you’ve got an in-depth feeling, so you can sit down, you can get more in-depth about each guy and what they mean to their team. … You get into a little cat-and-mouse game.”
“It helps us with the fact that they are familiar,” senior Podge Turnbull said. “We know what they’re going to bring to the table. Obviously every team’s got a few tricks up their sleeve they save for playoffs, but it just helps.”
CC won last Friday to extend a UW winless streak to seven games, but the Badgers came back for a 3-1 win on Senior Night to even up the series. But those games came at the Kohl Center. Now Wisconsin heads about 1,000 miles west – and more importantly, 5,172 feet higher – to World Arena.
The elevation is being coped with through hydration and some other plans, one of them being to minimize shift lengths. While the Tigers are used to the thinner air, the Badgers will need to be aware of when they’re tiring – especially since a couple of CC goals last weekend seemed to come at the end of long UW shifts.
But it might not all be physical.
“I think a lot of it can be mental,” Turnbull said. “If you feel like you’re getting sick, you tell yourself you’re not sick long enough, pretty soon you’re not sick anymore.”
Eaves noted that the altitude might not affect one position for the Badgers – goaltender.
While he hasn’t yet named a starter for Friday’s game, Eaves sounded open to the idea that both Brett Bennett and Scott Gudmandson might get a night in net.
“This is something that was in the back of our mind at the beginning of the year that’s come to fruition – the fact that we’ve got two guys, especially if you’re not used to playing at that altitude,” he said. “The fact we have two senior guys that are very capable is a nice thing for us to have, going on the road here.”
What isn’t going for the Badgers is their recent record against the Tigers. Wisconsin is 3-10-1 against Colorado College since 2007, with just one win at World Arena.
And maybe more important than their recent play against CC is the Badgers’ play in general. Since owning a 19-8-3 record entering February, UW is just 1-6-1 in its eight games since.
The drop in winning percentage also saw the team’s No. 1 scoring defense drop to 13th and a once-potent power play unit struggle.
So now, nothing less than winning this series will keep UW’s postseason hopes alive. It might actually take winning the WCHA Final Five to get the Badgers into the NCAA tournament field.
But it all starts with one win Friday.
“It’s going to be huge, especially on the road,” defenseman Justin Schultz said. “If you get that 1-0 lead on the road, it’s going to be huge in our favor.”
And while last weekend was important for the team’s seniors, now it’s potentially everybody’s last game of the season.
“I think last weekend was a big emotional thing for us seniors,” Turnbull said. “I think it was more of a distraction last weekend than it will be this weekend. It’s playoff hockey now; our lives are on the line.”
