“Like father, like son” is an old cliché, but for UW men’s head hockey coach Mike Eaves it echoes frightfully true. This Friday UW parts from Madison for the first time in the young season and heads to Boston College to take on the Eagles and Eaves’ two sons.

Ben, a junior, and Patrick, a freshman, anchor the No.8 BC team that beat WCHA preseason favorite Denver 4-2 last Friday.

Much like their father, who was a notorious goal scorer, the two boys can be found atop BC’s offensive categories.

Ben is BC’s team captain and is tied for second in scoring on the team behind his younger brother Patrick, who leads the squad offensively with four goals and five assists in only three games.

“They have been very good,” said Eaves, whose children have been playing hockey since they could lace their skates. “Your dad goes to work, and you bring your kids, it’s pretty natural [for my boys to play hockey.]”

Exactly how Eaves will go about his first hockey series against his own kin is another matter.

However, UW can be rest assured that there will be no slip in concentration from their first-year head coach based upon Eaves’ family’s competitive nature that includes a WWF Belt.

“We have a family belt for ping pong and golf,” Eaves said, smiling. “I have the golf belt right now, which is surprising, and now we’ll have a hockey belt I suppose.”

The Eagles’ (3-1) early season success has been based upon the Eaves siblings who play together almost as a single player. Against Denver the pair was part of every goal put on the board, assisting on three and scoring once.

“They’ve never had a fight in their life against each other, physically,” Eaves told reporters Monday. “They have a pretty unique relationship; they play well together.”

Boeser Foiled

Junior Dan Boeser did not suit up against Alabama-Huntsville Saturday, marking the defenseman’s second time in as many weeks that he did not see the ice in back-to-back games.

Rehabilitating from off-season cancer therapy, Boeser, whose only absences have been the last two Saturdays, sustained an injury to his hand on the last line of Friday night’s victory against Alabama-Huntsville.

“He’s still in a cast, and they’ll know more [later Monday,]” Eaves said. “They want to take a look at it and see if it set properly. If it didn’t, it could [mean surgery.] I think after looking at x-rays [the doctors] are leaning towards fracture.”

Freshmen First

Freshman forward Nick Licari bagged his first career goal against Alabama-Huntsville Saturday. For Licari it was his first point of the season, taking the Duluth native only three games to find his way onto the scoring scene.

After his celebration, captain Brad Winchester skated over to linesman Mike Gulenchyn and retrieved the piece of memorabilia for the winger’s ever-growing collection.

“It was everything I thought it would be and then some,” Licari said. “It’s a great feeling.”

Sieve!

Do you ever wonder where those crafty crowd expressions, such as “overrated” and “warm up the bus,” are birthed?

Renowned publication Sports Illustrated recently credited the University of Wisconsin as the birthplace of the “sieve” chant uttered by the cardinal-and-white faithful after netting a goal on the opposition.