After earning three out of four possible points during its weekend series at Denver, the Wisconsin men’s hockey team may finally be headed back to national prominence.
Some may not realize, but before a 1990s renaissance, football and basketball were secondary in UW athletics. The men’s hockey program, which has won five national titles and sent players such as Chris Chelios, Mike Richter and Curtis Joseph to prominent NHL careers, holds UW’s richest athletic tradition.
But the last title came in 1990. And the last great team, featuring Steve Reinprecht and Dany Heatley, was upset one game prior to the Frozen Four at the end of the 2000 season.
Since then, it’s been three years of frustration. The 2000-’01 team didn’t live up to expectations, and the ’01-’02 team failed to make the NCAA tournament in the final campaign of Jeff Sauer, the hockey team’s all-time winningest coach.
But it got worse. Mike Eaves took over the program last season, and the Badgers posted just seven WCHA wins, their worst conference campaign ever. And off-ice incidents involving the now-departed Alex Leavitt and Brad Winchester had UW looking like the college hockey version of “Animal House.”
As the losses piled up, the hockey program seemed to be slipping behind the newfound success of football and basketball.
But Eaves, who teamed up with current UW women’s hockey coach Mark Johnson during Wisconsin’s 1970s glory years, never stopped believing the Badgers could return to national prominence.
And in his second season, due largely to a pool of young talent, Eaves’ belief has paid off. Starting with an overtime win over Quinnipiac on Oct. 24, the Badgers have reeled off a 12-game unbeaten streak, two games shy of the school record.
The team is 8-0-4 during the run, and their 4-2-4 WCHA record (9-3-4 overall) is good enough to put them in third behind St. Cloud State and Minnesota-Duluth.
Also, the team’s No. 11 national ranking in last week’s U.S. College Hockey Online poll is their first national ranking in over two years. After their weekend performance over No. 8 Denver, Eaves’ Badgers climbed to No. 7 in the polls.
So finally, the buzz over hockey is back in Madison. Eaves said he has been flooded with e-mails from fans and alumni happy to see the team back in the national picture.
“We want to play at the top level. Any coach wants that, any player who plays wants that. We hope we’re moving back toward that,” Eaves said at Monday’s press conference. “If we continue to play the type of hockey we’re playing, because of the buzz around town, I think the word will get out.”
The Badgers play an exhibition game at the Kohl Center tonight against HC Riga 2000, a team of Latvian national players, before resuming WCHA play against MSU-Mankato this weekend in Madison. With the WCHA shaping up, Eaves thinks his team may finally start to rekindle some of UW’s hockey glory.
“I think we’re starting to forge ourselves into a legitimate team,” he said. “We still have a lot of work to do, and we have a vision of what we want to be at the end of the year.”
Given the history of UW hockey, that vision likely involves some hardware.
Basketball teams take aim at in-state rivals:
Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams are preparing for a unique portion of their schedule, as they get ready for a series of intra-state showdowns.
The men’s team will play three home games against fellow Division I Wisconsin colleges, starting with UW-Green Bay Wednesday night. Saturday they will face UW-Milwaukee before a huge showdown with Marquette the following Saturday.
The women’s team heads to Green Bay Saturday, followed by a Monday game against Milwaukee at the Kohl Center.
Both coaches agreed on the value of intra-state competition.
“Playing the three state schools is what’s good for the game of basketball,” men’s coach Bo Ryan said at Monday’s press conference. “Three intense games, three good games against guys who know one another pretty much from top to bottom, guys that have played against one another. Now, I think that’s good for basketball, especially in the state of Wisconsin.”
“We have some great schools and coaches in the state,” women’s coach Lisa Stone said. “It pits two really good teams against each other, anytime any of the four meet. You can throw out the record books.”
The men’s team will get a boost, with injured forwards Jason Chappell and Alando Tucker cleared to practice. When they will return to game action is still unclear.
