Coming off of four straight unbeaten contests against two of the top teams in the country (No.2 North Dakota and No. 9 St. Cloud State), the No. 6 University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team would seem to have something of an undemanding matchup this weekend against Alaska-Anchorage (10-17-3 overall, 7-16-3 WCHA).
The Seawolves, after failing to win a single conference matchup in the 2002-03 season, have had something of a rebound year in 2003-04 but still rank near the bottom of the WCHA.
Head coach John Hill’s squad has impressive victories this season over No. 7 Minnesota, No. 9 St. Cloud State, Colorado College and No. 11 Denver. But his team has had its share of problems, currently placing eighth in the WCHA, just a few points ahead of last place Michigan Tech.
The Ice Badgers aren’t taking the series lightly, though. Any time a team has to deal with traveling as far as Eaves’ team has to this weekend, jetlag can be a major problem.
“Even the one hour can throw you off,” Eaves said. “But when you go three hours it can throw your body cycle off. So that’s one of the factors we have to deal with.”
Eaves will look to take measures to address the issue with the team but also says he will try to keep them focused on the important series.
“We talked about the importance of re-hydrating when you’re on the plane for that long, making sure that you’re comfortable,” Eaves said. “But we really don’t bring it up. We all address it as a long trip and we know it’s going to be hard, but there are always just little things that we talk about when we travel that we’ll bring up again.”
One of the things that Eaves and the Badgers will look to do this weekend is build on their recent success in creating scoring chances.
“We took a look at the video, and actually we had more chances (against St. Cloud State) than we had in any other weekend beforehand,” Eaves said. “When you take a look at goals and assists and whether or not you’re putting the puck in the net, the first thing we take a look at is: Are we creating scoring chances? And yes, we did.”
Special teams continues to be an area of concern for the Badgers, but Eaves said that while the Badgers didn’t convert on the power play last weekend, he felt the unit was moving in the right direction.
“Just in those moments of truth again on the power play, we didn’t put the puck away,” he said. “That’s the part that — how much do you pressure that with the kids, because they start squeezing their stick a little harder. I think if we go back and show them, “Look at, right here you made the good plays,” (we can) continue to do that, and let’s just find a way to finish it off.”
“There’s always room for improvement,” he added.
Alaska has struggled in net this season, splitting time between two seniors, Chris King and Kevin Reiter, neither of whom has a goals-against average of less than 3.30. King has been the better of the two, posting a .915 save percentage. But he has struggled to win games, managing only two wins in 13 conference games.
The Badgers’ shot at a WCHA title has been stretched to its limit. For Wisconsin to claim a share of the title, North Dakota will need to tie and beat Minnesota-Duluth this weekend, and then both the Sioux and the Bulldogs will need to lose out.
Chances to claim a regular season aside, if the Badgers hope to maintain their spot near the top of college hockey going into the playoffs, they have to take care of business against teams like the Seawolves.
