It was admittedly not the way they wanted to end the regular season.

The Wisconsin men’s hockey team battled to a closely contested 3-2 win over Minnesota last Friday and then got demolished by the Gophers 6-1 Sunday. It was not the kind of series the third-ranked Badgers usually have against an unranked opponent.

Friday night involved a weird game — at a weird venue in the Target Center — where three Minnesota goals were disallowed, with two of them being reviewed on video.

Sunday, a string of Wisconsin penalties and a more motivated Minnesota team drubbed the Badgers with five power-play goals in a game where UW had nothing at stake but pride.

The Wisconsin penalty kill, a strength of the team this season, only killed off three of Minnesota’s eight power plays. UW’s own power-play unit went 0-for-6.

In summary, it was a less-than-convincing performance Sunday, especially with the WCHA playoffs coming up Friday.

“We went toe-to-toe, if that’s one of the top teams in the country,” Minnesota head coach Don Lucia said in his press conference after Friday’s game.

Yes, Donny. Wisconsin is one of the top teams in the country.

This past weekend is no reason to press any panic buttons.

As UW head coach Mike Eaves called it, consider Sunday an “aberration.” The Badgers are still on track to make the WCHA Final Five and also a deep NCAA Tournament run, regardless of last weekend.

Here’s why:

It was Minnesota

The Border Battle rivalry games are always heated. It’s not a measurable factor by any means, but there’s always some extra pride on the line when it’s Minnesota-Wisconsin. Like a Packers-Bears or a North Carolina-Duke (except in the case of last Saturday) matchup, a great rivalry game will nearly always be tightly contested, regardless of records.

And let’s not forget that this is a) Minnesota and b) hockey.

The state of Minnesota is really head and shoulders above the rest of the U.S. in producing young hockey talent, including the five Minnesota natives on Wisconsin’s roster.

Case in point, the Warroad High School boy’s varsity team beat the U.S. women’s Olympic team 2-1 back in 2006. Yeah, the same squad the United States sent to Turin.

Warroad’s 2008 population? 1,656.

The Gophers have consistently been one of college hockey’s premier programs for decades while filling the roster almost completely with Minnesota natives. It’s a hockey talent stockpile comparable to Texas’ or Florida’s in football.

Every single player Lucia trotted out in Sunday’s lineup was an NHL draft pick. Twenty Gophers were taken in the draft, with four coming in the first round.

Of course, that only means Minnesota’s .500 regular season is comparable to North Carolina basketball’s disappointing year, or fishing with dynamite and coming home empty-handed. The thing to remember is regardless of how inconsistent the Gophers have been all season, the sheer amount of talent on the roster means they can beat anybody if things fall in place.

Things like…

Penalties

It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to infer some of the roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were due to the fact it was a Badger-Gopher game.

Minnesota-native Ryan McDonagh probably doesn’t try to give the opposing captain a Stone Cold Stunner midway through the second period unless it’s against the U of M.

Regardless, there wasn’t another game the Badgers played all season that exemplified how much penalties can hurt a team.

Five of Minnesota’s six goals came on the power play, and three of them were in the second period alone.

Like at any good kegger, it’s easier to score in hockey when there are fewer guys.

The Gophers constantly found themselves open backdoor to put away easy goals, and the Badgers got tired and discombobulated from being on the penalty kill for roughly a calendar year in a game that didn’t really matter.

Still, five power play goals allowed in one game is a lot, but…

UW’s special teams aren’t as bad as they looked

As bad as the special teams units were Sunday, they looked pretty damn good Friday night. Minnesota went 0-for-6 on the power play and UW was 2-of-5 with the man advantage in game one.

The Badgers executed one of the prettiest power-play goals you’ll ever see on Justin Schultz’ tally Friday.

Blake Geoffrion won the draw, dropping it to Brendan Smith, who swung it around to Derek Stepan. Steps found Davies around the end line who rifled a pass across the crease to a crashing Schultz.

The whole play took seven seconds and the Gophers might as well have not been on the ice.

In addition to Minny’s 0-for-6 performance Friday, UW kept Michigan Tech 0-for-9 on the power play on the series two weeks ago, St. Cloud State 1-of-8 before that, Minnesota State 1-of-13 before that and Minnesota-Duluth 1-for-16 earlier in February.

The penalty kill should not be a concern.

Likewise, the power play has been less consistently great throughout the year, but Wisconsin is still converting at a 21.1 percent clip — good for eighth in the nation.

And when it mattered in a high-intensity game, it came through.

Down 2-1 against Michigan in the Camp Randall game, UW got the equalizer and game-winner from Brendan Smith while on the power play.

The games the power-play unit looked worst in were blowout losses anyways.

So if any other teams in the nation saw last weekend’s games and were licking their chops at the prospect of a fading Wisconsin squad, sorry. The Badgers aren’t dwelling on it.

“That game was over when we got back Sunday night,” Eaves said.

We’d all be smart to take his word for it.

Adam is a junior majoring in journalism. Think the Badgers are still on track for the Frozen Four? Let him know what you think at [email protected].