If there’s one immutable truth in hockey, it’s that you can ride a hot goaltender all the way to the Cup. Or, in this case, a national championship.
That’s of course, a lofty and unlikely goal for the Wisconsin men’s hockey team. The Badgers are in the midst of a pretty hot streak – they’re 10-1 since Dec. 4 – but still in fifth place in the WCHA with 20 points.
That’s not as terrible as it might sound, though. Fourth-place Colorado College has just two more points, and Minnesota-Duluth and North Dakota sit six points ahead. Not completely impossible odds as far as catching up, but still unlikely.
The real important thing would be to ensure they sit in the top half of the conference and secure home ice for the WCHA playoffs – UW is on a Kohl Center-best nine-game win streak at home.
But let’s backtrack a bit to the original point I made: hot goaltending can take you anywhere. In Wisconsin’s case, Scott Gudmandson’s play has taken the Badgers from par for early expectations (a .500 team) and instead led them to a 17-8-3 record.
The senior goaltender is second in the nation with a 1.76 goals-against average and third with a .935 save percentage. His play is also a big reason Wisconsin leads the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 2.04 goals per game. Goody also hasn’t allowed more than two goals in a game since mid-November, a streak of 12 starts now.
If Wisconsin manages to make some kind of run in the WCHA Final Five and secure a nice No. 2 seed in one of the NCAA regionals, it will be because of the play of No. 1 between the pipes.
Goody is the one big difference between this season’s team and the one that played for the national title last year. Yes, Gudmandson was in net for Wisconsin during last season’s stretch run. But he did not have to be nearly as brilliant as he’s been this season as often as he was in 2009-2010.
Last season’s team was a juggernaut on offense with four players posting over 50 points. It had a massively talented group of defensemen. It simply steamrolled teams with sheer force. And in goal, Gudmandson was serviceable, if not spectacular – he was considered by some pundits to be the one weakness on the team.
This is Goody 2.0.
Right now, the Sherwood Park, Alberta, native is the Badgers’ best player. Yeah, better than defenseman Justin Schultz, whose 36 points is just one behind the season-ending total of former WCHA player of the year Jamie McBain. Schultz is also scoring at about the same pace as Hobey Baker top-10 finalist Brendan Smith did last season.
Captain Sean Dolan’s team is kind of like a lite version of Blake Geoffrion’s team last year. They have weapons on offense, just not as many. They have a very talented group of blueliners, but they’re not at the same level as the bunch that preceded them.
The one upgrade came in goal, and it came with little more than a progression of performance from the same guy who took the 5-0 loss to Boston College maybe harder than any other Badger.
So consider that since December began – a span of 12 games – Wisconsin has scored more than three goals just three times. The Badgers have averaged just 2.91 goals per game in that span, almost half a goal under their actual season total.
Scoring three goals should win you a game – most of the time. If you want to get by like that, your goaltender better be playing, well, like Goody has been playing.
I don’t mean to make it sound like this group is offensively anemic; Craig Smith’s line and the combo of Schultz and Jake Gardiner are very difficult to stop. Case in point, Wisconsin has been shutout just twice this season and scored one goal once. In every game but three, UW has scored at least two goals. The Badgers just don’t have the same cushion as they did last year when they routinely won by two or more goals.
Wisconsin has proved it has guts – Craig Smith’s goal to retake the lead against Mankato last weekend and the program’s first overtime win since 2007 a couple weeks before that show the Badgers have the resolve to win those tight games. The big kicker is that now they have a guy they can count on every outing to make sure they’re never out of striking distance.
The thought certainly never crossed my mind that Wisconsin would be in its current situation at this point in the season. At this point, not making the NCAA tournament seems a more shocking result than making it. Once they’re there? Refer to the hot goaltender statement at the beginning of the column.
There’s no question about it: No. 8 Wisconsin is in the position it is because of Gudmandson’s play. And the Badgers will go as far as Goody will take them.
Adam is a senior majoring in journalism. Can Goody’s hot streak continue? Email him at [email protected] or Tweet @AdamJSHolt.
