Coming off a humiliating weekend series, the Wisconsin men’s hockey team looks to regroup on home ice against 14th-ranked St. Cloud State tonight.
In search of their third-straight home victory, the Badgers (10-19-3, 4-15-3 WCHA) look to put their past series behind them in their only regular season meeting with the WCHA’s sixth-placed St. Cloud Huskies.
UW head coach Mike Eaves hopes the disenchanting cheers from the Minnesota crowd last Saturday will hit home with his players, providing much-needed motivation and inspiration for tonight’s game.
Eaves reevaluated his philosophy following the UM series, which saw the Badgers outscored 13-3, and promised early on in the week that preparations for St. Cloud State (14-11-3, 10-9-3 WCHA) would be no treat.
“You know what? We were embarrassed, and we need to address that,” said Eaves, who slackened practice mid-year. “[The series was] not acceptable.”
The Badger roster does not contain a single player who has netted a goal against SCSU in his career. In 10 games versus the Huskies, the most on the team, captain Brad Winchester has notched a measly two assists. No player on roster has more than two points.
The possible return of Adam Burish to the UW lineup would give the Badgers, who have not lost to St. Cloud State on a Friday night since 1999, a much-needed offensive threat. Burish has been recovering from a broken collarbone. Both Alex Leavitt (the leading scorer on home-ice) and Erik Jensen, who did not make the trip to Minneapolis after undisciplined play against Alaska-Anchorage, are expected to return to the lineup as well.
“We are going to go out and work hard and make sure that everybody is there this weekend,” said Eaves, whose Badgers are in the WCHA’s ninth slot. “We are not going to back off at all.”
St. Cloud State comes to town with momentum after splitting a series against top-ranked Colorado College. After getting off to a slow start at 7-7-2, St. Cloud State has gone 7-4-1, due in large part to the return of senior defenseman Derek Eastman, who was ruled academically ineligible for the first half of the season after failing a summer class.
Eastman, with three goals and 11 assists in 12 games, leads the revamped and balanced attack that features four players with at least 12 goals. The Huskie power play, which led the nation two years ago and finished third last year, accounts for 40 percent of the team’s goals, meaning UW cannot afford to take penalties.
Wisconsin’s own power play has been executing remarkably well. Following a dismal 13-game stretch that saw UW go 2-53 (3.8 percent), the Badgers have converted on the man-advantage in the past four games going 5-20 (25 percent).
After UW’s Scott Kabotoff permitted four goals in the first nine minutes last Saturday, Bernd Bruckler will have another opportunity to start both games with a strong appearance tonight. The sophomore Bruckler, ranked fourth in WCHA save percentage (.909), stopped 45 shots in his last start and was the lone bright spot in the 5-2 loss. Bruckler has been the only constant in an otherwise inconsistent season for the Badgers.
Concluding a hellish week of practice, Eaves expects that the message was understood by his players and that it will curb another situation like Minnesota.
“[Getting a win] is our greatest challenge right now,” Eaves stated. “This is the one we have to meet. This will be the test — this will define whether or not this team is an overachieving team by the way we react to this situation.”
