Following a turbulent week for the men’s hockey team that included an embarrassing series against Minnesota and a report that UW head coach Mike Eaves had a physical confrontation with one of his players, the team overcame distractions and pushed its unbeaten streak at home to four games.
Arguably playing its best hockey of the season, Wisconsin (5-15-4 WCHA, 11-19-4 overall) concluded Friday’s contest against St. Cloud State deadlocked at 2 goals apiece one night before a come-from-behind 4-3 victory that capped a successful weekend.
“[The atmosphere in the locker room] is tough to describe,” said a joyous head coach Mike Eaves following Saturday night’s win. “It’s total elation.”
Tabbing Friday night’s 2-2 performance as having “been as solid as we have played for 60 minutes all season,” Eaves received an unimaginable encore, watching his team come from behind Saturday.
“Everyone stepped up,” sophomore Joe Simon said. “We had a lot of energy tonight — something we didn’t have last weekend.”
Crediting the series’ improved play to last weekend’s 8-1 debacle at Minnesota and not to the Leavitt fiasco, the Badgers played an incredible, highly physical and intense series, which received several standing ovations from the Kohl Center crowds.
Two minutes after the puck dropped Saturday night, the Huskies (10-10-4, 14-12-4) beat UW goalie Brend Bruckler, who failed to control the initial shot by Peter Szabo and allowed a rebound by Matt Hendricks to silence the crowd of 12,695.
Thirty-two seconds later, Badger Pete Talafous’ juke-created shot was put home by Erik Jensen, who had a spectacular series after sitting out the prior three games because of undisciplined play against Alaska-Anchorage.
“I had a little something to show to coach because he benched me,” said Jensen, who began Friday on the fourth line and ended Saturday in the top two lines. “I wanted to go out and play hard.”
St. Cloud State, however, retook the lead at the 16-minute mark in the second period after a missed defensive assignment by UW allowed Huskie Joe Cullen to skate one-on-one with Bruckler, who was beaten through his legs. In uncharacteristic fashion, Wisconsin answered only 34 seconds later as Simon found a rebound and put it in the net for a 2-2 tie and his second goal of the year.
With just over a minute remaining in the second, Bruckler was caught with his head turned. St. Cloud’s Szabo was behind the net and fired a pass to a wide-open Hendricks, who took it upper shelf for his second tally of the game, leaving the Badgers down 3-2 heading into the third period.
“The turning point was at the end of the second period,” Eaves said, whose team was 0-17-1 when down entering the final stanza this year. “Before we went out (for the third), I put the onus on the upperclassmen, ‘Fellas, this is the time you need to step up.'”
Two minutes into the third period, freshman Nick Licari slid a pass to the stick of senior Brian Fahey, who netted the equalizer, giving the Badgers some rare third-period momentum.
“I really think (Fahey’s goal) was like, ‘You know what, fellas? We can do this,'” Eaves said.
With overtime looking more and more likely for the second-straight night, Jon Krall found a streaking and wide-open Rene Bourque on the left-side boards. Bourque, with two game-winners under his belt this year, fired between the legs of Jake Moreland, igniting the lamp and the Badger crowd and bench.
“I had a good step on their defense and I shot in stride,” said Bourque, the leading goal scorer on the team with 16. “I got my chance. It’s a great feeling — everybody’s on a high right now.”
