With a six-game unbeaten streak resting in their holster and a hot goaltender aimed at taking out his second straight national powerhouse, the Wisconsin hockey team has ample reason to go into this weekend’s contests against No. 6 ranked Colorado College with a bit more confidence than most could have expected.
“It definitely helps to go into it on a high,” freshman forward Jake Dowell said. “You’ve got to go into games like this with some self-assurance ? a sense of the things you can do. The way we’ve played recently goes a long way in that respect. Things have to go right to compete with teams like that and that’s started to happen for us.”
Plenty has been going right for the Badgers of late, and Dowell has been no small part of that. The freshman forward has netted seven of his nine points this season over Wisconsin’s past four games, culminating with his game-winner against the Gophers last Saturday night. He has won the Red Baron WCHA rookie of the week award two weeks in a row.
“I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable on the ice,” Dowell said. “I’ve gotten to feel like I’m more a member of the team. It gives me some confidence out there.”
The freshman on this year’s team, head coach Mike Eaves’ first recruiting class at Wisconsin, has certainly started to make their presence known on the ice in the past few weekends. Along with Dowell, freshman forward Robbie Earl has posted four of his six points in the last four games. Andrew Joudrey has continued to post solid number in his freshman year, adding four points in the past four games to the five he put up earlier in the season.
Eaves said he isn’t surprised by the progress his freshmen have made. “I expected it of them,” he said. “These are guys who have played against college-level competition for some time. It was just a matter of getting them acclimated to the team, and we knew what they could do.”
Dowell said that he, personally, is “very pleased” with the impact he sees his class making. “I really feel like we’re coming together as a whole. We’re playing better and that’s helping the team.”
But if the Badgers are starting to feel like they’re sitting on clouds, Eaves is keeping them from falling too hard if the sky clears up.
“If the boys are full of themselves then they have grand delusions,” Eaves said. “The reason we were able to get three out of four points out of Minnesota was largely goaltending.”
Netminder Bernd Bruckler has been an integral part of the Badgers success thus far. The junior has put up a .898 save percentage this season, with a 2.93 goals against average. He has been even better at home, posting a .926 save percentage and 2.33 goals against average ? one more reason for the Badgers to take on CC with some confidence this weekend.
“Playing at home is always so much more comfortable,” Bruckler said. “The fans really give us some confidence.”
That doesn’t mean that anyone in the Wisconsin locker room is taking lightly the challenge that a team of CC’s caliber presents.
“We expect them to come out and play us hard,” Dowell said. “We don’t expect to get any breaks.”
“If you just take a look at pure stats, they are scoring more goals per game than we are, their goals against is less than ours, and their power play is a little bit better ? so stats will illuminate things,” Eaves warned. “We still have to focus on what we are trying to get better at in all aspects and get ready to play. They’ve got good goaltending. They’ll be a solid team.”
The Tigers are 6-1-1 so far this season, including an inspired win at No. 8 Denver University. They are 5-0-2 against the Badgers in the teams’ previous six meetings.
But coach Eaves stresses that the Badgers can only win by concentrating on their own improvements and not their opponents’ achievements.
“I think where we are at we still need to focus on us.”
