(Minneapolis) The story of the Ice Badgers’ weekend trip to Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis seemed to be woven in a yarn that is quickly becoming all-too-familiar for Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves.

“The power play again came back to haunt us,” said Eaves after Friday night’s embarrassing performance, in which the Gophers tallied more than twice as many shots as the Badgers. “It was the difference in the game.”

After placing last in the WCHA on special teams last season, Eaves and his staff spent a good deal of strategic effort attempting to shore up the unit for this year. The work appeared to pay off early in the season as the Badgers rode a solid penalty kill and an effective power play to the top of the conference.

But over the past month, as the Badgers have begun to struggle mightily, special teams once again have become a top concern. Going into the weekend series against Minnesota, eight of the 12 goals that Eaves’ squad had allowed in five games came while they were shorthanded. Not coincidentally, the Ice Badgers were an unimpressive 1-3-1 during the stretch.

On Friday night, Wisconsin’s shorthanded struggles came to a head, as Minnesota took advantage of an extremely ineffective penalty-kill unit and a flurry of bad Badger penalties to thoroughly dominate the action.

“The bottom line is that we just got outplayed on special teams,” explained Wisconsin netminder Bernd Bruckler, who played very well in the loss. “That’s a huge factor right now for our team. We’ve got to find a way to get it done — on the penalty kill as well as on the power play. That’s what it all comes down to.”

It didn’t escape Bruckler that the Badgers had actually outscored the Gophers 2-1 at even strength. “Five-on-five, we won the game tonight,” Bruckler said.

The two teams were very evenly matched at even strength. Wisconsin would keep up with the two-time defending national champions and even take control of the game for stretches when they managed to keep five men on the ice.

Unfortunately for Bruckler, it seemed that every time the flow of the game ebbed away from the Gophers, a bad penalty would leave his team shorthanded. In the first ten minutes of the game, the Badgers out shot the Gophers 4-3 ? until Adam Burish took a bad penalty; the Gophers out shot the Badgers 13-0 the rest of the way, taking a 2-0 lead on two power play goals.

Eaves explained the impact of the momentum shift after the game.

“For the first ten minutes I thought we were doing the things we needed to do,” he said. “Then we got a little rattled when Adam took that [penalty]. It was a big hit and he got in to it a little bit, and then the last ten minutes we got off our game and they scored a couple power play goals.”

In the second period, UW senior captain Rene Bourque brought the Badgers back within a goal with a breakaway shot he slipped past the five-hole of Minnesota goalie Briggs. UW looked like they might actually start to take over the action, but as soon as the thought occurred, Rene’s linemate Ryan MacMurchy took a bad penalty and the Gophers regained control.

All season, Eaves has preached to his players the importance of playing smart hockey and not beating themselves. Saturday night the Badgers took a step in the right direction, taking fewer and smarter penalties and Burish said that the team has finally learned to stop beating itself.

“It’s a reoccurring habit,” he said. “But we’re to the point now that we know if we take penalties we’re going to lose games. It’s got to get through guys’ heads now.”

Eaves said that while the hiccup has been frustrating, he believes it’s a problem his team can work out.

“If we learn our lessons and apply them, then we’re going to be okay.”