With the conclusion of the regular season on Saturday night, the Ice Badgers finished in third place in the WCHA conference with an overall record of 20-10-8. With their top-five finish in conference, UW will receive home ice for the opening round of the WCHA playoffs. Wisconsin’s opponent will be the No. 8 seed Alaska-Anchorage, whom the Ice Badgers swept just two short weeks ago.

Despite their less-than-desirable record, Alaska-Anchorage is an improving team, notching 10 more victories than last year. The Seawolves’ leading scorer is sophomore forward Curtis Glencross, who leads the team in goals (17) and points per game (.94). However, the signature of the Anchorage team is the leadership of their goalies, seniors Chris King and Kevin Reiter.

“What we have coming at us is a team that has two pretty goaltenders that will work their fannies off,” Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said. “[They] will try and use their work ethic to give [Alaska] a chance to win and rely on themselves for some heavy goaltending. So, we need to be ready for that.”

Both King and Reiter get equal time in the net and have almost identical save percentages and goals against averages. Both goalies allow an average of approximately 3.46 goals per game and post a .91 save percentage. Despite the improvement in the win column, Alaska-Anchorage still has a struggling offense and a sluggish defensive unit. The Seawolves rank second to last in scoring (68 goals) and eighth in goals allowed (103).

Minimal preparations

With the top-ranked defense and the top goalie in the WCHA conference at his disposal, Eaves is not going to change his preparations now that the post season is beginning.

“Our preparations, in terms of breakdown of Alaska, will be the same,” Eaves said. “We’ll go back to the videos and do the things that we do. However, there are the little things that we may work at, an odd face-off play here and there, but not much else.”

Even though the Ice Badgers are coming off a loss in their final regular season game Saturday, Eaves is not concerned. He feels that his team is ready to prepare for the playoff run in hopes of making a trip to Boston for the Frozen Four.

“As we prepare for the playoffs, there is a fine line that you have to walk,” Eaves said. “There is a particular game savvy that you have to have when you are in a contact sport. The playoffs are the epitome of that. The savvy that I talk about is about getting into the opponent’s kitchen without you losing focus on what you need to get done. It’s a fact, that’s the way it is. So you have to walk that fine line and, now, the bar gets raised another level and we have to be able to play in that environment.”

Still improving

After having an all-time best 16-game unbeaten streak and an additional six-game winning streak at the end of the season, Eaves believes the best it yet to come.

“This team keeps getting better on us,” he said. “I don’t want to set the bar at any level, because they may go past any expectations [the coaches] set. So, I don’t want to limit them. I think the one thing that has been fun about watching this group roll is the fact that they keeping forging themselves into a good team and where they will continue to grow. So, we will continue to work on getting better, play each series, and, the fun thing is, I don’t think we have played our best yet. Because of the personality of this group, they keep getting better every weekend.”

Wisconsin will face Alaska-Anchorage in a best-of-three series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night if necessary, at 7:05 p.m. The Ice Badgers are 22-9-8 all time against the Seawolves and 12-5-5 in games played in Madison between the two teams. Additionally, head coach John Hill and his team are looking for the school’s first post-season win, as the Seawolves are 0-22 all time in the WCHA playoffs.