Dan Boeser and Andy Wozniewski have a lot in common.

Both provide the Wisconsin men’s ice hockey team with a solid presence on the blueline.

Both watched and endured as the Ice Badgers suffered through disappointing seasons in their sophomore and junior campaigns.

Both were named co-captains of the squad before this, their senior, season.

And both have played huge roles in the team’s startling and explosive reversal of fortunes in 2003-04.

But for everything that Boeser and Wozniewski have gone through together and for all of the similarities there are between the two, they could not be more different. On the ice and off, Boeser and Wozniewski seem to fill polar-opposite, but equally important, roles for the Ice Badgers.

Boeser, soft-spoken and polite, doesn’t come off as a very intimidating person off the ice. He is not one to jump on his teammates for their mistakes or to let his own mistakes throw him off.

“He has a calming effect on our team,” head coach Mike Eaves said. “He’s a pretty quiet young man. He’s pretty reserved — an [introspective] type of kid. Once in a while he’ll speak out, and I think that when he does, the guys will listen to him and respect what he says because it must be important.”

Having dealt with its share of difficulties in the locker room over the past few years, Boeser’s calm voice has been an integral one in bringing the team together.

“I’m a laid-back guy,” Boeser explained. “I’m not really going to say too much. But in the playoffs and big situations like that, I think that guys can look at me and see that I’m staying calm and that can help them out.”

Wozniewski, on the other hand, is anything but a laid-back, calming presence for the Badgers.

“He’s the guy who gets everyone fired up and makes sure everyone knows what’s going on,” Eaves explained. “He’s a really big guy physically, so he stands out in the locker room, and I think that helps him to get everyone’s attention and it sort of forces the guys to listen to what he has to say.”

The role of outspoken leader is one that Wozniewski cherishes.

“I am a pretty vocal guy, so when I’m in a position that I can be helping out in that way, I really enjoy it,” Wozniewski said. “When I stand up, I think I stand out a bit, so I’m glad to have something to contribute.”

Standing out is pretty much inevitable for Wozniewski. Towering over his teammates and most of his opponents, the 6-foot-5, 221-pound defenseman is just about as physically formidable as hockey players come.

But while the big Ice Badger defender has always had the size to compete with the best of the best, he has not always had the confidence in his game to match.

“He’s improved a lot since he’s been here,” Eaves said. “And a lot of that is just in his confidence on the ice. He is a more mature player out there now, and he knows what he can do and what he needs to do to compete at this level.”

As he has moved into a more important role on the ice, Wozniewski says he has become more and more comfortable moving into his role off it.

“I think that as I gained more confidence in what I was doing (during games), I really started to become more secure in the locker room,” Wozniewski said. “I know what I need to do and that helps me when I’m telling the guys what we, as a team, need to do.”

Wozniewski’s defensive partner this season, freshman Jeff Likens, said that he has benefited greatly from “Woz’s” experience.

“He sort of took me under his wing this year,” Likens said. “He’s not shy about telling you what you should be doing, and that can be really helpful.”

On the ice, Boeser and Wozniewski don’t sport any more resemblance to each other than they do in the locker room.

Wozniewski, a stay-at-home defender, shies away from joining the action in the offensive zone.

“He’s more of a physical presence on the ice than anything else,” Eaves explained. “He’s not too concerned with putting up numbers.”

Likens said that it was exactly that quality that made Wozniewski a good defensive partner.

“We have a lot of chemistry,” Likens explained. “He is always there when I get caught or anything. It makes him good to play with.”

Boeser, the Badgers’ active career leader in assists, approaches his defensive role very differently.

“For most of my career I was a forward,” he said. “So I think I just still have that forward instinct when it comes to playing defense. I like to be up in the play a lot. You’ll see sometimes when we have rushes. I’ll take it from our goal line and try to get it as far into the other zone as I can. So I just think it’s things like that that some other defensemen don’t do as much that help me get some success offensively.”

Eaves said that Boeser’s offensive instincts are important to the Badgers’ success and will be even more so if the team is to find success in postseason play.

“He has the ability to give us some offensive flare on the blueline,” Eaves explained. “That’s one of the most important things he’s done this year, and in the big games, that’s going to be one of the most important things he brings to the table.”

“He sees the ice well and he makes good passes,” Eaves added. “It’s just a natural instinct for him to jump into the play.”

Boeser, unlike Wozniewski, doesn’t offer much in the way of a physical on-ice presence, though Eaves emphasized that that’s not for lack of ability.

“He’s a strong young man,” Eaves said. “I think he doesn’t give himself enough credit for that sometimes. We try to work on that with him, to get him to use that strength more and make more of a physical impact in games. But he’s a strong kid and is very strong on his feet.”

Perhaps it is because of the presence of Wozniewski, who took a team-high 90 penalty minutes this season, in the lineup that Boeser, who took just eight, doesn’t feel the need to become a more physical player. Perhaps it is because of Boeser’s presence that Wozniewski doesn’t feel the need to chip in as much offensively.

Boeser and Wozniewski are complete opposites. Lucky for the Badgers, that means they complement each other perfectly.