Spring break came earlier than expected for the Wisconsin men’s ice hockey team, though head coach Mike Eaves’ squad isn’t likely to have enjoyed its extra time off.
The Ice Badgers — who gained the third-seed in the WCHA’s postseason tournament with an impressive and surprising 14-7-7 regular-season conference record — retired from competition after just one round with an unsightly slip against the eighth-seeded Seawolves of Alaska-Anchorage.
Just weeks after easily sweeping UAA in Anchorage (in a series in which the Badgers out-scored the Seawolves 6-1), Wisconsin dropped the first and third games of a three-game series at the Kohl Center.
Alaska-Anchorage’s victory March 12 was a milestone for the program, which had previously tallied exactly zero WCHA tournament victories in 22 tries, being out-scored 113-33 in that streak. The Seawolves took advantage of three power-play goals to score a 3-2 defeat of the Badgers, who have been notoriously inconsistent on the penalty kill this season.
After the game, senior captain Dan Boeser seemed disgusted with his team’s effort.
“In my opinion they just out-worked us,” Boeser said. “It’s just a matter of who wanted it more.”
The Badgers bounced back the next night. Rene Bourque, UW’s senior scoring leader, provided an early spark, putting a tally on the board less than two minutes into play. AJ Degenhardt added two goals as UW dominated UAA. In the final shot totals, Wisconsin trounced Alaska-Anchorage 45-16. Netminder Bernd Bruckler stopped all 16 of the Seawolves shots and the Badgers picked up a 4-0 victory.
The celebration was short-lived. The Seawolves jumped out to an insurmountable 4-0 lead in the series’ decisive game, dashing the Badgers’ WCHA championship hopes.
The loss denied the Badgers a shot at the WCHA Final Five, which eventually the rival Golden Gophers of Minnesota went on to win.
The early exit also endangered the Badgers’ hopes of fighting for a national championship in the NCAA national college hockey tournament, which kicks off next weekend. Though a berth had been virtually locked up by UW’s third-place WCHA finish, a few wins in postseason play would have provided Eaves’ squad with a bit of insurance.
Fortunately for Eaves and company, conference championships around the country played out favorably and Wisconsin snuck into the tournament when the brackets were announced. The Badgers slipped to a three-seed and will play second-seeded Ohio State in Albany, N.Y., next weekend.
