Senior goaltender Bernd Brückler finally played like an All-American in holding No. 5 North Dakota to just two goals in a weekend sweep of the Fighting Sioux.
Coming into the weekend, Brückler, who was giving up nearly three and a half goals per game, certainly wasn’t living up to his pre-season All-American billing. However, Badger head coach Mike Eaves insisted that it was just a matter of time before Brückler would be back in form and thus continued to put the senior assistant captain in the lineup despite the solid play of back-up Brian Elliott early in the season.
“The only way you can get your confidence back is by doing it during the course of the game; you have to forge yourself back into that confidence,” Eaves said of the progress of his goaltender. “As a hitter gets his confidence by hitting balls in the game, a goalie’s got to get his confidence by stopping pucks during games.”
The slow start is nothing new for Brückler who struggled at the start of last season as well before turning in one of the school’s best seasons ever. It wasn’t surprising that Eaves stuck with the Austrian native; as it turned out, Brückler validated his coach’s confidence in him by turning in his best weekend of the season.
After shutting out North Dakota during Friday night’s game, Brückler confirmed that he was far more confident than at the beginning of the year.
“I feel a lot better than I did at the start of the season,” Brückler said. “For whatever reason, I had a little rough start again this year, similar to what I did last year, where the bounces weren’t going my way, and I just didn’t feel comfortable. Now I’m feeling comfortable.”
Eaves knew right away that his goaltender was going to give him a big effort this weekend, because Brückler was doing the little things that make him so good.
“There’s three things in my mind,” said Eaves explaining how he knew Brückler was back. “He stands up and makes a save and let’s the puck hit him in the chest — that’s ‘A.’ ‘B’ is the fact that he had rebounded control, and ‘C’ is the fact that he gets out and stops the puck and moves it decisively. He had those things going on early, and that’s usually a good sign that he’s on.”
While this North Dakota team doesn’t have the same kind of firepower as Sioux teams of the past few seasons, the Badgers have to be pleased to hold them scoreless through the first 113 minutes of the series. During his shutout Friday night, Brückler was only forced to make 23 saves, but, as Eaves pointed out, the game showed just how well the team as a whole played.
“Any time you get a shutout, it’s a reflection of how your goalie and the people in front of him played,” Eaves said.
The next night, however, Brückler was forced to play a greater role as he made 34 saves in the game. Even though he gave up two goals, the senior was a big reason Wisconsin held on to beat North Dakota. His teammates definitely knew that the success of the team as a whole started with their star goaltender.
“We move from the goalie on up,” sophomore Ross Carlson, who scored two goals in the 5-2 victory, said. “Our defense stepped up; our goalie stepped up big tonight and last night.”
One of the places that Brückler really helped Wisconsin was on the penalty kill, where he backboned a group that killed all eleven of North Dakota’s power-plays. That effectiveness on the penalty kill was a big reason that the Badgers came away with the sweep.
“There’s a quiet confidence, especially on the penalty kill where [Brückler] has been our best penalty killer,” Eaves said. “He’s just staying square and made some saves on some shots that were big time shots by them.”
With Brückler leading the way for a Wisconsin sweep that moved them into second place in the WCHA, it is fairly safe to assume that he is back in his All-American groove.
“I think [Brückler]’s right back at the same level [as last season],” Eaves said.
If that’s so, the North Dakota series is just a taste of what is to come for Wisconsin.
