This past weekend was a physical and emotional roller coaster for the Wisconsin men’s hockey team, with the Badgers being embarrassed 4-0 at home against the unranked Michigan State Spartans Friday.
One night later, an entirely different Ice Badger team showed up and overwhelmed Michigan, the nation’s top-ranked team, 3-1 Saturday.
With the defeat of Michigan, Wisconsin improved its mark to 4-3 against ranked opponents this season. Additionally, Wisconsin improved to a perfect 7-0 when it scores first and when it out-shoots its opponents. Coach Mike Eaves doesn’t know what happened to his team overnight but was happy that his youthful squad responded.
“We won’t know how we react until we are tested like that in a similar situation,” Eaves said. “I met with the captains today as we do on every Monday and talked about how the locker room was on Friday night and if they noticed anything. They thought everything was ok but it is tough to get in young people’s minds and souls. We can’t put one reason on how we performed [on Friday] the way we did, but Saturday was great with the response we had.”
Ford back in action: After missing the first 12 games of the season with an injury, freshman forward Matt Ford made his season debut against Michigan State Friday.
Coming from the Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL, where he was the 2003-04 USHL Rookie of the Year, Ford finally received clearance to play following a knee injury. During the weekend’s games, Ford registered three shots and picked up three penalties.
Despite not registering any points, Eaves thought Matt Ford made a good debut to his collegiate hockey career.
“Matt came in on Sunday just to ride the bike and loosen up and I was told that he went straight home afterwards and went to bed,” Eaves said. “He was exhausted and sore. Watching the tape, I say what we got out of Matt Ford is probably what we thought we’d get out of him. I would rate him at an average. He hasn’t played since last spring with his junior team and then he got hurt. There are things we saw in his game that I know we can give him feedback on now … and get him on that learning curve here quickly and get it going. He was very excited to be in there and it was a good start for him.”
Duluth up next: Although it was the preseason pick to win the preseason WCHA title, Minnesota-Duluth has been stuck in a rut, as they have lost three of their last four conference games and five of six overall.
While they are arguably the most veteran squad in the conference, the Bulldogs have managed only a 5-3 record against some of the below-average teams in the conference. The Bulldogs only lead the conference in one statistical category, penalty minutes (22.5 minutes per game).
The one bright spot for UMD has been junior defenseman Steve Czech, who assisted on all three goals Saturday night. Despite the record, Eaves cautioned that Minnesota-Duluth could break out of its slump at any time.
“[Minnesota-Duluth] has good goaltending and a big, strong defense,” Eaves said. “They have veterans up front that score although they are struggling a little bit right now. It is kind of a mystery and the thought is when they are going to wake up. I mean, the coaches pick them to win the WCHA for a reason and the fact is they are a veteran club with solid goaltending and solid defense. I am not sure what is going on there eternally in terms of them not having the success we thought they would have but that also makes you weary of when are they going to wake up.”
