As the Badger men’s hockey team prepares for the WCHA playoffs this weekend, the team has plenty of motivation despite its recent struggles. Wisconsin is looking to hand University of Alaska-Anchorage two more defeats this weekend, making that six at the hands of the Badgers for the season. UW is also hoping to move on to the WCHA Final Five for the first time under head coach Mike Eaves.

However, another motivation this weekend is to provide the team’s seniors, including goaltender Bernd Bruckler, a final chance to potentially skate with the conference’s elite in St. Paul.

“I think the biggest thing right now is that [this weekend is] an opportunity that we won’t have anymore,” Eaves said. “For guys like Bernd Bruckler, this is his last opportunity to get to the Final Five.”

The series this weekend will also affect the Badgers’ NCAA tournament hopes. A strong showing against UAA and an appearance in the Final Five will help the Badgers in the PairWise rankings, which simulate how the NCAA Selection Committee determines participants and seeding in the NCAA hockey tournament.

“You build on that — your rankings for the pairs and then getting into the tournament,” Eaves said. “But, basically, it is a moment right now of winning this series because it is a precious series that will help us get to where we want to go.”

Record not indicative of play: Wisconsin finished the season with two disappointing series against North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth, each of whom handed UW a loss and a tie. Had the Badgers earned just one more point in either of the two final weekends, they would have locked up the third seed in the WCHA playoffs. However, while his team’s recent results have been disappointing, Eaves says his team played better this past weekend in Duluth.

“Watching the game [against UMD], if I hadn’t known the outcome, I’d say we would’ve won it,” Eaves said. “We out-chanced them. We out-chanced North Dakota in North Dakota on Sunday afternoon. We out-chanced [UMD] last game. The bottom line was we didn’t get the win. That sometimes happens in sports.”

Wisconsin out shot Duluth 69-61 over the weekend, but several miscues cost the team a chance to earn more than one point from the series.

“The thing is, if we continue to play like we did and we eliminate some of the holes, because we had holes … every time we seem to make a hole for ourselves we got scored upon,” Eaves said. “That was the thing that was different.”

Eaves is confident his team will right the ship in time for start of the conference playoffs this Friday.

“We’ve gone through stretches this season where we’ve made more holes (than against UM-D) and won games,” Eaves said. “So that’s just athletics. But I’ll stay to the guns that, if we continue to play like we did and we create more chances than the other team as we did on Saturday night, we’re going to win some games.”

Badgers not out of gas: Judging from the last two weekends, in which Wisconsin has failed to win a game, logic might dictate that the Badgers are succumbing to the weariness of a long, arduous season. In fact, Wisconsin has won just one of its last nine contests. However, Eaves maintains his team is as chipper as ever and ready for a playoff run, pointing to Jake Dowell’s late goal in Saturday’s loss as an example.

“What was good to see in a tight game (in the second matchup with Duluth), down the stretch, even when we got scored on and made it 4-2, we still had kids playing hard,” Eaves said. “We had kids playing the way we needed to play to get back in the game and give ourselves a chance. We scored the third goal because of heart. So that is definitely not the case, and our kids feel good.”

Power play is healthy: After struggling for an entire month on the power play, Wisconsin’s new look groupings on the man advantage excelled in Duluth, with each unit scoring at least one goal. The Badgers scored three official power-play tallies against the Bulldogs, and Joe Pavelski scored one second after another UM-D penalty expired.

“The guys took what was given on the power play and created some great chances,” Eaves said. “Basically we scored four power-play goals this weekend and were firing at about a 40 percent rate. That’s one thing we can build on.”