After leading the team in scoring with more than 40 points each last season, forwards Robbie Earl and Joe Pavelski are at it again.

Earl leads the team through the first four games with five points, one goal and four assists. Pavelski is not far behind, averaging one point a game with three goals and one assist.

The impact of the line — consisting of Pavelski, Earl and team captain Adam Burish — was never more evident than last weekend. In the two games against St. Cloud, the three combined for two goals and five assists.

"That whole line played well," head coach Mike Eaves said at a Monday press conference. "If you're going to be a good player at this level, you have to rely on the people you play with and they were pretty fun to watch."

In the Badgers' 3-1 win Saturday night, Pavelski and Earl each notched a point in all three Badger goals.

Earl and Pavelski both assisted on Ryan MacMurchy's first period goal and Earl earned an assist on each of Pavelski's two goals.

Watch for that line to lead the Badgers — both scoring goals and opening opportunities for other lines — throughout the season.

"They'll make it easier for us," Eaves said. "If we have all our lines firing, we can be as good as anybody. I think we'll get to that point."

WCHA schedule puts UW at home early: For the second-straight season, the Badgers’ schedule has them at home in the early stages of Western Collegiate Hockey Association play.

After a road series with St. Cloud last weekend, the home series with Alaska-Anchorage marks the beginning of a stretch that will see UW at home in three of the next four weekends.

Wisconsin will host UAA before going on the road to North Dakota. That series will be their last road trip until Thanksgiving break.

"Well, it's pretty much been our course of scheduling for the last couple of years so we're used to it," Eaves said.

Last year, the Badgers played four of their first six conference series at home, which helped them jump out to an early lead, before fizzling down the stretch.

Wisconsin will see a similar stretch towards the end of this season, when four of its six series in January and February are on the road.

But, similar to how the football team has to deal with not having a bye week until the end of the Big Ten season, the hockey team isn't dwelling on the things it cannot control — which right now means winning at home and putting up early WCHA points.

"We just have to control the things we can control," Eaves said. "We want to win every game, but if you look at the big picture it is important to put those points in the barn early."

League-wide instant replay scheduled to begin: After experimenting with instant replay at Denver and Colorado College last season, the WCHA — and the NCAA — decided to implement it for the 2005-06 season.

However, delays in getting the equipment delivered and set up at all WCHA arenas has postponed replay thus far.

But the use of replay to confirm the scoring of controversial goals is scheduled to begin with WCHA action this weekend.

"Last year with DU and CC having it, it proved to be an advantageous thing just because the fact that your getting the right calls," Eaves said. "Now that everybody in the league will have it … in important situations, they'll make the right calls, so I'm excited for it."

In other talks of changing rules, Eaves was asked if he ever expected the NCAA to institute a shootout, like the NHL has added at the end of overtimes to nix ties.

"I think the fact remains, how does it affect RPI? Until they figure out how to get around that, I don't think we'll see it in the college game," Eaves said.

Wisconsin has played to three overtimes in just four games this season, tying once.