[media-credit name=’DEREK MONTGOMER/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The most dangerous team in college hockey visits the Kohl Center this weekend in a battle of unbeatens as the Badgers play host to Colorado College. The Tigers have set the pace on offense this year for the WCHA with four goals per game, but they will come up against Wisconsin’s stingy defense, ranked second in the country. The series will be a tough test early in the season as both teams wrestle for position in the standings.

“It’s an early season measuring stick,” head coach Mike Eaves said. “It’s funny, you take a look at the rankings and the standings, and it’s throwing darts at a dart board and seeing where you land a lot of times.”

The Badgers have established themselves as a viable threat early this season with two dominant wins at North Dakota last weekend, but coach Eaves says things don’t really matter until later in the year.

“The true measure will come after Christmas when teams have been rolling, they’re in a rhythm and they know who their personnel is and who plays with who well. Right now I think everyone’s kind of going through the process of finding those kinds of things out,” Eaves explained.

No Doubt About Brian Elliott: Coming into the season, one of the biggest question marks for the Badgers was how their goaltending would fare in the absence of Bernd Bruckler, who started almost all the games for the team last year. Brian Elliott has surpassed most expectations this season, going 6–1–1 thus far with a 1.48 goals against average and a .942 save percentage, both tops in the conference. Ask any Badgers, though, and they are not surprised at his performance.

“Brian Elliott didn’t play a lot last year because of the fact that he had an All–American goalie in front of him,” Eaves said of his goalie. “But if you would’ve talked to his teammates then, they would’ve told you he’s a very fine young goaltender. So a lot of the questions came from people that weren’t in practice every day and never shot against him.”

Team More Offensive Than Ever: The Badger teams of the past few years have been primarily teams that won with their defense. Lately, however, they have come on strong with 3.5 goals per game and an effective power play that has produced goals in each of the team’s last five games and scored at least two goals in three of the last four games. According to Eaves, this boost in offense is not a change in mentality or coaching, but a change in personnel.

“People outside this immediate coaching staff are always saying this team is defensive, they coach defense,” Eaves said. “We use the same system here that we use in the national team development program where we had very talented people, and nothing has changed other than the personnel and the abilities that they have.”

The Badgers currently boast two of the most effective scorers in the WCHA in junior forward Robbie Earl and sophomore forward Joe Pavelski. The duo leads Wisconsin in scoring this year, and continues to set the pace.

“Right now our numbers are going up because we’ve been able to recruit and get kids here that have that innate ability, and those moments of truth that you can’t teach. Because of that fact, the numbers are going to go up and they continue to go up,” Eaves said.

Maturity Showed in North Dakota: When the Badgers won in North Dakota for the first time in four years Friday night, they were excited, but they didn’t go overboard with their celebration.

“I think that speaks to the fact that it’s an upperclassman team. Last weekend, having the opportunity to win up there was I think just satisfying for the seniors,” Eaves said.

Eaves also stated UW’s reserve showed a level maturity that indicates this team won’t just be satisfied with big wins early in the season. The team recognizes it has a long way to go because many of the players have experienced the ups and downs of a long season in college hockey.

“They were there the first year when we got spanked,” Eaves said. “The fact that they went in there, it wasn’t like they were a bunch of giddy kids. It was like, ‘We deserve this. We paid dues to get this.'”