[media-credit name=’MEGHAN CONLIN/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]While walking around campus, some students may have noticed some young men sporting a little extra facial hair this spring. It may seem illogical as the weather gets warmer to grow even more hair — especially as unappealing as some beards can be — but rest assured, these gentlemen know what they're doing. They're the men's hockey team, and they haven't shaved in over a month.

With the postseason in full swing and the Badgers in the Frozen Four for the first time since 1992, Wisconsin is getting treated to more playoff beard than ever before.

As a team rule, the Badgers are not allowed to grow facial hair during the season. If a player's whiskers grow a little too long, he receives a gentle reminder, from either a coach or fellow player, to keep it trimmed until the playoffs.

"As a team, we can't have facial hair during the season until the playoffs," Licari explained. "By the last week or two, you just kind of let it go, and then come first week of playoffs, it's usually in full effect."

Full effect differs from one player to the next, with some younger players struggling to match the sheer volume of some of the literally grizzled veterans.

"[Josh] Engel doesn't really have anything going," senior Nick Licari said, speaking of the sophomore's struggles to grow hair anywhere but the top of his head. However, that didn't stop Engel from delivering the perfect pass to Jack Skille in the regional finals to get the Badgers into the Frozen Four.

The origins of the playoff beard are hazy at best. Some say the tradition began as early as the '70s, while others claim the New York Islanders teams of the '80s put the playoff beard on the map. The only known fact is the playoff beard is only customary in hockey, with imitators surfacing only recently in other sports in the form of Ben Roethlisberger or the 2004 Boston Red Sox.

As for the rules of the playoff beard, only one exists: no shaving. Players may trim their facial hair if they deem it necessary, but most opt to let their hair grow in full follicular force, with mixed results. Sometimes a player ends up looking like he had a run-in with a hedge trimmer.

"It's a little tougher, harder, meaner," team captain Adam Burish said. "It's not about the way you look. It's about just getting it done out there."

Whether playoff beards help a team skate faster or shoot better is up for debate. The player with the best beard on the team, Brian Elliott, is also the hottest, with three consecutive shutouts going into the national semifinal.

The team itself has also seemed to play better as the playoffs progressed — or as their peach fuzz turned into full-fledged whiskers.

The players think otherwise.

"I don't know if it makes you play any better," Licari said. "It might actually bother you a little more than normal."

It is true that a beard, in its infancy, can match any rash in itchiness, almost as a test of faith.

"Right away, the first couple weeks, it's bad with your chin strap," Burish said. "Guys are always pushing their chin straps up and moving it around, but after a couple weeks, it feels normal."

If it doesn't make a team play better and the hair is more of a nuisance than anything, why do players grow playoff beards?

"I think it's more of a team bonding kind of a thing," Licari said. "I don't know if it brings you closer, but it's just a way everyone can kind of unite and do the same thing."

So the playoff beard may actually be an adhesive, keeping the team together as it goes through its toughest tests. So far, it has seemed to work for Wisconsin.

The postseason fuzz may also serve another purpose, possibly for the more obsessive compulsive in team sports.

"Personally, I think it's all mental," Skille said. "It's just a superstition like the way you put your equipment on before games."

Skille puts on his equipment the same way before every game, putting every item on his left side first. He even tapes up his stick and rests it a certain way before every game. When one of his pregame rituals isn't fulfilled, it can raise doubts in his mind about how that will affect his performance.

While that may be on the more superstitious side, Skille's behavior isn't abnormal. Freshman goaltender Shane Connelly won't let anybody but himself touch the tennis ball he likes to bounce before every game. Forward Ryan MacMurchy shaves off a miniature portion of his stick before games. It's a chunk too small for anyone else to notice, but he says it makes a world of difference.

Skille thinks there might be one more reason the playoff beard prevails in the hockey world that is neither superstition nor tradition.

"Maybe because off the ice hockey players are pretty lazy," Skille said.

Either way, the beards are here to stay.