[media-credit name=’BRYAN FAUST/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The dream was made complete. With a 2-1 victory over Boston College on April 8, 2006, the University of Wisconsin men's hockey team ascended their mountain and became the reigning champion in the land of college hockey.

But for Badger hockey fans, the events of two weeks earlier were anything but forgotten. While the men's team wrapped up its sixth championship in program history, the UW women's squad had earned its first-ever title with an emotional 3-0 win over border rival Minnesota on March 26, just 12 days before the men completed the Badger sweep.

And what's more, Mark Johnson and his women's team were in attendance to help the men celebrate their colossal feat when they earned their title in Milwaukee.

"It was very exciting, we all watched the guys come together and when they won, the main thing was just shock," UW women's goaltender Jessie Vetter said. "Barry Alvarez said it correctly, we are the State of Hockey now and it's just very exciting."

As an athletic director who came to Wisconsin with football primarily in mind, Alvarez shows surprising emotion in making such a bold statement in the face of Minnesota hockey programs and fans. However, the ol' ball coach isn't far off from the truth with his assertion. Certainly, it's hard to argue when both programs come out on top in their respective Frozen Fours. What's more, both teams enter the new season ranked No. 1 in the country (in the men's case, tied with Boston College for the top spot).

Whether the new label catches on with Badger fans or not, the players and coaches won't be caught taking anything for granted after the pair of magical runs to championships last spring. After all, the Wisconsin women needed two overtimes to fend off No. 7 Mercyhurst in the NCAA quarterfinal matchup.

And it will be difficult to ever forget the men's quarterfinal against Cornell, a game for the ages, a triple-overtime thriller in which Jack Skille ended the contest with the game's first goal after 111:13 of scoreless hockey. In the championship game, Boston College's Peter Harrold hit the post with 1.8 seconds remaining on the clock.

With all the bounces going Wisconsin's way, it's hard to believe that both the men and women were able to bring back the top hardware to Madison. Eaves had no clear-cut answer for why it happened, or how it happened, yet suggested that the Badgers were simply "meant" to win two championships in one year.

"It wasn't an easy road by any question, but the possibilities were there and we were able to enjoy it," Eaves said. "I don't know how we define destiny or if you believe in destiny, whether it's hard work meeting preparation and taking advantage of that moment, but things seemed to line up pretty nice for us last year."

Same mountain, new path

They say lightning doesn't strike twice, and if that's true, the Badgers will need a lot more than destiny on their side to repeat as champions. It all began with a professional work ethic in offseason preparation for the upcoming campaign.

During summer conditioning, the Badger men wore T-shirts that read: "See the hungry spirit: the mindset of pursuit is much more active and aggressive than trying to defend something," symbolic of the team's goal to achieve the same feat while taking a different path in the winter of 2006-07.

"We're going to pursue another championship," Eaves said. "The goal has remained the same, the team that we have here is different, therefore the path that we're going to try to get to the top of the mountain will be different based on that alone."

In other words, Eaves hasn't been particularly interested in hearing that his team is trying to "defend" anything, per se. The 2006-07 season does provide new opportunities, especially for other schools in the hotly competitive WCHA.

Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota all find themselves ranked in the top-six in the country in the USCHO.com/CSTV Division I Men's Preseason Poll. No. 1 Wisconsin receives 17 out of the 40 first-place votes; meanwhile, Minnesota, at No. 3, snatched up five with No. 6 North Dakota earning one as well.

The first-place votes, in fact, were more spread out than expected as eight teams, including No. 14 Colgate, were believed by one of the 28 coaches or 12 beat writers who voted, to be the best team in the country.

"A lot of teams can win on any given night, so you see all those teams getting first-place votes," says UW goaltender and first-team preseason All-American Brian Elliott. "It shows that all across the country, teams are going to be up there. We're just happy to be up there right now and hopefully we can just achieve what everybody else can."

No. 9 Denver, No. 15 Colorado College, and No. 16 St. Cloud State round out the group of six WCHA teams in the top-20 to start the season. With such a demanding schedule on a week-to-week basis, the Badgers are aware anything can happen in such a talented conference.

"You look at our first part of the schedule, we have some really hard competition coming in," Skille said of an October agenda that calls North Dakota, Minnesota-Duluth, and co-No. 1 squad Boston College to the Kohl Center in three straight weekends. "It's going to be a tough beginning of the season, we're going to see where we're at. Hopefully, by the end of the season or come playoff time, we'll have a lot of confidence going in and be playing our best hockey."

While Eaves attempts to avoid the D-word, senior assistant captain Jeff Likens says he and his mates do feel like their defending their title from last year, and are using this mentality as incentive to start the season strong.

"The last couple of years, we were gunning for Denver, because they were the national champions," Likens said. "It's going to be the same way, everyone wants to beat the team that won last year. It's just one of those things that we've got to deal with and work through, but definitely we can get through it, though."

The Badgers lost their top-five scorers to graduation, and may be particularly vulnerable while trying to find out who their offensive threats are. That, however, won't change the fact that Wisconsin has a trophy sitting in their hockey office from last year, and other teams are looking to take revenge.

"We've got a huge target on our back, and we can't sit back and think that everything's going to handed to us," Skille added. "It's going to be a lot harder than last year."

Playing the mental game

Just like the men, the Wisconsin women's team must deal with the added pressure of being tagged as the No. 1 team in the country, and the players will compete with a very large target on the back of their sweaters.

Or, as Johnson prefers to put it, other teams can work themselves up while the Badgers take the same game-time approach regardless of rankings or prior accomplishments.

"What happens is a team that you're playing … has an opportunity to do something special in a particular game when they're playing the No. 1 team," Johnson said. "I think our approach is the same as if we're No. 2, No. 3, No. 5, wherever you happen to be. From a mental standpoint, that's probably about 80 percent of our business, is what's between the ears."

The strength of UW's mentality rests mainly upon the experience of the seniors, starting with new captain Bobbi-Jo Slusar. Slusar was first discovered back in Wilcox, Saskatchewan playing for the Notre Dame Hounds.

Johnson said he instantly took note of Slusar's maturity, and has made the Patty Kazmaier Finalist his captain for the 2006-07 season.

"Her leadership qualities and watching her develop the last three years, I think she's a perfect fit," Johnson said. "She's got a lot of energy. The players respect her. If there are issues within the team, they're very comfortable coming and talking to her about them. So I anticipate Bobbi-Jo being a very good leader."

Slusar said the team is prepared to take the correct attitudes in progressing toward their title defense.

"Obviously, we have a national championship under our belt, but the mentality is really to start all over and start playing like we can and start striving for that national championship again," Slusar said. "We're not too confident, not too cocky, but [thinking] just right, and I think that will carry us through this season."

It doesn't hurt to have a Patty Kazmaier winner on the squad, either. Sara Bauer returns for her senior year after scoring 58 points and carrying the Badgers to their first women's championship crown.

Bauer agrees with Johnson and Slusar, saying the Badgers will simply allow rankings to affect only the players on the opposing bench.

"We had a couple of experiences last year when you're ranked number one at various points in the season," Bauer said. "That makes the other teams get an extra incentive to want to beat you."

However, Slusar also asserted that the Badgers will stay wary of dangerous teams such as 2005 runner-up Minnesota, New Hampshire, Minnesota Duluth, and other squads who will attempt to unseat Wisconsin as the best in women's college hockey.

"We're going to be a target this year and I think every team's going to be gunning for us," Slusar said. "We can't let them do that, we've got to come to them and play our game before they get to us."

Team unity

Johnson said the healthy relationship between his staff and Eaves' staff has contributed to the success of both programs in the past, and continues to bond the two teams together into the next season.

"It's very encouraging," Johnson said. "That's the exciting part about working at Wisconsin, being involved in a great organization [where] we can go to other coaches within our department and have a cup of coffee and just talk about situations and can help each other out in that aspect."

The friendship between Johnson and Eaves wasn't the only thing holding the two squads together. Adam and Nikki Burish were seniors together in the 2005-06 season, and challenged each other in seeing which team could advance farthest in their respective league.

"That was very cool because they're very close siblings, and they have a lot of respect for each other and they both support each other," Vetter said. "It was just surreal that they're actually a brother-sister combo that won a national title the same year."

As it turned out, those emotions from the Burish siblings slowly translated over into a team-to-team challenge.

"We count on each other, we almost compete as to who can get better," Elliott said. "But we tied last year. I think we can both take some pride in that."

Eaves said his players thought of their championship as even more special because they got to share it with the women, winning the first title in that program's history.

"To our guys, they take a lot of pride. They're really happy for the women," Eaves said. "I think the fact that Nikki was on their team and Adam [Burish] was on our team really tied the two groups together in a very special fashion.

"I think they [the two teams] are very proud of each other."

With new challenges ahead for each team, all players and coaches involved have made sure to appreciate the events of March 26 and April 8, should one or both teams fail to repeat in 2007.

"Some of the things that transpired over last season certainly may not happen again," Johnson said. "When you look at it, the captain of the men's team [was the brother] of one of our assistant captains. Both were graduating seniors, both hoisted the NCAA championship trophies within a two-week period.

"I'm not sure if you were writing a script for Hollywood or making a movie that you'd even think of that."