There's plenty at stake for the UW men's hockey team this weekend up in the blizzard-like conditions of Duluth, Minn.
Just one series remains for Wisconsin — against lowly Minnesota-Duluth (12-18-4, 8-15-3) — and the playoff implications are huge. The good news for the Badgers (14-17-3, 11-13-2) is they can't go any lower in the WCHA standings than they are right now (eighth) to end the season.
On the other hand, it's a little astonishing to fathom that the Badgers, if they were to sweep the Bulldogs and complete a .500 record in conference play, could actually finish as high as the fourth seed in the upcoming WCHA playoffs.
Nevertheless, for the UW seniors, this final regular-season weekend means more than a playoff seeding. It's the chance to land in the conference's top five, which would give Jeff Likens and his fellow fourth-year players one last chance to play in front of their Kohl Center fans.
"We know exactly what we've got to do," Likens said. "Obviously, we need some help from other teams, but the bottom line is we need to put ourselves in a good position."
True, the Badgers need to have a good road series on top of some help from around the league. But that outside help isn't unreasonable — if No. 4 Minnesota can split or win its series with visitor Michigan Tech, and if No. 7 Denver wins their series against in-state foe No. 17 Colorado College, Wisconsin would be in position to actually host an opening round the weekend of Mar. 9-11.
"Everybody's convinced that [a home series] can happen, it's about the ability for us to go there and win some games," senior forward Jake Dowell said. "We've been on-and-off, hot and cold, and we need to get ourselves hot this weekend and stay hot."
But these Badgers are smart enough to know it's easier said than done; and they can only play the team in front of them, and not worry about other games around the country.
"We can only control what we can control," freshman forward Michael Davies said. "We can't worry about what North Dakota and Colorado College and those schools are doing; we just have to go out and play our game."
The Bulldogs boast a young core of scorers, as five out of the top six UMD scorers are sophomores. Second-year winger Mason Raymond ranks second in the conference with 43 points, and sophomore defenseman Matt Niskanen is second among WCHA blueliners with 30.
"In some aspects, maybe we do have some benefit with the experience factor," Dowell said. "But as sophomores, they've been around the league for almost two years now, so they're pretty experienced [too]."
The Badgers hope to hold the edge in net, as UMD's goalie situation is a bit muddled. Senior Brian Elliott has a .919 save percentage and 2.19 goals against average, which ranks fourth and fifth, respectively, in the conference.
On the other end of the rink, freshman Alex Stalock is 5-14-3 and has started most of UMD's games, but senior Josh Johnson has started the Bulldogs' last five games. Johnson has caught a bit of a hot streak, 4-1-1 in his last six starts with a 1.81 GAA.
"We need to get traffic in front of him, make sure we take his eyes away," Dowell said. "No matter how hot he is, if he can't see the puck then it's going to be tough for him to stop it."
No matter how the Bulldogs come out, anything less than a pair of wins will be a disappointment for the Badgers.
"We're fighting for our lives right now," freshman forward Michael Davies said. "We have to go up to Duluth and get four points."
But the overriding importance for this weekend is that, to reach their ultimate goal of the NCAA tournament, the Badgers need to first win the WCHA tournament. A home series would help the Badgers to be in the best position to do that on the way to the Final Five.
"Everybody knows what's at stake," Likens said. "Even if we don't make a home series, we want to keep going here, we want to get to that Final Five and we've got to win that thing to go to the NCAAs."
