[media-credit name=’KRIS UGARRIZA/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]

The Wisconsin men’s hockey team is back on the road again this weekend.

But for them, the road has started to feel like home.

“It’s weird. I used to not like playing on the road and love playing in the Kohl Center,” senior goaltender Shane Connelly said. “[Now], I’m very comfortable on the road.”

So far this season, the Badgers have played just four of their first 12 games of the season — two each against Minnesota and Michigan Tech — at home. A trip to St. Cloud State this weekend to take on the Huskies will mark yet another two games on the road.

“I think a lot of guys like it on the road better because you just rest,” sophomore defenseman Cody Goloubef said. “There’s no distractions. You don’t have much to do.”

UW traveled to St. Cloud twice last season — first for the final series of the regular season and again two weeks later for the WCHA playoffs mid-March. The Badgers won just the first of those four games and were nearly knocked out of NCAA playoff contention by the Huskies. Following the two-game sweep, Wisconsin left the National Hockey Center not knowing its postseason fate.

While UW eventually snuck into the playoffs, SCSU had gotten the best of Mike Eaves’ squad.

“We’ve played really well there, and last year we just had a little tough luck,” Eaves said. “I like going there. It’s a good rink.”

“They’re just a really good team,” Connelly said. “This program’s had really good success against St. Cloud in the past. We were 3-3 against them last year, but they got the best of us and almost ended our season. We were lucky to get another chance.”

The Huskies were led offensively last season by a potent scoring trio of Garrett Roe, Ryan Lasch and Andreas Nodl, who scored 53, 45 and 44 points, respectively. Nodl left the team after his sophomore season, but Roe and Lasch will still be a tough matchup for the Badger defense this weekend.

“They’re just such intelligent players,” Connelly said. “They know where to find each other. They know where to go in the open spot. They’ve got really good hockey sense, a real feel for the puck. … They’re going to make stuff happen, and we just have to be prepared to react and respond.”

Roe currently leads the WCHA in scoring with 18 points through 11 games — four more points than UW’s leading scorer, Jamie McBain. Lasch, on the other hand, is off to a slow start, notching just eight points through the opening stretch.

“When I saw his numbers, I was surprised by that,” Eaves said of Lasch. “It’s like one of those guys in baseball who goes up to bat, and he’s a real good hitter and he’s hitting .187. It’s like he’s due. We have to be very aware of him because he is a goal scorer.”

St. Cloud State has struggled to find success on the power play in WCHA play, converting just once on 32 chances with the man advantage — quite a disparity for a team that thrived on the power play a season ago, converting on 21.9 percent of its chances.

“We hope they keep that going,” Eaves said.

In net for the Huskies will be junior goalie Jase Weslosky, who pitched a shutout against the Badgers in the opening game of the WCHA playoffs. He’s currently carrying a 2.25 goals against average into the series while stopping 92.5 percent of the total shots he’s faced.

“If we put pucks on him, get guys to the net, rile him a little bit and get him off his game, that’s probably the best thing that we can do,” junior forward John Mitchell said.

Looking at the current conference standings, Wisconsin sits in third with 10 points, ahead of eighth place St. Cloud State. As the Badgers continue to ride the wave of their five-game unbeaten streak, they feel like a group that can compete with the top teams in the WCHA.

“We’re finally starting to mature as a team,” Mitchell said. “We still have a ways to go, but maturity has definitely helped. I think we are at the top. We’re right there with the best of the best.”