University of Wisconsin men’s hockey coach Mike Eaves called his team’s 4-3 loss Saturday a riddle.
His Badgers figured out the first answer by scoring two goals early. Then it was Colorado College with the next piece of the puzzle, scoring three straight times in the second period to take a 3-2 lead. A Blake Geoffrion tally made it 3-3, but on this fluky night, it was a rebound goal by CC’s Brian McMillin that proved to be the game-winner.
“You take a look at the first period, we had two shots that hit something and go in. And then they get three goals in a little over two minutes,” Eaves said. “It was kind of a bizarre night.”
Cody Goloubef provided the only offense in the first period, twice firing bullets from the blue line that both beat Tigers netminder Richard Bachman to give UW a 2-0 edge after one.
But in a span of two minutes and 12 seconds in the second period, Colorado College was on top thanks to three unanswered goals by Tyler Johnson, Mike Testwuide and Matt Overman.
Johnson was able to corral a loose puck in the slot and beat Wisconsin goalie Shane Connelly for the first Tiger goal. Less than two minutes later, it was Testwuide battling with UW’s Matt Thurber — and a referee — to the side of the net before Testwuide’s shot tied things at 2-2.
Overman’s rebound goal — which beat both Jamie McBain and Connelly — forced Eaves to call a timeout and try to figure things out.
“As we told the kids after the second period, sometimes games like these, they’re a riddle and there’s no textbook answers,” Eaves said. “We have to try to figure out what the answer is in the third period. We didn’t get it.”
The timeout seemed to help, as Geoffrion took a centering pass from Andy Bohmbach to again knot things up. Ultimately, however, it was Colorado College (13-9-5, 9-7-2 WCHA) that was able to solve the riddle, as McMillin collected a rebound off Connelly’s pads with under four minutes to play and buried the game winner.
Saturday’s performance could be considered a microcosm of Wisconsin’s run since the break, which was itself a bit of a mystery.
Wisconsin picked up after the break off with a convincing 5-0 win over Alabama-Huntsville in its first game of the Badger Hockey Showdown but followed it with a 1-1 tie the following evening against Lake Superior State, a team that had just four wins going into the matchup.
It was an up-and-down ride again for the Badgers (13-10-3, 10-6-2 WCHA) the next two weekends, as they were swept at home by Northern Michigan — a team with three wins before facing Wisconsin — and then traveled to Anchorage to sweep the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves 3-2 and 6-3.
Riding the confidence from the sweep of UAA, UW came out Friday and stuck it to CC early and often. John Mitchell started the scoring off for Wisconsin, but Colorado College’s Nate Prosser answered with a goal of his own.
However, that would be the only time the Tigers would find the net. Friday belonged to the Badgers.
Five different players scored for UW — including a two-goal performance by Andy Bohmbach — as they topped CC 6-1. After Bohmbach’s first goal — the fourth for the Badgers–Tigers goalie Richard Bachman was pulled in favor of Drew O’Connell. The backup netminder didn’t fare much better, however, as Michael Davies and Bohmbach were able to beat him in the third frame.
“I think that as the game went on, we started competing at a higher level, especially after the first period,” Eaves said following Friday’s win. “That speaks to our maturity. I think it speaks to the type of game it was. It was hotly contested and physical.”
Following Saturday’s loss, the Badgers remain in second in the WCHA standings but are now just one point ahead of third-place Minnesota. Eaves’ squad has the upcoming weekend off, giving them a chance to let the conference picture unfold while preparing for Minnesota-Duluth to come to town.
“I think we’re a bit disappointed that we gave them two points there,” Goloubef said after the loss. “We have two weeks to get better. We’re going to get better and find out what our mistakes were and go from there.”
