Ben Street hasn’t scored a lot against St. Cloud State, but when he has, it’s made a difference.

In 13 games against the Huskies, Street has just four goals and one assist. But every one of those goals either tied or won the game for the Wisconsin men’s hockey team. The Badgers will hope their captain can come through in the clutch again if need be when the team heads to St. Cloud this weekend for a two-game series.

Street tallied two game-winners against SCSU in 2007-08, his last full season. Perhaps his biggest goal was an overtime winner in the WCHA Final Five third-place game in 2007 that gave UW a 4-3 win. While he’s certainly come up big before, the fifth-year senior is aware he’s had good and bad games at St. Cloud.

“I’ve had pretty good success in their barn. Hopefully, I can keep that rolling. I’ve also had some stinker games there, too,” Street said. “So, hopefully, I can … be putting pucks in the net.”

Wisconsin (6-3-1, 4-3-1 WCHA) will need Street and the rest of its experienced squad to be strong in a building it hasn’t played particularly well in. UW is just 5-6-1 in St. Cloud during current head coach Mike Eaves’ tenure. And though SCSU is just 4-4-2 overall, the Huskies are unbeaten at the National Hockey Center with a 2-0-2 mark.

“We haven’t had much success, especially there. It’s up to us, we’ve got to play hard — they’re a team that is really skilled, really fast,” Street said. “If we turn the pucks over and aren’t finishing our checks, they’ll make us pay for it.”

“I think St. Cloud’s been a good team — they beat (No. 2 North Dakota),” UW junior defenseman Brendan Smith said. “And after winning this (last) series, I think if we can just come in and keep our spirits high and come in and play well against St. Cloud — maybe take some points off them — that’s going to help our rankings.

“And that’s the biggest thing, our rankings aren’t as high as we wish they would be.”

Wisconsin is ranked just No. 15 in the USCHO.com poll, even after going 5-1 in its last six games. Three teams that have a record the same or worse than the Badgers are ranked higher than them. But UW’s recent play seems to indicate that the Huskies are in for a challenge come Friday, regardless of ranking.

The Badgers are in the top five in the nation in shots on goal, fewest shots allowed, scoring by defensemen, scoring defense, scoring offense and scoring margin. UW is also first in the nation with 19 different Badgers registering a goal on the season.

The only knock on Wisconsin’s recent success is that it has come within the friendly confines of the Kohl Center. This weekend will mark just the second road series for the Badgers this season. In its first trip, back in October, UW split a series with Minnesota State, winning 6-0 before a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in the Saturday game the team blames on itself.

“But we took that lesson and we came home with a purpose,” Eaves said. “And I think those two games will help us going up to St. Cloud — there’s no question.”

Since then, Wisconsin has outscored its opponents 27-12. After looking lost for the first two weeks of the season, UW seems to have found its identity at home and Street says that will carry through this weekend.

UW was able to build its momentum by getting solid contributions from everyone in its lineup. In that respect, the Huskies are similar to the Badgers, as 18 of 22 SCSU skaters have at least one point on the season.

St. Cloud has been decent offensively, even though its best forward, junior Garrett Roe, has just two goals on the season. Roe has four goals and five assists for his career against Wisconsin and scored 18 and 17 total goals in his first two seasons.

“They have a lot of power up front, their forwards is where the strength of their team is and anybody can score,” Smith said of the Huskies. “We’re playing against good, skilled players (during practice) that are very offensive as well. So I think that that helps us out, especially in practice.”

Although the players say they’re not trying to think too much about the upcoming series, Eaves thinks road success could be a big part of getting the team set up for March.

“Going on the road, it’s a real challenge. And I think that it’s in those moments on the road that you come together as a team even more so,” Eaves said. “If you remember the year we won [the national title], we went through some tough times in Mankato, and that was the last piece of the puzzle in terms of our guys taking ownership of that team.”