MINNEAPOLIS — Even with the WCHA playoff seeds set before Sunday’s game between the Badgers and Gophers, Minnesota — unlike Wisconsin –showed it still had plenty to play for on Senior Day.
The Badgers spent most of the day watching the Gophers’ power play dominate en route to a 6-1 UM victory in the final regular season game of the year.
UW couldn’t stay out of the penalty box Sunday, and it was costly as the Badgers forced junior goaltender Brett Bennett and a worn out penalty kill unit back out onto the ice time and time again to face a red-hot power-play unit.
“This team is lethal on the power play, and they were on fire tonight,” tri-captain Ryan McDonagh said. “We take pride in killing penalties, but when you go back-to-back that many [times] it just wears on the same guys.”
In Friday’s game, the Badgers took their fair share of penalties but behind a strong shorthanded effort, they forced the Gophers to go 0-for-6 with man advantage and UW came out with a win.
The Badgers were not so fortunate Sunday, and Minnesota made the most of its opportunities, going 5-for-8 on the power play.
UW came out with a ton of energy in the second period after falling behind early, but all the momentum created by several solid shifts and Michael Davies’ game-tying goal was sucked away with a penalty.
McDonagh got in a scrap with UM co-captain Ryan Flynn and after both were given 10-minute misconducts, McDonagh was handed an extra minor for crosschecking. That’s when the onslaught began.
“Up until the point that McDonagh got into the wrestling match, we tied the game; we were coming on, and from there it just deteriorated,” head coach Mike Eaves said.
Freshman defenseman Justin Schultz joined McDonagh in the penalty box and co-captain Tony Lucia redirected a shot from the point to give the UM the lead with the power play goal.
“We just took a penalty, and that was the turning point in the game right there,” Davies said.
Cody Goloubef was called for roughing just over a minute later and Jacob Cepis buried a wide-open rebound with the man advantage.
Then it was Brendan Smith’s turn to visit the box as he went off for unsportsmanlike conduct. That put another Badger in the box and it created another goal for Lucia.
UW had spells of good pressure in that second period, but repeated trips to the penalty box ended any hope for a comeback.
“I felt we were shorthanded the whole day,” tri-captain Blake Geoffrion said. “Every time we got something going we took a penalty and lost all the momentum.”
The Gophers poured it on in the third period as they added two more power play goals.
“Tonight they took advantage of the opportunities we gave them,” McDonagh, who was forced to watch the game slip away from the penalty box, said. “But if we continued to play five-on-five it could be a different story.”
Aside from Sunday’s outing, Eaves’ squad has been terrific on the penalty kill throughout the season. Afterward, he seemed confident Sunday’s performance was just a fluke for the Badgers.
“What happened out there was an aberration,” Eaves said. “But we will have their attention going into next week.”
Like his coach, Geoffrion knows how critical special teams play is come playoff time and that he and the rest of the Badgers will need to straighten out the special teams to be successful.
“We have to stay out of the box to win games this late in the season,” Geoffrion said. “Special teams is a huge thing going into the tournament and it’s hard to win games when you’re always shorthanded.”
Now, the Badgers will go back to the drawing board with a bad taste in their mouths in preparation for first-round playoff opponent Alaska Anchorage.
Eaves just hopes his team’s recent performance doesn’t carry over into the post-season.
“Hopefully we got a lot of things out of our system today.”
