As the Wisconsin men’s hockey team takes the ice in St. Paul this weekend, the Badgers will look a little different than when they played in Minnesota two weeks ago.
The lineup will be the same and they’re not busting out any new sweaters for the WCHA Final Five. They’ll just be a bit… hairier.
Growing playoff beards is a time-honored hockey tradition, but UW’s putting a twist on stretch run facial hair by going with mustaches instead of full beards. When the No. 3 Badgers take on St. Cloud State at 2 p.m. at the Xcel Energy Center, the Huskies will get their fill of mustaches — some good, some bad and, according to UW senior tri-captain Ben Street, one that’s both.
“I think (fourth line center Sean) Dolan’s got the best and the worst; it’s the best because it is the worst,” Street said with a laugh.
Facial hair-related joking aside, Wisconsin (24-9-4) will likely play its two toughest games of the season so far this weekend, and at stake is the Broadmoor Trophy, awarded to the WCHA tournament champion.
The Badgers have said all season that the ultimate goal is the national title, with the conference regular season and tournament titles being intermediate goals. That’s not to say this isn’t a big deal for UW, though.
“It’s still an intermediate goal for sure, but we’re right down to the end where all those goals are piling up on each other,” Street said. “It’s when you want to be playing your best hockey.”
The Badgers certainly looked good last weekend in sweeping Alaska Anchorage in the first round of the WCHA playoffs. The Seawolves put up a fight, but in the end Wisconsin and Denver were the only series winners that didn’t need to play a third game in the best-of-three series.
Wisconsin’s power play, which struggled in the regular season finale at Minnesota and went 0-8 in game one of the playoffs, gained confidence last Saturday after getting two goals. Street said the biggest positive the team took out of the series was the improvement with the man advantage.
A close second might be the play of junior goaltender Scott Gudmandson. Gudmandson battled all season with Brett Bennett for the No. 1 goaltender spot and head coach Mike Eaves is finally ready to lean on the Alberta-native as UW continues into the playoffs. Gudmandson started both playoff games against Alaska Anchorage, allowing three total goals.
“Guddy: he’s going to be solid for us and we know that. He’s a gamer, so he’ll be up for those big games,” Street said. “You don’t even think about it, and that’s the best thing about your goalie — … that you’re not really worried about him back there.”
“I think that’s something I can build on; I think it was a good series for me,” Gudmandson said.
The Badgers will hope he can continue his solid play, as he allowed nine goals in the most recent series between UW and SCSU (22-12-5). Since then, though, Gudmandson hasn’t given up more than two goals in a game, in five starts.
St. Cloud State, which was ranked fourth in the nation when they came to Madison in February, struggled against lowly Minnesota State in the playoffs, where the Mavericks won the first game and took the Huskies to overtime in game three before bowing out.
Don’t expect the Badgers to take the Huskies lightly though.
“They had a tough weekend. We can say ours wasn’t as tough as theirs, but it’s still going to be a tough first game for both teams,” junior tri-captain Ryan McDonagh said.
The Huskies are certainly a dangerous team, with two talented forwards in Ryan Lasch and Garrett Roe. Down 2-1 to MSU in the third period last Saturday, Roe scored two goals — including the game winner — in a span of 20 seconds to even the series.
Should the Badgers beat the Huskies, they would advance to the tournament final, which is Saturday at 7 p.m. Wisconsin would face the winner of Denver-North Dakota, who play at 7 p.m. tonight. If UW loses today, it will play the loser of the other semifinal at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Either way, the Badgers will face the top competition in arguably college hockey’s top conference. But as well as the Badgers have done to get this far, Eaves thinks the team can still use this weekend to improve before the NCAA tournament starts.
“I think we’re going in that right direction, but I think we can, compared to where we’ve been and what we’ve seen during the course of the season, we can amp it up some more,” he said.
