David tried to fight Goliath this weekend at the Kohl Center, but this time David didn’t have a spring to shoot with, much less any pebbles.
The Wisconsin men’s hockey team played the role of David, and looked to be the aggressor for the better part of one period in its series’ opening game Friday night against Michigan. But then the sleeping giant awoke and the Wolverines scored a dozen straight times between the second period Friday night and the final horn that ended the series Saturday night in 7-4 and 6-0 triumphs, respectively.
However, heading into the first intermission Friday night with a 3-1 lead, University of Wisconsin had just completed one of its best offensive 20-minute sessions of the entire season. Wisconsin had scored more than two goals in an entire game only two times before entering the series with Michigan and had surpassed that in just 22:21. And the Badgers would add to that lead to start the second period with a goal by Jedd Soleway for their largest advantage in any game this season.
But UW could only hold the nation’s top scoring offense at bay for so long, and Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves felt the three-goal lead was too precarious to stand strong.
“I think it was great to get the lead,” Eaves said. “That was something we talked about this week. But, being around the game long enough, we as a coaching staff saw things that were indicating that in our own zone, we were not doing the things we needed to shut them down and get possession of the puck. I certainly didn’t feel like we were in control.”
Michigan had tallied 17 goals in its previous two games, and after the quiet first period, the Wolverines found their footing in the second period before putting the Badgers away in the third. That offensive binge continued into Saturday and between the third period of the first game and period one of game two, Michigan lit the lamp eight times in 29 minutes and 41 seconds.
But it wasn’t just one player doing the damage for the Wolverines. As Eaves explained, Wisconsin had no answer for Michigan’s wealth of talent at forward during both games of the series.
“[Michigan was] imposing their will in the form of their speed and skill with their forwards,” Eaves said. “We had a difficult time staying with them in our defensive zone.”
Seven different players scored a goal for Michigan, with Justin Selman and Zach Hyman doing a bulk of the damage. Friday night, Selman tallied the second Wolverines’ hat trick of the season, while adding an assist, and Zach Hyman had six total points in the series with a goal and two assists Friday and two goals and a helper Saturday night.
Michigan’s talent at forward wasn’t the only factor though, especially to start the game Saturday. Wisconsin made numerous mistakes in the series finale, and it started almost immediately after the opening puck drop. Wisconsin senior goaltender Joel Rumpel tried to make a save on a shot from below the left goal line just 1:12 into the game, but instead of stopping the shot, the puck hit off his left pad and bounced into the back of the net.
After getting beat top shelf only 49 seconds later, Eaves pulled Rumpel in favor of fellow senior Landon Peterson to try to get something going, but there was little that Peterson could do. Michigan’s third goal 15 minutes and 46 seconds into the opening period again came from a sharp angle, and when Peterson tried to catch it with his glove hand, the puck trickled past him.
Peterson gave up his second goal with just a minute left in the period and made 13 saves on 15 shots, but Eaves went back to Rumpel for the remainder of the game. As was the case with the goaltenders, Eaves benched several of his skaters the rest of the way for mistakes, in an attempt to send a message about accountability to his players.
“We can’t trade for people,” Eaves said. “This is the group we have. We have to use measures that are going to be somewhat stimulating. This is all part of the process.
“If guys weren’t doing what they needed to do they missed ice time.”
Rumpel finished the series with 56 saves on 66 shots, and has given up five or more goals in four of his last five games. But Rumpel hasn’t been the only one at fault, as Wisconsin as a team has surrendered at least 38 shots in each of the last four contests, and has been outshot in all but three games this season. Throughout the weekend, the Badgers got heavily outshot again by a total margin of 82-37, giving both Rumpel and Peterson little off time in between the pipes.
It didn’t help that UW was without junior defenseman Eddie Wittchow for the entirety of the series due to a two-game suspension for a hit in the series finale with Minnesota last weekend. But as Rumpel said of Eaves’ postgame speech after Saturday night’s loss to Michigan, trying to come up with reasons for the loss doesn’t change much.
“We got to quit making excuses,” Rumpel said of what Eaves told the players after the game. “Everyone’s got to bring it every night. We just got to figure it out.”
Wisconsin will have a short turnaround to try to figure it out, as it hosts Minnesota next weekend still trying to record a Big Ten victory.
“Guys know what’s expected of them every night,” senior captain Brad Navin said. “We’ve had talks about what each guy can bring to the lineup every night. We see spurts of it here and there, but we just don’t have it consistently each night.”
