Wisconsin (6-15-7, 1-10-3) wrapped up their eight game home stand with a series loss against Michigan State (9-20-3, 5-10-1) this past weekend. The Badgers came up short Friday, losing to the Spartans 4-3, and fell 3-1 in the series finale Saturday.

In Monday’s press conference, Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves spoke about the importance of resiliency for his team as this tough season winds to a close.

“If it wasn’t [a theme] when we started, it’s certainly one that we have to build and include in our repertoire, and we’ve demonstrated that,” Eaves said.

Eaves said he wants his team to look at the positives from the season and not look too deep into what the record says. Eaves said he hopes to pass this message along to his players as they continue to try to improve in these final games.

In a season with many lows and few highs, Eaves said he likes the progress some of the younger players made and is impressed with the improvement freshman goaltender Matt Jurusik has made.

“I think that because of the responsibilities that are on a goaltender’s shoulders,” Eaves said. “He’s faring pretty well. He’s got a lot of storms he’s had to go through and he’s making progress and he’s still climbing.”

Last week, Eaves mixed up some of his lines, but said he plans to start this week with similar lineups to those he used at the end of the weekend series. Eaves said he liked what he saw from those combinations against Michigan State.

This weekend, Wisconsin will travel to Columbus, Ohio to take on another struggling Big Ten foe, the Ohio State Buckeyes (9-17-2, 4-8-2), a team Wisconsin lost to and tied with earlier in the season. Eaves said smart play will be key to beating a Buckeye team, which possesses the ability to score with their wide-open play.

“Playing Ohio State, they’re a team that can get up and down the ice,” Eaves said. “If you’re sloppy, they can score. They’re opportunistic. We need to continue to do what we’ve been doing and preaching about playing the right way to give ourselves a chance to keep forging ourselves into the type of team we want to be.”

The face off will start 5:30 p.m. Friday, and will air on the Big Ten Network. The puck drops 6 p.m. Saturday.