The Wisconsin men’s hockey team will have their last home series this weekend against Penn State, and both the Badgers and the Nittany Lions are coming off their most recent series against Ohio State.
Wisconsin (6-16-8, 1-11-4 Big Ten) is trying to end their troublesome season with some confidence. The Badgers have not won a game since late January and are coming back from a loss and a tie from Ohio State last weekend. Similarly to last season, the Badgers are at the bottom of the conference with little time left to dig themselves out of an all too familiar hole.
Penn State (19-9-4, 9-6-1 Big Ten) is coming off a bye-week with their last opponent being Ohio State, where they broke even with a win and a loss respectively. The Nittany Lions are slowly moving up in the USCHO.com Men’s Hockey Poll — currently standing in at No. 14. Penn State no longer has any home games and is looking to keep jumping up in rankings this weekend against Wisconsin.
The games begin at 7 p.m. CT both Friday and Saturday.
Men’s hockey: As final home series approaches, Badgers seek to give seniors proper send-off
Wisconsin keys to victory
UW needs to stick to aggressive play style and rack up some points before the season is over.
Playing against a strong, experienced team such as Penn State will definitely prove to be a challenge for the young, upcoming Badgers. The game results will be a good indication of where improvement needs to be made in the future.
Wisconsin’s top line has been looking good in previous series against Michigan State and Ohio State, but missed opportunities are still settling the Badgers’ unfortunate fate. Patience and fluidity between offensive lines while still maintaining a fast pace is going to be key this weekend against Penn State’s defense.
On the defensive end, freshman goaltender Matt Jurusik has shown an impressive improvement in rebounds. Continuation of this will be crucial against the highly-ranked Penn State team.
Penn State player to watch: Junior forward David Goodwin
Goodwin from Des Peres, Missouri, has had an exceptional season thus far. Goodwin is the team-leading point scorer with 5 goals and 9 assists.
With 7 multi-point games on the season, he has proven to be hard to stop in all facets of the game, and his great hands and speed will test Wisconsin defense and goaltending in this weekend’s series.
