The University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team wrapped up their regular season this past weekend against the Minnesota Golden Gophers with a series split. The Badgers took Friday’s match 4-3, but dropped Saturday’s game by a final of 4-1.
Now, Wisconsin (8-18-8, 3-13-4) will travel to St. Paul, Minn. for the Big Ten Hockey Tournament as the No. 6 seed where they play their quarterfinals match against the third-seeded Penn State Nittany Lions.
In his weekly press conference Monday, head coach Mike Eaves talked about his hopes of carrying the quality of play from this past weekend into the Big Ten Tournament.
“We played some pretty good hockey,” Eaves said. “We’re doing good things and that helps us now as we move forward.”
The Badgers and Penn State (20-12-4, 10-9-1) will play each other for the fifth time this season in the tournament. The Nittany Lions lead the season series 3-1 with Wisconsin winning the most recent game between the two on March 5 at the Kohl Center by a score of 4-3.
Men’s hockey: Badgers end final home series with impressive win
Eaves talked about the advantage of his team facing Penn State four times and what he expects in the upcoming game.
“If you talked to the boys, they would tell you that they feel they could have won all four,” Eaves said. “We know some of their tendencies and it’ll be a matter of us executing to a higher level.”
This year, the Badgers find themselves in a similar situation as the 2013 WCHA Tournament Champion team that needed to win three straight games to claim the title. Eaves said having some players on the team who played on that championship team such as Kevin Schulze and Eddie Wittchow works in their favor heading into the Big Ten Tournament in need of three straight wins.
In the Big Ten Tournament, everyone enters in the same situation. Each team is in a win or go home situation regardless of their regular season record.
Eaves acknowledged this, but said he focuses more on taking it one game at a time.
“Our window of opportunity to get to the top is slimmer than other groups’, so we recognize that,” Eaves said. “Because our sliver of opportunity is narrow, we have to win one [game] at a time. If we can continue to play like we’ve done, we give ourselves a chance.”
The Badgers finished their regular season with a losing record for the second year in a row, but improved from last year’s record by doubling their win total. As his group continues to rebuild, Eaves said he hopes they can get better at holding a lead, a chapter he feels his young players will achieve with time.
The Badgers and the Nittany Lions square off Thursday at 4 p.m. on BTN. The winner will advance to the semifinals against number two seed Michigan State Friday at 4 p.m.
