Wisconsin Hockey: 2008-09 Season Preview

Wisconsin will spend five of its first seven weekends on the road, but will only play three road weekends after the weekend of Nov. 21-22.

• The Badgers welcome seven freshmen to the roster, and will also welcome Tom Bardis, a sophomore transfer from St. Lawrence who sat out the 2007-08 season.
• There are 10 Badgers who have been drafted by NHL teams, including five defensemen. Of the 10 draft picks, three have been drafted in the first round and four have been drafted in the second round.
• Senior co-captain Ben Street has produced at least 10 goals in each of his first three seasons.
• Junior co-captain Blake Geoffrion improved his point total by 24 points from his freshman (six points) to his sophomore season (30 points).
• Wisconsin has lost at least one underclassman to a professional contract after each of the last three seasons and after four of the last five seasons. 2007-08 - Kyle Turris. 2006-07 - Joe Piskula, Jack Skille. 2005-06 - Robbie Earl, Joe Pavelski. 2004-05 - None. 2003-04 - Ryan Suter.
• Senior goaltender Shane Connelly enters the season with five career shutouts to rank seventh in school history. One more will tie him for fifth in program annals.
• Wisconsin will be served by co-captains in 2008-09, with senior forward Ben Street and junior forward Blake Geoffrion filling the role. It is the first season with co-captains since Rob Granato and Mark Strobel were co-captains in 1993-94. The Badgers had tri-captains for the 2003-04 season, with Rene Bourque, Dan Boeser and Andy Wozniewski serving in that capacity.
• Wisconsin returns five of its top six scorers from last season. The group accounted for 49 goals, 80 assists and 129 points. In total, 87 out of 114 goals (76.3 percent), 135 out of 201 assists and 222 out of 315 points will return to the lineup (70.5 percent). That is the greatest returning percentage of offense returning for the Badgers since the 2005-06 team welcomed back 97.6 percent of its goals (124 of 127), 97.7 percent of its assists (209 of 214) and 97.7 percent of its points (333 of 341) from the previous season. The 2007-08 team had 52.5 percent of its offense return from 2006-07 (128 of 244 points), while the 2006-07 squad had just 43.9 percent (166 of 379 points) of its offense return from the 2005-06 team.
• A career-high point total of 38 points in 2008-09 would allow senior Ben Street to become the 68th Badgers to reach 100 career points. The last Badgers to join the club - senior Ryan MacMurchy, junior Robbie Earl and sophomore Joe Pavelski - all did so during the 2005-06 season.
• Wisconsin has been to the NCAA tournament in four of the first six seasons under head coach Mike Eaves.