Badgers Get Renewed Life With Chance To Climb NCAA Mountain
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March 24, 2005
By John Gilbert
If the University of Wisconsin hockey players were mountain climbers, they might be free-falling right about now from their connecting ropes. Instead, after their long, tough climb took several disappointing turns through the last few weeks, the Badgers have gained a final and satisfying foothold, and they are still pulling together after being named to the NCAA hockey tournament field.
The immediate objective, however, is to not be relieved at reaching this plateau, but to realize the summit is still out there ahead of them, and attainable. If the only reward the Badgers wanted was another chance to play, they¹ve gotten it. It¹s a tough path, but with a few goals, elimination of some costly mistakes, and a hot hand by goaltender Bernd Bruckler, it¹s right there at hand.
Wisconsin has probably the toughest task of the five WCHA teams selected for the NCAA¹s 16-team field, by having to play at Grand Rapids, Mich., against the host team, the Michigan Wolverines in Friday¹s first round. The other Midwest Regional semifinal has top-seeded Colorado College facing No. 4 seed Colgate, so the very realistic challenge awaiting the Badgers is that reaching the Frozen Four requires beating Michigan Friday, and then probably upsetting Colorado College on Saturday.
The last time the Badgers played was in last week¹s play-in game of the WCHA Final Five, but their struggles started a month earlier. Facing Minnesota in a battle that still had championship overtones, Wisconsin beat the Gophers 3-1, with a pair of Minnesotans leading the way, as Ross Carlson scored a big goal, and threw a breakaway pass to Nick Licari for an all-Duluth goal. But the Badgers lost the next night, as a spirited third-period rally carried Minnesota to a 5-3 triumph.
Next came a 5-3 loss and a 3-3 tie at Denver, which was no disgrace. Returning home, the Badgers stunned Colorado College 5-1, but lost 2-1 the next night. Still, they were in solid position in third place, with two weekends remaining. But Wisconsin lost 4-2 and tied 1-1 at fifth-place North Dakota, then went to Duluth and tied 2-2 and lost 4-3 to sixth-place Minnesota-Duluth.
Those results left Wisconsin in a third-place tie with Minnesota, but the Gophers won the head-to-head tie-breaker, having won three of the season¹s four game between the two. So the sputtering finish dropped the Badgers to the fourth seed for the league playoffs. That meant Alaska-Anchorage came to Madison, and that series told the story of the stretch drive for the Badgers. Wisconsin led the first game 2-0, then surrendered four straight goals, before rallying to win 5-4. The next night, the Seawolves won 2-1. Wisconsin recovered to win the third game 2-1, and reach the Final Five.
But they were required to play the dreaded play-in game on Thursday, against a North Dakota team that seemed to be hitting its peak. It was a stirring game, with 15,583 watching in Saint Paul¹s Xcel Energy Center, as the teams traded spectacular goals. North Dakota struck first, with Brady Murray converting a goal-mouth feed from Travis Zajac on a high-speed rush after just 1:22. The Fighting Sioux made it 2-0 when James Massen scored on a one-timer after another 2-on-1, this time with Brian Canady supplying the pass.
Wisconsin countered with the play of the game, as Robbie Earl disproved the notion that the Badgers had shrunk from the physical play in their series at North Dakota. Earl notched his 20^th goal of the season, but not until he cruised into the left corner and delivered a crunching bodycheck that actually send Sioux defenseman Robbie Bina into a backward flip, landing head-and-shoulder first. Earl got up, dashed to the goal-mouth, and got there just in time to knock in the rebound of Joe Pavelski¹s shot.
All of that was in the first period, and it stayed 2-1 through two periods, with Wisconsin outshooting the Sioux 25-16 to that point. Colby Genoway¹s goal, on a power play midway through the third period, seemed to settle it for North Dakota, but the Badgers had one more big play coming, just 59 seconds later.
Adam Burish knocked away a Sioux power-play pass at the blue line in his own zone, and took off up the right boards on a shorthanded solo. Racing in at full speed to stay ahead of a scrambling Sioux defender, Burish drilled a shot through the five-hole on Sioux goaltender Jordan Parise at 10:43. It was the only shorthanded goal allowed by the Sioux all season, and, more importantly, closed the gap to 3-2.
Parise regained his form, however, and Wisconsin was eliminated while the Sioux advanced on that 3-2 victory to win the third-place game in the tournament. Wisconsin, meanwhile, had nothing left but to think what might have been.
³There were two critical moments to our game with North Dakota,² said coach Mike Eaves. ³First, they got a great start, and later, Mr. Parise made some big saves.
³Early in the game, they got that quick goal and we watched, instead of moving our feet. It wasn¹t a matter of physical play. We played fine through the contact, it¹s just what happened after that. It was a tough game, and the difference in a tight game like this can be a puck going off a shinpad and it goes in and we didn¹t get it.²
Bernd Bruckler, Wisconsin¹s ace goaltender, expressed his team¹s disappointment. ³I¹m a senior, and I wanted to come in and get a couple of wins,² he said.
The Badgers had outshot North Dakota 35-28 for the game, but there wasn¹t much satisfaction emanating from the Badgers. Burish couldn¹t take much pleasure from his spectacular shorthanded goal, either. ³We¹re disappointed,² Burish said. ³We were excited to be here, but we didn¹t come here just to have a good time. We knew that when you play North Dakota, it¹s going to be physical. But in the first two minutes, we were a little sloppy. We made two mistakes, and they connected on two textbook 2-on-1s.²
Discouraged, the Badgers were out of the Final Five, and didn¹t sound too hopeful for any help from the NCAA selection committee, not with a closing record of 3-7-3 in their last 13 games.
³It¹s out of our hands now,² said Burish. ³Now we¹ll just have to wait till Sunday, and see what happens.²
What happened was the silver lining to all the hard work, and all the equity built up by the Badgers through a 23-13-4 season. The NCAA committee selected Wisconsin as the 11^th of 16 teams for its tournament ahead of such prominent teams as Boston University and Maine. And they even got sent fairly close to home, to the Midwest Regional.
Facing Michigan won¹t be an easy task, however. In recent years, Michigan was host to a regional and on successive years eliminated two higher seeds from the WCHA in champions Denver in 2002, and Colorado College in 2003. The NCAA sent Michigan out east last year, but now they¹re ³home² again, as the No. 2 seed in the regional.
If the closing struggle renders the Badgers as underdogs, there is no
question they will take nothing for granted and are ready to work hard
Friday. And there is no question that they are due for a break. And it¹s
also true that no matter how physical Michigan play, and no matter how
hot Michigan might be, the Wolverines can¹t show the Badgers anything
they didn¹t already see from North Dakota.
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