After opening the 2nd half of WCHA play with a road split last weekend in Mankato the Badgers (10-10-2, 5-9-2 WCHA) return to the Kohl Center ice this weekend to take on the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves (6-12-2, 3-12-1 WCHA). Wisconsin is looking to get above .500 overall and the Seawolves could be just the medicine the Badgers need to get on a roll in the 2nd half of the year.
Overall Wisconsin leads the series 47-14-9 and did split last years series in Anchorage, losing the opener 2-1 and winning 3-1 to close out the series. It’s really been a case of total domination for the Badgers in the history of this series as Wisconsin owns a 21-3-1 record in the last 25 meetings between the two teams.
This season both Wisconsin and Alaska-Anchorage find themselves near the bottom of the WCHA barrel with Wisconsin coming in with 12 points (9th place tie) and the Seawolves coming in with just 7 points (11th place tie) in conference play.
Wisconsin and Alaska-Anchorage have one big similarity this season and that is the fact that they are both very young teams. Wisconsin only has one Senior, Eric Springer, while the Seawolves have only two Seniors on their roster.
However, that’s the end of the similarities between these two teams this season. Wisconsin has been much more competitive this season and boasts some nationally recognizable players in Justin Schultz and Mark Zengerle.
Zengerle, despite having his consecutive games points streak snapped last Saturday, still leads the nation in assists with 24 and ranks 5th nationally in points. Schultz is right behind him, ranking 6th nationally. They have 33 and 32 points respectively and are clearly the engine that gets Wisconsin’s offensive effort going. Schultz leads the Badgers in goals with 11 on the season so far.
On the opposing bench you’ll see a bunch of guys right around each other in goals, points, and assists, but none of the bunches are all that great. Perhaps the most consistent player on Seawolves roster is Senior forward/defenseman Curtis Leinweber who has 6 goals and 5 assists, good for 11 points and part of a three way tie at the top of the points list. He’s tied with the goals co-leader Mitch Bruijsten (7 goals, 4 assists) and assists co-leader Brett Cameron (4 goals, 7 assists).
Joining Bruijsten atop the goals scored list is fellow forward Mickey Spencer. The assists board is also topped by forwad Jordan Kwas and defenseman Scott Warner.
Part of the reason for the low scoring numbers on this team is because of the style of play they use. “Their foundation of how they are going to try and win is based on hard.” said Mike Eaves at his weekly press conference. “They’re a team that’ll skate. They’re big, long limbs and stuff and they’ll try to take away space and time.”
The other part of the equation is having a team that doesn’t even have a single player with 20 career goals on it.
All of these players help an offense that only averages 2.6 goals a game, while giving up an average of 3.75 goals a game. Things aren’t much better for the Seawolves when it comes to special teams situations, they are allowing teams to score on 22.6% of their power play opportunities and only hit on 19.3% of their own power play opportunities. They also are giving up nearly 6 penalties a game (5.7), so the opportunities for Wisconsin to take advantage of Seawolves mistakes are there.
That’s good news for a Badgers team that scores on 22.5% of their power play opportunities on the year. It’s also good news for a Wisconsin offense that’s scoring at a 3.1 goals a game clip.
Looking to stop Wisconsin from finding the back of the net will be the duo of Rob Gunderson and Crhis Kamal. Gunderson has the better overall numbers this year leading in goals against average (3.48 to 3.55) and save percentage (.882 to .871), but both haven’t been that great and will likely split the game action this weekend.
On the opposite end of the ice we may be seeing a leader emerge between the pipes for Wisconsin. For most of the season it’s been weekend splits between freshmen Logan Peterson and Joel Rumpel. Well last weekend saw Rumpel take both games and he earned his first shutout of the weekend before losing 3-0 the next night.
Eaves gave a hint that he may be leaning towards sticking with Rumpel though on Monday. “Very good. He only let in two goals all wekeend… so his percentage of stopping the puck was up.” said Eaves. “… But overall, he did a fine job for us, gave us a chance both nights.”
Frankly that’s exactly what this team needs out of a goalie this season, a chance, a chance to get into a situation where they are playing at home for the first round of the playoffs. With Wisconsin only 3 points out of moving up to 8th place a weekend sweep would go a long, long way towards climbing that ladder.
Both Friday and Saturday’s games are at 7pm and Friday’s game can be seen statewide via the Wisconsin Channel (wpt.org/wisconsinchannel) LIVE. Saturday’s action can be seen on TVW (Charter Cable) and delayed on Wisconsin Channel (10pm)). Brian Posick and Mike Cerniglia have the radio call on WIBA-AM 1310 for both games.
Prediction: Wisconsin continues it’s domination of the Seawolves and gets the weekend sweep, winning 4-1 on Friday and 5-1 on Saturday.
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