Playoff hockey can be a strange animal and one of the most intriguing postseasons of all sports out there. The series finale served as a microcosm of the series as a whole with the Badgers coming
up just short in a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Denver in Overtime. With the loss the Badgers season is officially over and the young team will look back at Sunday nights game with a feeling of what might have been.
Wisconsin came into the playoffs playing it’s best hockey and despite a No. 10 seed taking on 3rd seeded Denver there was some hope that the much improved Badgers could pull the upset to get to the WCHA Final Five in St. Paul this weekend, but it wasn’t to be.
“If you look at where we came from from the beginning of the year, we’ve come miles,” defenseman Justin Schultz said after likely playing his final game in a Badgers uniform. “If we did have a couple more games, we’d be a dominating force.”
The Badgers started off this series well, winning the opener 1-0 on a late 3rd period goal by Sean Little. It was a game that showed just how different the postseason is as both teams played at a high level and the tension was amazing before Little stunned the Magness Arena crowd.
Saturday meant the pressure was squarely on the Pioneers who needed to win to stay alive. Just like the night before the two teams played scoreless hockey through 2 periods. However, it was Denver that got the best of the 3rd period as they opened up the scoring just 4:04 in thank to Nate Drewhurst.
Wisconsin managed to answer back and tie the game at 1-1 on a Justin Schultz goal, ensuring he’d lead the team in goals on the season. With just under 7 minutes gone in the period the Badgers were searching for a 2nd goal to sweep away Denver, but the Pioneers had other ideas and took a 2-1 lead with just over 12 minutes gone in the period on a goal by Luke Salazar.
The Pioneers salted away the game with an empty netter credited to Nick Shore as Denver won 3-1.
Interestingly Badgers netminder Joel Rumpel had probably his best set of games this season as he held Denver scoreless for 5 straight periods before allowing the 2 goals in the final frame on Saturday.
The Denver win set up a winner take all contest on Sunday and marked the only 1st round series in the WCHA to go the distance.
Wisconsin and Denver skated to a scoreless first period that wasn’t devoid of action in the least. Both teams had late 1st period power play chances that netted neither the games opening goal.
In fact the Badgers suffered what could’ve been a fatal blow when Brendan Woods took a game misconduct penalty for boarding and was kicked out of the game just 2:06 in the the 2nd period. With Denver on a long power play the Badgers found themselves on the advantage and they didn’t waste the opportunity.
Mark Zengerle found the puck on his stick near the blue line and slotted a sharp angled wrister past Sam Brittain for the games opening goal, putting Wisconsin ahead 1-0.
With all the marbles on the line you knew it wasn’t going to be easy and Denver wasn’t about to let Wisconsin walk away Scott free as just under 5 minutes later Ty Loney scored to even things up at 1-1.
Showing just how much this game meant to them the Badgers answered back just a minute later thanks to Tyler Barnes’ 11th goal of the season and putting Denver back on their heels one more time.
Unfortunately the Pioneers had at least one more goal in them as they tied it back up on an early 3rd period power play goal from Nick Shore. Wisconsin and Denver threw everything they had at each other with numerous chances for each team over the final 18:59 of the game but no one found the back of the net and that meant overtime was coming our way.
After the events of the 3rd period fans settled in for what looked like a long slog ahead between these two evenly matched teams. However Luke Salazar had other ideas as he knocked home a wrap around goal just 1:40 into Overtime and sealed the Pioneers trip to St. Paul for the WCHA Final Five.
Wisconsin ended it’s season with a 17-18-2 overall record and was just 11-15-2 in WCHA play. There won’t be an NCAA tournament birth coming the Badgers way, so up next will be the final season in the WCHA for the Badgers, one they hope and all signs point to being much better than this one.
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