It hasn’t been too often in his career that the spotlight has shone on him, but for one final night that spotlight was his and his alone as Eric Springer, the lone Senior on Wisconsin’s roster, took to the Kohl Center Ice for the final time in front of a sold out crowd. Thanks to his play and that of a determined Badgers team they sent him out in style as Wisconsin (13-15-2, 8-14-2 WCHA) took down the 10th ranked Denver Pioneers (18-10-4, 13-7-4 WCHA) 5-2 to close out their home schedule.
“We scored five goals, ad this had been a long time coming,” said Badgers Head Coach Mike Eaves about the victory. “It was fun to be in on the bench with these kids and see them get rewarded.”
Springer can thank the reemergence of Justin Schultz and Mark Zengerle who coming into tonight were on an awful scoreless streak but both found the back of the net and assisted on goals in the victory.
Going into tonight’s game the Badgers had what seemed like the weight of the world on their shoulders, holding on to a five game losing streak and having not scored since the 2nd period of the series finale against St. Cloud State just over two weeks ago.
It showed in a first period that once again saw the Badgers offense fail to find the back of the net as both teams repeated their first period performances from the night before, sending them back to the locker rooms scoreless.
Just like the night before the Badgers conceded the first goal of the game to the Pioneers as Jason Zucker opened up the scoring just 1:34 into the 2nd period, netting his 17th of the season. Assisting on his goal were Paul Phillips and Nate Shore.
It was a case of “here we go again” as a shot from the side of the faceoff in front of Badgers netminder Landon Peterson deflected off of Badgers defenseman Jake McCabe and right to Zucker for a goal that Peterson had no chance of stopping.
With that fluke goal it appeared Wisconsin was heading towards another loss as the Badgers had won just 4 games all season when conceding the first goal to their opponents, but Justin Schultz and Mark Zengerle had other plans in store for Denver tonight.
Just about 4 minutes later Wisconsin found itself on the right end of some great offensive play as Mark Zengerle gave a nice pass to Matt Paape who in turn found a forgotten about Zengerle on the doorstep of the Denver goal for the Badgers 1st goal of the game, tying it up 1-1. Not only was it the first goal of the game it was also the Badgers first goal in just over 122 minutes. Yes, that’s just over 2 full games since Frankie Simonelli had the last Badgers goal.
After that you could see the weight of the world totally come off the Badgers and the floodgates opened. Wisconsin would take it’s first lead on Brendan Woods’ 5th goal of the season just over four minutes later as the Badgers went up 2-1. Assisting on the goal was Mark Zengerle and Joe Faust.
Wisconsin went into the 2nd intermission holding onto the 2-1 lead and came out determined not to let it slip away as just 1:11 into the final period Keegan Meuer found a rebound off of a Tyler Barnes blast and netted the eventual game winner. That goal was his 7th of the season, however it just didn’t seem like that lead was safe with a potent Denver offense and that would be the case.
All it took was 21 seconds and Denver made it a 1 goal game again on another lucky goal as Landon Peterson pushed a shot onto the post only to see the puck slide to a stop on the goal line and get knocked over by him in an attempt to find it. Credit for the goal was given to Drew Shore, his 18th of the season and it was game on once again.
But the Badgers weren’t about to fold either as just over 10 minutes later Wisconsin pushed their lead back to 2 goals thanks to an absolute rocket blast by Justin Schultz which would see a redirection from Michael Mersch at the front of the net for his 11th goal of the season as Bucky went up 4-2 with just over 8 minutes remaining in the game.
Things weren’t all roses for the Badgers tonight though as they struggled mightily on the power play against the Pioneers, going 0-3 to start the game. However, on a night where weights were lifted off of shoulders, the Badgers got this taken care of as well, scoring an insurance goal on the final power play of the night as Justin Schultz took what’s become an all to familiar wrist shot from the point and buried it top shelf on Matt Brittain. Schultz’s goal came with under 5 minutes to play, was his 13th this season and 37th of his career. That places him 3rd all-time amongst Badger defenseman.
Despite giving up 5 goals in the game tonight without the play of Matt Brittain early on this one could’ve been much worse. As it was he stopped 30 of 35 shots on the night.
His counterpart Landon Peterson was solid in net for the Badgers, saving 22 of 24 Denver shots.
Even more impressive than the 5 goals and the play of Peterson was the fact that Wisconsin held Denver scoreless on their power play. It was about as complete a game you could ask for.
“Yeah, I think so,” said junior defensman Justin Schultz when asked about this being a complete game. “We were scoring goals tonight, which I think hasn’t happened. We had a lot of shots on goal, a lot of chances and played well defensively. So I’d say yes, that was one of the best games we’ve played this year.”
The victory was much needed as they head into the final stretch of the regular season. “No matter where we end up in the standings, this is the type of game we are going to need when we go into the playoffs,” said Eaves. This is a playoff-ready type of game. And that’s the mentality we need to have as we go down these next four games.”
Not only was this Eric Springers final home game, but many believe it was also Schultz’s final home game, something he wouldn’t confirm or deny after the game. “I was just kind of taking it in,” said Schultz about the post game atmosphere. “Who knows if this is going to be my last time playing here. I’m not saying it is, but I was just kind of taking it in just in case I never get to play here again.”
If that is the case for Springer and Schultz than they both went out in style at home.
Up next for the Badgers is a trip to Bemidji State next weekend.
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