We all know that you can throw the standings out in rivalry games but the Wisconsin men’s hockey team also has a chance to play spolier as they close out the regular season with a weekend series at the Gophers. #4 Minnesota (23-11-1, 19-7-0 38pts WCHA) comes in to the weekend needing a victory over Wisconsin to clinch at least a share of the WCHA title, but Wisconsin (15-15-2, 10-14-2 22pts WCHA) isn’t going to make it easy for the hated Gophers.
While the Badgers and Gophers positions in the standings may tell you they don’t have much in common this season, they both come in to the series riding winning streaks with Wisconsin sweeping Bemidji State on the road last weekend and has a three game winning streak going. Minnesota comes in with back to back sweeps of Nebraska-Omaha and Minnesota-Duluth.
Wisconsin is more than capable of pulling off the upset in this series as the two teams split their meetings in Madison on Nov. 11-12 with Wisconsin winning 3-1 and Minnesota taking the series finale 4-1. The problem is historically the Badgers aren’t all that good at Minnesota, holding a dismal 27-87-7 record there, but on the bright side have also been 4-1-1 in the last 6 meetings at Mariucci Arena.
One of the biggest stories coming in to this weekend is the health of Minnesota’s best offensive player, forward Nick Bjustad, who earlier this week was known to be day-to-day. Bjustad is third in the nation in goals (23) and his big size draws a ton of attention from defenders helping to allow his teammates to shine as well. Should he not be able to go in either of these games it’s a huge blow to the Gophers.
Minnesota isn’t just a one man team though as defenseman Nate Schmidt ranks 3rd nationally in points from the blue-line. The sophomore has 30 assists already and has really helped make the already potent Gophers offense just that much more dangerous. That dangerous Minnesota offense is 2nd in the WCHA averaging 3.63 goals a game and features five different players with 30 points or more.
Up front the trio of Bjustad, Erick Haulua, and Kyle Rau has been really deadly for the Gophers. Haulua has 14 goals and 23 assists (37 points) and Rau, the most experienced of the group, has 16 goals and 18 assists (34 points).
But don’t sleep on the defense of the Gophers either, as they lead the WCHA in goals against average, giving up just 2.1 goals a game. It also helps that they are 2nd on the penalty kill at 83.8% and have one of the best goalies in the conference and country in Kent Patterson. The Senior netminder has been in goal for each game this season and has the WCHA’s best goals against average at 2.09 goals a game. He’s also 4th in the conference with a .917 save percentage.
The good part of that for the Badgers is that Patterson isn’t without his flaws, as he is capable of giving up some very soft goals and if the Badgers continue to pelt the net like they have over the past few weekends it could lead to a goal or two that you don’t expect.
Another plus for Wisconsin is that they should get freshman goalie Joel Rumpel back for a full series this weekend after missing some action thanks to a nasty cut after colliding with his own defender two weekends ago against Denver. We won’t know who’s going to be in net this weekend until the lineups are announced because according to Head Coach Mike Eaves it depends on how they practice during the week, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them split the series to gain the experience of playing in this rivalry at Mariucci Arena.
Wisconsin also has it’s own injury issue as forward Derek Lee won’t be going for the Badgers once again as he’s still suffering the affects of a concussion. Luckily the Badgers have seen the likes of Frankie Simonelli and the Little brothers really step up as of late.
Along with those three it’s also been the play of sophomore forward Keegan Meuer that has helped this ressurgance in play. Meuer seems to have been involved in nearly every scoring opportunity whether it’s via a pass, a goal, or digging in in front of the net and that’s been great to see, especially heading into the playoffs where hot teams like Wisconsin can make some noise.
While the fans may see this weekend as a chance to stop the rival Gophers from lifiting the McNaughton Cup, it’s not the focus of the team according to Head Coach Mike Eaves. “For us, the immediate picture, the big picture, we’re concerned about continuing to play as long as we can and banging that drum and playing well,” said Eaves. “If we do that, then the other thing can’t happen. So that’s what we’ll focus on.”
Wisconsin has really started to find it’s identity as a team over the past two series’ and I think that carries into this weekend and with that I’m calling for a split weekend with the Badgers winning the opener tonight, putting major pressure on the Gophers in the 2nd game.
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