After getting a tough lesson in Grand Forks last weekend the young Badgers Hockey team returns home hoping to regain some momentum for the final stretch as they take on St. Cloud State this weekend at the Kohl Center.
It’s a vital series for both squads as St. Cloud State (10-14-4, 7-10-3, 17 points) sits just one point in front of the Badgers (12-12-2, 7-11-2, 16 points) in the WCHA standings and are also coming off of being swept last weekend, albeit by league leaders Minnesota.
These teams are pretty familiar with each other and have already met once this season resulting in a loss (7-2) and a tie up in St. Cloud for Wisconsin. Overall Wisconsin leads the series between these two teams 43-30-9 and are 26-11-4 in games played in Madison.
Wisconsin needs to prove it can overcome adversity after last weekend coming from behind to tie the games 4 times over the series and being unable to fully come back and have only won one game all year in which they were the first team to give up a goal.
The biggest positive coming out of last weekend for Wisconsin was the increased production from guys other than Justin Schultz and Mark Zengerle. Don’t get me wrong, they both had a hand in the comebacks, but it was the play of guys like Keegan Meuer and Michael Mersch that really propelled the Badgers.
Meuer had goals in both games and is now 5th on the team in goals, while Mersch tailed twice in the Friday game and now sits tied for 2nd with 10 goals on the year. He’s just 2 goals behind team leader Justin Schultz who has the chance to become the first ever Badgers defenseman to lead the team in scoring for a season.
We weren’t the only ones to notice the increased importance of guys like Meuer and Mersch. “So he is teaching in his own way,” Coach Eaves said of Meuer. “He’s leading in his own way, and it’s something that we, as a coaching staff recognize. I mean, he basically played himself up into the top three centers this past weekend, one of our most effective players, because he played with a big heart in his chest.”
The player that is key for the Badgers defense to stop is junior forward and Pittsburgh Penguin draftee, Ben Hanowski. He had three goals over the 2 game series in early November between these two teams and is tied for 6th in goals in the WCHA at 15 on the year. He also leads the team with 30 points on the year. On the other hand St. Cloud State is coming off of a pair of one goal losses to Minnesota in a rare home and home series between the two in state foes last weekend. They’ve also dropped 6 of their past 7 games and have only won two games the 2nd half of the season so far.
Jared Festler and Andrew Prochno are other Huskies that the Badgers defense must stop. Festler is the only other Huskies player with double digit goals, scoring 11 so far this season and has 22 points overall. Prochnow has 21 points, 17 of which have come from assists.
As a team the Huskies score just 2.9 goals a game and give up just about the same at 2.93 goals a game.
The Badgers will be facing a goaltender in Ryan Faragher who has started 22 of 28 games this season. He’s got a 2.76 goals against average which is good for 10th in the WCHA. However his save percentage of .915 is very good, ranking him 7th in the conference. He should see the net as a starter in both of these games.
Wisconsin will be countering with Joel Rumpel who’s gotten better as the season goes along and finds himself having one heck of a 2nd half of the season. Overall he sports a 9-7-2 record in his freshman season. But in the 2nd half he’s increased his numbers big time. His goals against average in the 2nd half is 2.00 compared to an overall average of 2.63 and was much better than that difference before the goal-fest that was last weekend. For the year his save percentage is .915 and has steadily increased this 2nd half thanks to 2 shutouts.
The most interesting thing to watch in this series may be the penalty situation between these two teams. Wisconsin and St. Cloud State are the 12th and 11th penalty kill units in the WCHA but the biggest difference is that St. Cloud State doesn’t give up many penalties, only averaging 11.8 penalty minutes a game.
If Wisconsin can get the edge in penalties they should be able to use a power play unit that scores on 21.1% of it’s chances to it’s advantage and could be key to winning the series this weekend.
Friday’s game takes place at 7pmCT on BTN and Saturday the puck drops at 8pm and will air on WISC-TV (Charter Extra 87 around Wisconsin) wit a replay of the game on Wisconsin Channel (wpt.org online).
Prediction: St. Cloud State has really crashed to earth in the 2nd half of this season and while the Badgers lost both games last weekend they felt good about the effort. I see Wisconsin taking both games this weekend to prove they aren’t done in this race yet. Friday will be 3-2 Wisconsin and Saturday will be 4-1 Wisconsin.
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