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What: No. 6 Wisconsin (14-6-6 overall, 8-3-5 WCHA)
at No. 14 Colorado College (11-8-3, 4-8-2)
When: Friday Jan. 23 at 8:35 p.m. CST and Saturday
Jan. 24 at 8:05 p.m. CST
Site: Colorado Springs World Arena, Colorado
Springs, Colo.
Broadcasts: Tape-delayed on Wisconsin Public
Television at 10:35 p.m. (Friday only), WIBA-AM (1310) live radio coverage (both
nights)
Series Notes: Wisconsin leads 99-48-7, 43-22-3 at
Colorado College, 0-0-2 this season
For the Wisconsin Badgers, this weekend’s series at
Colorado College is the first step in the most crucial part of the season. Over
the next seven weeks they will take on five nationally ranked conference
opponents in the race for the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s
MacNaughton Cup and a possible NCAA tournament bid.
Three points separate North Dakota, Minnesota-Duluth, St.
Cloud State, and Wisconsin in the WCHA standings. Minnesota, Denver, and
Colorado College join those teams in the top 15 spots of the latest national
rankings, and Alaska-Anchorage is also receiving votes. And all eight of those
teams are listed in the top 17 in the latest PairWise rankings.
With eight of the WCHA’s ten teams still in contention for
tournament bids, conference fans are going to be seeing some great hockey over
the next seven weeks, Wisconsin fans included. The Badgers head to Colorado
Springs in what may be the least of their troubles over the next six weeks. From
there they head to No. 5 Minnesota before home series with No. 1 North Dakota
and No. 7 St. Cloud State. Then, if that were not enough, they go on the road to
Alaska-Anchorage and then come back home for two games with No. 9
Minnesota-Duluth.
Essentially, the MacNaughton Cup is up for grabs. North
Dakota is the favorite at this point, and five teams are still in the race,
although Minnesota will need at least one victory against North Dakota this
weekend to stay in the hunt. The Badgers are right in the thick of things, only
three points back, but will need to start scoring some goals and turn things
around down the home stretch.
“We just have to get back to the basics,” freshman
defenseman Ryan Suter said. “We have to get back to working hard and we have to
get that winner’s attitude back.”
Wisconsin is 2-2-2 since its school-record breaking 16-game
unbeaten streak was snapped by Ferris State. It is not that the team is not
playing hard. Rather, they are just not getting the bounces that they had been
getting earlier this season. If that is the case, this weekend could be a
low-scoring, first team to two goals wins series because the Tigers have been in
an even worse scoring slump.
“You have to find that blend of recognizing what you are
going through and the best way to handle it,” Eaves said. “I thought we played
pretty hard (last weekend). We just have to score a couple more goals.”
Colorado College has scored two goals or more in just two
of its last eight games, leaving them with an astonishing 1-7-0 conference
record since the last time these two teams met.
One major factor in the latest scoring drought for
Wisconsin has been the scoring absence of sophomore Ryan MacMurchy. The team’s
leader in goal-scoring, the forward has been shut out in his last seven games.
Fellow sophomore Nick Licari is scoreless in his last 11, and Andrew Joudrey,
once a linemate with MacMurchy on what was considered the Badgers scoring line,
has also gone seven games without a goal.
“(MacMurchy) wants to score. When he doesn’t do that he
feels that he’s letting himself down and letting his teammates down and it hurts
him,” Eaves said.
Wisconsin could get by without scoring many goals this
weekend, but they do not want to take that chance. They will need to get things
rolling again if they want to compete with the teams in their upcoming schedule.
Things may seem a little bit shaky right now, but when
asked whether he thought that this team was capable of challenging for the WCHA
title and possibly even a national championship, Suter responded, “We have a
great team here with a lot of guys who have won things before. And if we get
everyone together we are going to do pretty good.”