Badgers Bounce Denver

Wisconsin gets its first road win of the season in dominating fashion, beating No.2/3 Denver 7-2.

DENVER—After one of the No. 17 University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team’s most bizarre losses in recent memory, everything seemed to go the Badgers’ way in a 6-2 victory over No. 2 Denver.

In fact, the Pioneers may have gotten a direct taste of their own medicine; an “eye for an eye”, one could argue.

One night after the Badgers should have sent the game to overtime if not for an erroneous ruling from referee Randy Schmidt, the Badgers’ second goal of the game could be considered a “make-up call”.

After Wisconsin (9-10-3, 5-8-1 WCHA) and Denver (17-5-0, 12-4-0) traded early goals, UW freshman forward Podge Turnbull took a shot from the right side, and the puck went through DU goaltender Peter Mannino’s legs and hit the left post.

Mannino sprawled out, trying to cover up, but the puck clearly lay next to his side. Turnbull walked in and poked it in at the 13:44 mark of the first period, but Schmidt seemed to have blown the play dead.

After a lengthy review – which took much longer than Friday’s review of Matthew Ford’s shot, the goal in question – the referees upheld the goal, which sent the Magness crowd into a chorus of boos.

The Badgers, clearly motivated from Friday’s stunning defeat, rolled from there. DU rookie defenseman Chris Nutini turned the puck over in his own zone, and a couple of Badger freshmen made him pay. Kyle Turris took a pass from Patrick Johnson and easily scored his eighth goal of the season with 4:46 left in the first. Senior center Ben Street nearly made it 4-1 after 20 minutes, hitting the crossbar 30 seconds before the break. But Street broke through 14:17 into the second stanza, walking through a lazy Denver defense and pumping home his ninth goal of the year.

UW wasn’t done, and once again was the benefactor of a formidable bounce. Sophomore winger Michael Davies couldn’t cleanly receive a crossing pass from senior defenseman Kyle Klubertanz, but sent puck back from behind the net. The puck bounced off Mannino’s shoulder and into the net for Davies’ fifth tally of the year. This ended Mannino’s night, with 17 saves on 22 shots.

Kyle Ostrow tipped in a power play goal for Denver – which was also reviewed for a possible high stick – but it was too little, too late for the Pioneers. UW freshman defenseman Ryan McDonagh added his fourth goal of the season with seven minutes left off a pretty pass from freshman forward Sean Dolan.

Turris capped the scoring, when a bad Denver pass allowed him to get a breakaway goal. A series marked with controversy boiled over for both teams with 34.5 seconds remaining in the second period. A heated scuffle ensued, with a couple of individual near-fights.

All five players on the ice for both teams were sent off – and since the battle came at the end of a delayed penalty, one DU player from the bench had to serve time as well – meaning a couple of cozy penalty boxes (six Pioneers and five Badgers).