After a strong series on home ice against the then top-ranked Colorado College Tigers, the second ranked Wisconsin men's hockey team will try to ride its momentum this weekend while facing off against the Minnesota State Mavericks.
The Badgers are currently riding an eight-game unbeaten streak, helping the team race out to an early first-place lead in the always hotly contested Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Sophomore Joe Pavelski says the Badgers like where they stand heading into the series with MSU.
'No doubt its cool and exciting [to be where we are], but we are only ten games into the season and it's still early yet,' Pavelski said.
Minnesota State will bring a different brand of hockey to the Kohl Center this weekend than Wisconsin tyically sees. The Mavericks play a very high energy and up tempo brand of hockey, and they are used to playing in offensive shootouts. This style of play has led to Minnesota State allowing a lot of goals over the past few years, but usually the Mavericks compensate that fact with plenty of goals of their own.
Leading that offensive charge this year is star junior forward David Backes. Backes is one of the premier power forward in the WCHA, standing 6'3,' 210 pounds, and has knack for piling up points. The seventy-seven points he has scored in 77 games played during his first two years attest to that fact, and the Badgers know they will have to watch out for him this weekend.
'[Backes] is one of the best in the league as a power forward, and he has the ability to go to the net and bury the puck,' senior defenseman Tom Gilbert said. 'We have to be cautious when he's on the ice, and always be in his face.'
Wisconsin Head Coach Mike Eaves thinks Backes has all of the tools to make it in the NHL.
'[Backes] is big, he's strong, he can skate, he has a big time release on his shot, and he creates room because of his size ?? he has an excellent chance to play at the next level, because these are all of things you need at the next level,' Eaves said.
Goaltending in recent times has been a struggle for the defensively deficient Mavericks. This season MSU head coach Troy Jutting has had an open competition to try to find a reliable starter. He seems to have found a hot hand in freshman goaltender Dan Tormey. Tormey has solid numbers in his six starts this season, a 2.92 goals against average and .894 save percentage, and he recorded his first ever-collegiate shutout Saturday night against Denver.
Minnesota State opened this season with a brutal schedule facing nationally-ranked teams in all but of two of their games played so far. This has resulted in just two wins thus far, but clearly MSU is a dangerous hockey team. Just ask the two-time defending National Champion Denver Pioneers. Last weekend Minnesota State took three of four points from the then 7th ranked Pioneers, including a 4-0 blitzing Saturday night. If the Badgers let down, the same could happen this weekend and Wisconsin is fully aware of this fact.
'These are the games that you can't just count on, because any team in the WCHA, when they come to play, can beat you.' Gilbert said. 'We have to be ready and prepared to play against them, in order to play as well as we did against CC.'
