The Wisconsin men's hockey team heads to Alaska-Anchorage this weekend hoping to guide itself back to a winning path.
The Badgers (3-3-2 overall, 2-1-1 WCHA) are coming off a sweep at the hands of Boston College, and are looking to this weekend to settle in to the season and get back to their winning ways.
""We need to get out of town,"" head coach Mike Eaves said at his Monday news conference. ""I think it's a great opportunity for us to come closer as a team.""
The defending national champs and preseason No. 1 team in the nation—an honor they shared with Boston College—were too tense before last weekend's big series, according to Eaves.
""They wanted to play so well they were outside their ideal performance state and were too tight,"" Eaves said. ""I think we have a better pulse on this team after this past weekend.""
If the team came into a big series too tight, the worry this weekend could perhaps be coming in too loose.
The Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves (2-2-2, 0-2-0 WCHA) are fresh off being swept themselves, only their sweep came at the hands of Michigan Tech by way of a 9-0 stomping on Friday and a 5-3 defeat on Saturday.
In the last 10 meetings between the two teams in Anchorage, the Badgers are 4-1-5, the four wins coming in the last four meetings, the last of which took place in 2004.
Wisconsin won both of last season's games between the two teams by a combined score of 11-2, but lost one game to the Seawolves in 2005 in the WCHA playoffs. Alaska-Anchorage also eliminated the Badgers from the 2004 WCHA playoffs with a 3-2 series win.
Part of the struggles the Badgers have experienced in the first month of the season have been due to a larger than usual role taken on by the freshman class.
""We're a younger group, and so we have to educate these young men to bring them up to speed with the older guys and the upperclassmen as quickly as we can,"" Eaves said. ""I think that we have to work along with our captains and everybody else to bring them up to speed as quickly as we can.""
Experienced or not, the Badgers still have plenty of talent remaining from the 2006 national championship squad, and will look toward this weekend as a chance to get back into the ""W"" column.
""I'm actually looking forward to it,"" Eaves said. ""It's early in the season ... we get to be on the road and get to know each other.""
