ST. PAUL, Minn.—The UW men's hockey squad finished the 2006-'07 season with a winning record but no invitation to the NCAA Tournament. A 4-2 loss to the eventual Western Collegiate Hockey Association Broadmoor Trophy winner Minnesota Friday night in St. Paul, Minn., ended the Badgers' hopes of defending their sixth national championship.
Heading into the WCHA Final Five tournament, the Badgers all but needed the guaranteed invitation to the NCAA Tournament that comes with the Broadmoor Trophy to enter the national tournament. However, MacNaughton Cup champion Minnesota proved too strong in defeating Wisconsin before also prevailing over the Fighting Sioux of North Dakota Saturday evening to win both WCHA titles for this season.
Before the WCHA title game, the Badgers had one last chance to end the year on a high note against the St. Cloud State Huskies in the WCHA third-place game Saturday afternoon. Despite falling behind 3-1 early in the game, UW managed to force the game into overtime and won 4-3 on a goal by sophomore forward Ben Street with only nine seconds remaining in the sudden-death overtime.
The goal was the 10th allowed by St. Cloud's First Team All-WCHA senior goaltender Bobby Goepfert in just two WCHA Final Five games. Wisconsin senior goaltender Brian Elliott, who finished second to Goepfert in the conference honors for the second year in a row, allowed only four goals in three games of tournament play.
With his win Friday night, Minnesota senior goaltender Kellen Briggs tied the Minnesota and WCHA career wins record for a goaltender, improving his record to 83-35-8. By holding Wisconsin to only two goals, one of which was a fluke bounce off his own defenseman, Briggs effectively ended Wisconsin's season with help from a hat trick by sophomore forward Blake Wheeler.
Minnesota jumped to an early lead on Wisconsin by virtue of a quick goal by Wheeler 5:52 into the first period on the Gophers' first shot of the game. The sophomore was assisted on the goal by freshmen forwards Jay Barriball and Brian Schack. Minnesota dominated most of the first period, despite only scoring one goal on Elliott. Just as it appeared Wisconsin would head to the locker room down by one, the Badgers evened the score on a shot by junior defensemen Davis Drewiske that bounced off freshman Gopher defensemen Erik Johnson and past the unsuspecting Briggs.
Wisconsin looked ready to advance to the WCHA title match against North Dakota after it took a 2-1 lead on a shot by senior forward and assistant captain Jake Dowell. Dowell was assisted on the play by junior defenseman Joe Piskula and senior defenseman Matt Olinger. However, Minnesota battled back with an unassisted goal by senior defenseman and team captain Mike Vanelli to tie the game at two goals apiece.
With only four seconds left in the second period, Wheeler scored his second goal of the evening to give Minnesota a 3-2 lead going into the second intermission. Assists on the goal were given to junior defenseman and assistant captain Alex Goligoski and junior defenseman Derek Peltier.
""It's always tough to give up goals at the end of a period but it is what it is,"" senior forward Andrew Joudrey said. ""We still had 20 minutes to come back and try and get the job done.""
Wisconsin was unable to tie the game in the third period despite pulling Elliott for the extra attacker at 19:06 of the third. Wisconsin had several chances to score but were repulsed time and time again by Briggs. The crowd of the supposedly neutral-site game in St. Paul was clearly pleased by the outcome, as a deafening chant of ""Let's go Gophers"" accompanied the hat trick goal by Wheeler on an empty net with less than four seconds remaining in the game.
""Bounces just didn't go our way tonight,"" Elliott said.
Wisconsin regained a measure of self respect and a winning record by defeating NCAA-bound St. Cloud State in overtime of the third place game on Saturday. However, the goal was not enough to put the Badgers into the NCAA Tournament with the likes of the University of Alabama-Huntsville Chargers (13-19-3). Minnesota defeated North Dakota 3-2 in the WCHA championship game on Saturday evening on an overtime goal by Wheeler.
