If there was any doubt whether the Wisconsin men's hockey team was worthy of an NCAA Tournament bid this season - and there was plenty - the Badgers laid all of it to rest this weekend at the Kohl Center.
In handily defeating Denver, the hottest team coming into the Midwest bracket, and taking North Dakota down to the wire, the Badgers proved the past week's naysayers all wrong.
We've heard it all week,"" sophomore Jamie McBain said after UW eliminated the Pioneers Saturday, addressing critics who were dubious of Wisconsin's credentials. ""We've heard it from the press and around the rink. It's something we try to tune out but also something we try to grab and try to take it and motivate us.""
For these two games, as has not always been the case this season, the Badgers showed no lack of determination. They ramped up the intensity to a degree rarely seen.
""They've been off for two weeks, and they obviously did a tremendous job of preparing and being ready to play for this regional tournament,"" North Dakota head coach Dave Hakstol said.
""I sensed a team who had a second chance at life,"" Denver head coach George Gwozdecky said after his No. 4 Pioneers' season ended.
""It's not fun to sit after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs and wonder if you get an extra chance to play another game. When you're given a second chance like that, you really certainly want to make the most of it.""
And the Badgers did.
The youngest team in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association took a 2-0 lead against Denver on Friday and weathered uncertainty into the third period. The Badgers' knockout blow came in the form of four goals in the third.
""We came out the way we wanted to,"" sophomore forward Michael Davies said. ""We wanted to dictate and move our feet, and we were just out there to prove a lot of people wrong right now. This is another opportunity and we're going to take advantage of this one.""
UW came agonizingly close to taking full advantage. But, in one sense, the Badgers' two-game appearance in the tournament was emblematic of their most bothersome flaw this season - an inability to finish the job. The season-ending loss to the No. 3 Sioux marked the seventh time this season the Badgers won on the first of successive nights and then failed to do so on the second.
This one, for obvious reasons, hurt the Badgers the most.
""When you lose, and you're so close, it stings, and it stings deeply,"" head coach Mike Eaves said.
