ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Wisconsin men's hockey team faced two very different goaltenders at the WCHA Final Five.
One was the conference's Player of the Year and is a finalist for the Hobey Baker, college hockey's highest individual honor, who came into the game boasting a 2.00 goals against average and a .935 save percentage, both of which were highest in the WCHA. The other was a freshman playing in his first playoff game and gave up seven goals the last time he faced the Badgers.
As you might expect, then, one shut out Wisconsin's powerhouse offense, stopping 37 shots to help his team secure a close win, while the other gave up three goals on 11 shots and was pulled just over halfway through the first period. As you might not expect, however, the goalie who came into the Final Five with so much hype was not the one who rose to the occasion.
Denver junior Marc Cheverie is arguably the best goaltender in the nation, but against North Dakota in the tournament semifinal Friday he was pedestrian and when the Pioneers faced Wisconsin in the third place game Saturday, he was even worse.
The other goaltender the Badgers faced was the opposite of Cheverie. St. Cloud State freshman Mike Lee had an up-and-down regular season, at times outshining his competition from junior Dan Dunn, but at others falling behind him. Although he appeared hesitant and perhaps nervous in his first playoff start Friday, Lee caught on quickly and held the Badgers at bay as the Huskies claimed a 2-0 win.
Wisconsin players and head coach Mike Eaves praised Lee's effort after the disappointing loss.
""In the second half of the game we put a lot of pressure on him, and he had a lot of great saves,"" senior forward Ben Grotting said.
""We fired 21 shots in the third [period] and couldn't solve the riddle of getting it by Mr. Lee,"" Eaves added.
St. Cloud State head coach Bob Motzko said that, though Lee has struggled at times this year, he has demonstrated the potential to put in the kinds of performances the Badgers saw Friday.
""He has shown this before throughout the season,"" Motzko said. ""And I anticipate in the future we're going to see it a lot more out of him.""
After a frustrating night in which Wisconsin put plenty of shots on net but could not find the back of it, the Badgers' task only seemed to get harder when they learned Denver and Cheverie would be their opponent the next day. When the Pioneers lost to North Dakota the night before, it was just their second defeat in their last 15 games, and Denver had not lost consecutive games all season.
Cheverie was not his usual, dominant self, however, something that became clear minutes into the first period against Wisconsin. After senior forward Ben Street put the Badgers on the board by hammering home a rebound from fellow senior forward Aaron Bendickson's shot, sophomore forward Derek Stepan launched a sniper shot from the faceoff circle to beat Cheverie in the top corner, the kind of goal that rarely—if ever—gets past him.
It was not even five minutes into the first and Wisconsin had accomplished twice what it failed to do once against Lee.
When senior forward Blake Geoffrion redirected a shot past Cheverie for a power play goal a few minutes later, Pioneer coach George Gwozdecky decided he had seen enough and pulled Cheverie. Freshman Adam Murray was solid as Cheverie's replacement, but still allowed three goals as the Badgers kept Denver from getting too close.
Cheverie said after the game that he and the Pioneers just did not come to play.
""I don't think our preparation was there,"" he said. ""They showed up and we didn't.""
