DETROIT—During Wisconsin's NCAA Tournament run, senior forward Blake Geoffrion several times responded to positive moments for his team by looking forward and saying, ""job's not done yet.""
And Saturday night they left that job of winning a seventh national title in school history unfinished.
The No. 2 Badgers suffered a 5-0 loss at the hands of No. 3 Boston College at Ford Field, ending the season a win short of their ultimate goal. The Eagles hamstrung the UW attack, and their junior goaltender John Muse made sure any good Wisconsin chances went for naught.
""I just didn't think we had our best effort in terms of being sharp,"" Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said. ""It just didn't seem to be our day, but that doesn't take away from what Boston College did.""
The opening was reminiscent of the 2006 title game matchup between the two teams, as BC took a first-period 1-0 lead. Senior center Ben Smith received a pass in the slot on the power play, faced Wisconsin netminder Scott Gudmandson and snapped a wrist shot through the five hole.
Wisconsin won that previous title game, scoring one in the third and one in the fourth to take a 2-1 lead. But this time, the Badgers got grade-A scoring chances, Muse was there to shut the door.
In the first he stonewalled senior forward Michael Davies early, and in the second, when the Badgers got nine shots, he turned away a wrap-around from junior forward Podge Turnbull, and his defense saved him, denying Davies when Muse left him a near-open net.
Davies missed one more golden opportunity when he had a clean breakaway but lost control of the puck as he closed on the goal.
""You know, we've been down 1-0 a lot this year. It's not anything different,"" senior forward and captain Ben Street said. ""We kept the same mentality. I thought the last half of the first period and on into the second period we had pretty good momentum going. We just never found the back of the net.""
To make matters worse, the Badgers struggled at both blue lines, struggling to hold the offensive zone or clear the puck defensively to relieve the pressure on their goaltender. In the third that finally cost the Badgers when sophomore forward Cam Atkinson chased down a chipped-out puck and threw a backhand shot through Gudmandson's leg pads.
The Eagles scored twice more in the next six minutes to fully dash the Badgers' title hopes.
Wisconsin generated only 20 shots on goal, down from their season average of 38, making Muse's job in net easier. After Saturday he was 8-0 in NCAA Tournament games.
""I think that we needed to get more rubber at him. It would have made his job more difficult,"" Eaves said. ""I thought the BC forwards and defensemen got in shooting lanes and blocked shots. To me that was one of the keys to the game.""
The game signaled a bitter end to what was a remarkable season. The Badgers won 28 games, played in front of over 55,000 people in Camp Randall and advanced to the season's final game. On an individual level, Geoffrion became the first Wisconsin player to earn the Hobey Baker trophy, college hockey's player of the year award.
""It's pretty disappointing the way the game turned out,"" Street said. ""But I'm sure when we have time to look back and reflect on it, we did some special things.""
""We had a great journey, great run with these guys. Developed great relationships with everyone that's on the team, and obviously right now we're pretty disappointed in our play today, and they're a better team on the ice,"" Geoffrion said. ""We'll go back and reflect on the past couple of days here and look back on it, and we should be proud of ourselves.""
In the end, that's something to take away from a job almost finished.
