After a humbling pair of home losses to North Dakota this past weekend, the Wisconsin men's hockey team is beginning to regroup and regain its focus as the Badgers get ready to host a weekend series against Minnesota-Duluth, the newly ranked No. 1 team in the country.
At his weekly press conference Monday, head coach Mike Eaves showed he is as ready as the team to put their youthful mistakes behind them. To move forward, he stressed the ability to be forthcoming about the growing pains the team is experiencing and learn from the adversity.
""This weekend was a real good dose of reality,"" Eaves said. ""We talked about everything after the game. We need to be honest and go back to assess what our strengths are.""
When asked if there were any positives to take away from the weekend, Eaves admitted there weren't many.
However, that is not to say there were no silver linings. Senior goaltender Scott Gudmandson played well over the weekend and received credit as being one of the team's bright spots, while the lines and players in front of him need to step up.
Senior forward Sean Dolan, has already equaled his goal total from last season and looks to help the rest of the underclassmen as the team still attempts to gel and find new role players.
Even though Minnesota-Duluth comes in as a formidable opponent, Eaves considers them to have a different style than that of the bruising, physical North Dakota. Instead, Minnesota-Duluth relies on presence and poise in the pockets. Ultimately, no matter who is on the schedule, the potential and talent is there for the Badgers to win games.
""I think it's an honest look in the mirror today, to be truthful,"" Eaves said. ""We've had glitches in our season before— one in Denver where we responded well, and another in Minnesota. But this sets us back on our heels.""
No one on the Badgers is panicking so early in the season, with this being their first back-to-back losses in 62 games.
""That's really difficult not to lose back-to-back games in college hockey, because most of the time we're playing that team back-to-back nights and it's hard to beat the same team twice when they're all fired up."" Eaves said. ""We take great stock in that. It is disappointing to lose that, but now we get to start a new streak.""
The team will also look to bank on the strong home crowd support, with Wisconsin hosting its first sellout of the season Saturday. The Badgers have become accustomed to that ""extra man"" on the ice and, with Minnesota-Duluth looming, the team hopes for a couple more sellouts.
Ultimately, Eaves will go into practice the rest of the week inspired to coach and endure.
""The great part about coaching is that you understand the realm is coming together, growing together, suffering together, and hopefully regrouping together and continually growing together so you can celebrate together,"" Eaves said. ""That's the process in which we work, and that is one of the things that makes coaching rewarding, going through these tough times.""
