On the heels of a series sweep of Minnesota State last week, Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves stressed the importance of maintaining momentum on the road this weekend against the Michigan Tech Huskies.
But, while the Huskies currently sit in last place in the WCHA standings, Eaves will be making sure his team does not take the matchup lightly.
Eaves harkened back to the 2002-'03 season saying he sympathized with Michigan Tech head coach Jamie Russell's struggles.
""We can look back to our first year here when we arrived, and it's not fun,"" Eaves said.
But while Coach Eaves recognizes his opponent's struggles this year, he is quick to point out the dangers of overlooking the Huskies.
""They're a wounded animal right now,"" he said. ""And they're going to give us everything they have and if we sit back we're going to have our hats handed to us.""
At 17-8-3, Eaves said he is pleased with the growth he has seen in the Badgers thus far and hopes to see it continue as the year goes on. Eaves sees room for growth in his team, and hopes that the best is yet to come.
""By the end of the year we really want be really playing our best hockey,"" he said.
In order to achieve that result Eaves saud competitive team practices are instrumental. What excites Eaves most about his teams recent play has been their ability to implement what they worked on in practice and see it translate into success on the scoreboard.
""We saw things in practice this weekend that we're really excited about because we worked on them in practice and they're executing it in games,"" he said. ""As a coach that really charges you up.""
After working on several different aspects leading up to last weekends games against Minnesota State, Eaves said he saw that hard work paying dividends for his team.
""The biggest thing was the ability to come out of our zone and have great support,"" Eaves said, ""you could really see the light go on.""
Still seeing areas to work on, Eaves is looking for another good week of practice from the Badgers.
""We'll take a look at the video and go back to the drawing board, put ourselves in those situations in practice and say we need to make these plays at the moment of truth,"" he said.
Despite the recently solid play from the Badgers skaters, however, Eaves gives a lot of credit to the stellar play he has gotten from senior goaltender Scott Gudmanson.
""Scotty is playing as good as he ever has here,"" Eaves said.
But Eaves says his play is really another tribute to the work the team has done in practice. With fellow goaltender Brett Bennett working hard to find ice time, the two goaltenders have been pushed by the internal competition they see in practice.
""One of the reason Scotty works so hard in practice is because Brett is pushing him,"" Eaves said.
This competition has made the Badgers goaltending corps stronger as a unit and Coach Eaves is pleased knowing that whatever goaltender he plays on a given night should have success.
""As Brett said this weekend ‘I'll be ready when you need me coach.' So hat's off to Brett for doing that.""
With another week of practice ahead of them, the Badgers will look to continue their competitive practice habits and hope they translate to continued success down the road.
""Where can we go? I'd like to say it's unlimited,"" he said, ""Why put a tap on it?""
