With a bye week on the calendar, the No. 7 Wisconsin men's hockey team used the down time in practice last week to participate in a team-wide skills competition.
Drawing inspiration from the NHL's All-Star weekend, the Badgers participated in four different competitions: most accurate shot, fastest skater, hardest shot and a breakaway trick shot contest.
""I've never done anything like that before,"" sophomore defenseman Justin Schultz said. ""It was pretty cool. We had all of the equipment out there that was pretty accurate. It was nice to go out there and have a little bit of fun.""
Schultz took home the fastest skater competition, an event he said he didn't expect to win.
""We have a lot of fast skaters on the team,"" he said. ""I thought [Jake] Gardiner would win that one or [Craig Smith] he's pretty quick too. It's nice to win though.""
Junior forward Jordy Murray won the shot accuracy contest and freshman defenseman Frankie Simonelli won the hardest shot with a slapper that hit 94 mph on the radar gun.
""Guys were clocking in around 85 and I got up there, swung the bat and hit 95 which is good to see,"" Simonelli said.
""Zdeno Chara hit 105 last week so I was expecting to get up in the 100s, but 95 will have to do,"" he said with a grin.
The breakaway challenge saw the Badgers unleash their best dangles to try and beat the team's goaltenders.
After an impressive display from all, it was senior forward and captain Sean Dolan who was judged the winner with a pair of creative self-inspired shots.
""I needed to do something crazy,"" Dolan said. ""So I came down and dumped the puck in the corner, but had another puck in my glove and with the goalie watching the first puck, I put the new one down and was able to score.""
For his final shot, Dolan drew inspiration from a former Badger teammate.
""I couldn't think of anything else so I just wanted to come down and score really quick while the goalie was goofing off in the net, and I gave myself a standing ovation which I learned from a guy who used to play here, Tom Bardis, he used to do that.""
