ST. CLOUD, Minn.—The Wisconsin men's hockey team traveled to St. Cloud this weekend searching desperately for a win, but instead were swept in dominating fashion by a hungrier Huskies team. Wisconsin is now 0-5-1 since its bye week, dropping from fifth to seventh in the WCHA standings during that stretch.
The Badgers went to St. Cloud knowing what they were fighting for with home ice advantage in the WCHA playoffs and a berth in the NCAA tournament both up for grabs for UW. Coming in to this series the Badgers controlled their own destiny: Win and all of that could be theirs.
But in Friday's series opener, it was soon evident that St. Cloud was in control, as the Huskies out-chanced a Badgers team that was having trouble executing with the puck from the start.
The game remained scoreless until the second when St. Cloud broke through in a big way. In a four-minute span the Huskies rattled off three goals from forwards Travis Novak, Garrett Roe and Jordy Christian to take a 3-0 lead.
""We came out a little flat but kept it close for half the game,"" senior Wisconsin goaltender Brett Bennett said. ""Then they are up there with three goals in a quick span and its tough to dig ourselves out from that.""
Thirty-nine seconds into the third period, sophomore defenseman Justin Schultz scored a highlight reel-goal for his 17th of the season to cut the deficit to 3-1. Just when the Badgers looked to have grabbed some momentum, however, Roe netted his second goal of the game on a breakaway to push St. Cloud's lead to three once again.
Junior Badger forward Jordy Murray scored on a tipped shot, but that would be all for the Badgers as they fell to St. Cloud 4-2.
""One word, its simple, execution,"" sophomore forward Derek Lee said. ""They made more plays than we did.""
In the series finale the following night it was more of the same as St. Cloud again came out and overpowered the Badgers. Wisconsin had trouble completing passes and couldn't seem to find a rhythm offensively.
The Huskies had a 3-1 lead going into the third period thanks to goals from Roe, Novak and senior forward Aaron Marvin, with senior forward Patrick Johnson scoring for the Badgers.
But the nail in Wisconsin's coffin came when Murray took a five-minute major for kneeing. On the ensuing power play St. Cloud scored twice, including Roe's fourth of the series, and again just as the penalty expired to build the lead to 6-1, with the Badgers eventually falling 7-3 on two late goals.
