This Thanksgiving weekend, the Wisconsin men’s hockey team (4-7-1 WCHA, 7-8-1 overall) avoided the traditional tryptophan hangover and provided some impressive offensive fireworks on back-to-back nights.
The Badgers put together two complete games in their weekend sweep of Mercyhurst College (5-1-1 Atlantic Hockey, 6-7-1 overall), but head coach Mike Eaves isn’t about to rest on his laurels.
“I’m pleased with the outcome,” Eaves said after Saturday’s win. “It’s just growing pains right now. It’s hard. We’re doing some good things though, and we’re going in the right direction, but we’re crawling right now.”
With a 7-2 win on Friday and a 5-2 victory Saturday, Wisconsin put together its best showing both offensively and defensively so far this season.
Short-handed goals killed the Badgers last week against Colorado College, but Wisconsin jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead on Friday night with two short-handed goals of its own from sophomore forwards Jefferson Dahl and Michael Mersch.
Special teams continued to play a big role in Friday’s blowout victory, with Wisconsin converting on three of four power play opportunities, including goals from sophomore forward Mark Zengerle and junior defenseman Justin Schultz, who both enjoyed outstanding weekends.
Saturday night opened with a different tone, as Lakers’ senior defenseman Kevin Noble gave Mercyhurst its first lead of the weekend with a goal early in the first, but it failed to last, as Schultz and sophomore forward Brendan Woods each scored to give Wisconsin the lead heading into the break.
After a scoreless second period, senior defenseman Eric Springer scored his first goal of the season, and his first since his freshman year, early in the third, and the Badgers didn’t look back. Tallies from forwards freshman Joseph LaBate and sophomore Tyler Barnes paced Wisconsin late as they closed out the 5-2 victory.
With a seven-point weekend from Schultz (three goals, four assists) and an eight-point weekend from Zengerle (one goal, seven assists), both players are tied for the NCAA points lead. Each player has seven goals and 18 assists on the season, and their 25 points puts them both one point ahead of Minnesota’s Nick Bjugstad who stands in second place.
When asked about Schultz’s abilty to lead the team, Eaves didn’t mince words.
“There’s no question [he is leading] with his ability, just at the right time, to make a play offensively or defensively to settle us down,” Eaves said. “On the other side with a forward you’d have to look to Mark Zengerle and his ability this weekend to make plays with poise and confidence. Those two young guys are young men that are shouldering more responsibility for us.”
While both players have been equally impressive on the score sheet, Zengerle has one advantage over Schultz thus far. With points in both games this weekend, Zengerle increased his point streak to 15 games—the longest such streak for a Badger since 1990.
“When we’re on the power play I get a lot of touches, so that’s going to influence whether I get a goal or not,” Zengerle said. “We stress on getting some IZO, which stands for in-zone offense. Before we get more of that there’s just more opportunity and when there’s more opportunity you’re going to get one sooner or later.”
The Badgers have their first bye week of the season this weekend, but the will return to action at the Kohl Center on Dec. 9 with a series against defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth.
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
