The WCHA playoffs may not begin until March 9, but for the Wisconsin Men's Hockey team (7-11-2 WCHA, 12-12-2 overall), they may as well start Friday night. With a dwindling amount of regular season games left to play, the Badgers have to take advantage of every opportunity left to give themselves a shot at home ice advantage for their postseason run.
Wisconsin has a chance to grab four critical points at home this weekend as they welcome St. Cloud State (7-10-3, 10-14-4), the team currently sitting just above the Badgers in the conference standings.
"We call it an eight point weekend," freshman goaltender Joel Rumpel said of this weekend's critical series. "They're probably the two most important games of the year so far."
Rumpel, a freshman from Swift Current, Saskatchewan, has been a key component to the Badger's strong second half of the season. The young netminder has taken the reigns of the team's starting job, and with his teammates behind him, he isn't looking back.
"When the team starts to have confidence in you and the coaches have confidence in you," Rumpel said. "It definitely brings more confidence in yourself."
Rumpel's strong play has not been the only force driving the Badgers however, as more and more players have begun to step up and contribute offensively. Sophomore forward Mark Zengerle and Junior defenseman Justin Schultz have been the team's go-to scorers for most of the season, but the team's secondary scoring has steadily increased as of late.
Sophomore forwards Michael Mersch and Tyler Barnes, as well as sophomore forward Keegan Meuer, have all begun to find the back of the net more often in recent games, scoring goals that have been crucial to Wisconsin's victories over Alaska-Anchorage and Minnesota State.
Both Mersch and Barnes have topped the 20-point plateau this season (22 and 21 points, respectively) and their added scoring of late has translated to victories for the young Badger team.
"That's huge," Schultz said of the team's added scoring depth. "Especially on the power play, teams are starting to take away me and Mark [Zengerle]. We need other guys to step up and start putting the puck in the net, and they've been doing that lately so it's good."
If Wisconsin can come away with two wins this weekend they can leap past St. Cloud State in the WCHA standings and potentially put themselves in a tie for seventh place with Michigan Tech. It is not an easy task, but if the team wants to play in front of their home crowd in the playoffs, it is essential they come away with all four points.
The Kohl Center is one of the best venues in all of college hockey and the Badgers understand how important it is to earn the right to play their postseason games at home.
"I think its pretty intimidating coming in and seeing the student section, all the fans, the big rink," Schultz said of his home ice. "I have a couple buddies that come in and play at the Kohl Center and they get pretty intimidated."
"The Kohl Center is a funny place, it's a different atmosphere than any other place in the league," Rumpel said. "It kind of feels like we have an extra player out there when you have that many fans in the crowd."
