The Wisconsin men’s hockey team (2-5-5 WCHA, 3-7-5 overall) shot out of the gates against Alabama-Huntsville (3-13-1) Thursday, scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes of the game, en route to a 6-0 win.
The victory was the first at home this season for the Badgers, who held just a 0-4-2 record at the Kohl Center prior to Thursday.
“I think the word would be ‘satisfied,’” head coach Mike Eaves said of his team’s first home win. “I think the thing we needed to do was score goals and we did that tonight.”
“Now we’re undefeated in the last five and hopefully that ship is turning and we’ve got some wind at our backs now.”
Wisconsin took the lead early on a goal by freshman forward Nic Kerdiles, his first in a Badger. Freshman defenseman Kevin Schulze ripped a shot from the point, which Kerdiles was able to get a stick on right in front of senior Charger goaltender John Griggs.
“I think it’s good,” Kerdiles said of his first collegiate goal. “At the end of the day I'm just excited for the way our team played tonight. With all the stuff that has been going on with me, it’s just nice to get that out of the way.”
The Badgers would strike again quickly, with junior forward Michael Mersch netting his tenth goal of the season just two and a half minutes later off of a pass from senior center Derek Lee.
UW dominated the first ten minutes of the game, but seemed to ease off the pressure in the latter half of the period. The team would regroup, however, in the second and pick up where they left off in the early first.
“I think for 50 minutes we were pretty good —I think the last ten minutes of the first period we fell away from what we did so well in the first ten minutes,” Eaves said. “I thought the second and third we did what we needed to do.”
The Lee-Mersch combo would find the score sheet again in the second period. Lee darted around towards the back of the Charger net, fooling Griggs who followed to the far side of the net. Mersch was waiting right out in front and easily scored his team-high eleventh goal of the season on a near empty net.
The Badgers would add two more goals in the third period, junior forward Sean Little’s first of the season and Kerdiles’ second of the night, to finish off the 5-0 victory.
“I thought just getting off to a quick start was big for us,” Little said after the game. “Just getting some confidence right away was big. For the most part throughout the game we stuck to our systems and played a decent team game.”
Wisconsin got production from their top two offensive lines tonight, particularly the Kerdiles-Mark Zengerle-Tyler Barnes line, which accounted for two goals and five points tonight.
The line is still trying to find a rhythm after having been broken up for the majority of the season due to Kerdiles’ NCAA suspension, and Zengerle’s broken finger.
“There’s more to come,” Eaves said of the line’s offensive production. “I think they’re still getting used to each other.”
The one thing that can be taken away from Thursday’s game, was that it was a complete team effort—something the Badgers haven't had many of so far this season.
“No question,” Eaves said when asked if this was the effort he had been looking for from his team this season. “As a matter of fact the night before the game, instead of having a general meeting, we met as units… and we talked about what they needed to do for us to be successful. Every unit did that [tonight]."
Wisconsin will take on the Chargers again Friday night at 7 p.m. from the Kohl Center.
