The Wisconsin men’s hockey team (2-5-5 WCHA, 2-7-5 overall) is coming off of two straight ties against Michigan Tech last weekend, but the Badgers are still in search of their first home win of the season. The team will have one more chance before winter break as they host Alabama-Huntsville (3-12-1) in a rare Thursday/Friday series this week.
“No question, it definitely changes,” head coach Mike Eaves said, speaking about the team’s preparations shifting due to the short week. “We’ve gone shorter in our practice, we haven’t done as much off ice, the kids have exams so their energies are being diverted there too so we have to be intelligent about how we use our energy.
Wisconsin found some added scoring last weekend as junior Tyler Barnes scored his second and third goals of the season against Michigan Tech, while sophomore Joseph LaBate scored his first. A lack of scoring, particularly from proven goal scorers like Barnes and LaBate, has been a factor behind the team’s poor start to the season, but with both players finding the back of the net last weekend, they believe more will follow.
“It felt great, I mean it was a big relief,” LaBate said of his first goal of the season. “The past four games I've really stepped up my game. Hopefully this kind of gets me going.”
“I sure hope so—he had a chance in overtime, I don’t know how that puck didn't go in,” Eaves said on Barnes. “As long as he continues to get scoring chances, history will repeat itself.”
Barnes was supposed to be on a line with freshman wing Nic Kerdiles and junior center Mark Zengerle all season, but with Kerdiles’ 10-game NCAA suspension and Zengerle missing time with a broken finger, the line has not had much time to gel together. This past weekend they finally got some time together, and Barnes think it will only get better going forward.
“You’re definitely starting to get the feel for each other out there,” Barnes said. “Even partway through the weekend you could kind of see some anticipation from guys and it was starting to flow a little bit better. When we had the puck I felt pretty comfortable out there.”
Both games get underway at 7 pm this week at the Kohl Center.
