Coming off a big win over No. 2 Minnesota in Chicago last weekend, the No. 18 Wisconsin men’s hockey team is returning to Madison to host Penn State in the first ever meeting between the two teams.
While they are not facing a WCHA opponent this weekend, the Badgers (10-7-7 WCHA, 13-10-7 overall) cannot afford to let any game get away from them.
Wisconsin is currently ranked 25th in the USCHO.com Pairwise rankings—one of the definitive sets of rankings used in determining NCAA bids.
“I think we know where we are in the Pairwise,” sophomore defenseman Jake McCabe said. “We’ve got to do work here in the next six games to try and get in that top-16 and get an NCAA berth. I think that’s what our main focus is.”
“We need to build our resume and the only way we can build our resume is to get some ‘W’s this weekend,” head coach Mike Eaves said.
The team’s 3-2 win over Minnesota in the Hockey City Classic last weekend not only helped in the Badgers in the conference standings, it also helped to bring the team together in the locker room.
“Yea I think so,” freshman forward Nic Kerdiles said about his team coming together last weekend. “We were all joking around Saturday when we got there and getting to look around during practice and see everything. Obviously everybody enjoyed it and we all had some laughs together.”
On a national stage, the Badgers also showed off to the country that they can compete anywhere and with any team in the country.
“I think that was our brand of hockey,” McCabe said. “We grinded it out, our goals weren’t pretty, but that’s what it’s going to take. Earlier in the year we weren’t quite getting those gritty goals and finally we’re starting to see those.”
The Nittany Lions (12-13)—who are in their first season of Division-1 hockey—are riding a seven game win streak, and have earned victories over Ohio State, Michigan State and Alabama-Huntsville.
This series will serve as a preview for next season as both teams will be joining the Big Ten conference for 2013-’14.
“If they can beat us, they’re going to be coming in on a high next year and we don’t want to give them that at all so we’re going to come out hard and play our game and keep it simple,” Nic Kerdiles said. “We’re going to respect them just like every other opponent and we’re going to play our game out there.”
Penn State is led offensively by a pair of freshman forwards in David Glen and Casey Bailey. They are tied for the team-lead with 25 points and Glen is tied with UW junior forward Michael Mersch for tenth in the country with 16 goals.
With the state wrestling tournament taking over the Kohl Center this weekend, the hockey games have been pushed back to Sunday and Monday, giving Wisconsin extra time to prepare coming off of an emotional series and facing a team they have never seen before.
“Our coaches do a pretty good job of pre-scout videos,” McCabe said. “They’ll pull clips from their previous games and whatnot so we can scout their power play and penalty kill so we have a pretty good idea of what their systems are.”
The Nittany Lions are playing in their last two games of the season, while Wisconsin still has two more series remaining—heading to Nebraska-Omaha next weekend and hosting conference-leading St. Cloud State in the final week of the season.
“Nobody is looking past [Penn State] because they understand that we need wins,” Eaves said. “It would be our 14th and 15th win … so they’re talking about that. I think because of what’s at stake here at the end of the year, that we’re focused on what we need to do this weekend.”
The puck drops at 7 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Kohl Center.
