CINCINNATI, Ohio — The Wisconsin Badgers had a mantra this season. With their eyes set on winning a national championship, they likened their quest to an ascent up a mountain.
“We had made the analogy that going into the playoffs and the tournament and beyond is much like trying to climb Mount Everest,” Eaves said after his squad won the Big Ten Championship.
The Badgers (24-11-2) discovered in their first NCAA Regional game against former rival North Dakota (24-13-3), that the higher their climb, the harder their fall.
“[At the] beginning of the year, we set out to win a national championship and we obviously came up short today,” senior forward Jefferson Dahl said.
Wisconsin, which went into the NCAA tournament as the fourth number one seed, saw its hopes trounced as UND scored three goals in the last 1:44 of play to turn a 2-2 tie into a 5-2 win.
Indeed, it was North Dakota that gained momentum early. A defensive breakdown and a misread by junior goaltender Joel Rumpel allowed UND to go ahead five minutes into the first period. With Rumpel in a premature butterfly, Sioux junior forward Michael Parks rounded to the other side and scored, putting UND ahead 1-0.
The Badgers got their chance to turn the tables when UND had a goal waved off and was instead charged with goaltender interference midway through the first.
With four seconds left in the Wisconsin man advantage, freshman forward Jedd Soleway took an up-ice pass from junior defenseman Joseph LaBate, snaked his way through two North Dakota bodies and wristed one past UND sophomore goaltender Zane Gothberg.
With the score tied at one apiece, Wisconsin looked like its usual self at the beginning of the second period, pressuring at the outset and matching UND’s physicality. But half-hearted defensive pressure led to North Dakota's second goal, this one scored by sophomore forward Rocco Grimaldi with no helpers.
Down 2-1, the Badgers took a series of three uncharacteristic penalties that further slowed their pace, starting with a bench minor for too many men.
“Instead of spending time trying to score, we’re spending time trying to kill off penalties, which we did, but it took away from us trying to get that momentum and take it back the other way,” Eaves said.
Wisconsin’s frustration revealed itself late in the period when sophomore forward Nic Kerdiles and UND junior forward Brendan O’Donnell took cancelling minors for unsportsmanlike conduct.
With their season on the line, the Badgers came out with urgency and intensity. 9:32 into the third, their resilience paid off when Kerdiles left a drop pass for senior forward Tyler Barnes, who scored from the top circle to tie the game once again.
UND matched Wisconsin’s pace until the final minutes of the frame when North Dakota snatched the lead away for good.
“It’s a 2-2 game with 1:44 to go, and at that point in the game you just get pucks and bodies to the net,” Eaves said. “[North Dakota] did exactly that, and they got the puck to go in.”
A 2-on-1 rush into Wisconsin’s zone ended in a fluke goal that bounced off of junior forward Mark MacMillan, putting UND up 3-2. Though the Badgers protested the goal, claiming a possible high stick or potential goaltender interference, the goal stood after its review.
“The referee did come over and say, ‘Coach, the North Dakota player did not bump your goaltender. It hit him and went in,” Eaves said. “At that point, they’ve got cameras and you’ve got to trust their ability to make that call.”
With 1:44 remaining, the head coach pulled his goaltender, leading to two empty-net goals by Grimaldi and giving him the hat trick. UND defeated Wisconsin 5-2 to earn its eighth berth in a NCAA Regional Final in head coach Dave Hakstol’s decade-long tenure.
Wisconsin finished its season with 24 wins, 21 of them with Rumpel between the pipes. The Badgers will lose nine seniors, but their lasting effects on the program will be remembered.
“We’ve got nine seniors that gave us great leadership this year,” Eaves said. “But as we’ve said of these young men, they left nothing inside them. It was all on the ice. For that reason alone they can walk out of this building with their heads held high tonight.”
