Though their record may not reflect it, the Badgers (0-6 overall) are a completely different team than they were when they set off on their first road trip over a month ago.
This weekend, Wisconsin will head to Colorado to take on Colorado College (0-5-0 NCHC, 2-7-0 overall) and No. 10 Denver (3-2-0 NCHC, 6-3-0 overall) in a quest for its badly needed first win of the season.
Against No. 2 North Dakota, Wisconsin more than doubled its season goal total and held its first lead of the year, coming as close as it has to its first victory. But two disastrous third periods in both games led to the Badgers’ demise.
Wisconsin entered a bye week with one goal in mind: to make playing a 60-minute game the top priority.
“I think we have to maintain focus,” said sophomore forward Grant Besse. “In the first game against North Dakota, we had our first lead of the whole year going into the third period. We were a little bit too excited and lost focus.”
To do so, the Badgers will need to improve their special teams play. Their conversion rate on the power play is a measly 4 percent, while their opponents are spoiling their penalty kills 26 percent of the time.
Wisconsin’s success, or lack thereof, also lies with its scoring. At 1.17 goals per game, the Badgers sit at the bottom of the conference, and not by a little. Penn State, which finished last in the Big Ten conference last year, has scored a whopping 38 goals to Wisconsin’s seven.
“We lost a really good group of guys [last season], and their goal scoring abilities are something I think we really miss,” said redshirt senior forward and captain Chase Drake. “We’re looking for guys to step up in any way they can and produce.”
To add to its offensive challenges, Wisconsin also lost defenseman Eddie Wittchow to a finger injury against UND. Freshman forward Jack Dougherty is also questionable to play in Colorado due to an undisclosed injury.
Lucky for Wisconsin, though, Colorado College has struggled down the stretch, losing seven games in a row dating back to mid-October. Most recently, the Denver Pioneers, Wisconsin’s second opponent this weekend, handed the Tigers a stinging 8-1 defeat.
Similar to the Badgers, the Tigers have also struggled to score, especially on the power play. Their leading scorer, junior forward Cody Bradley, only has six points through nine games.
Wisconsin’s matchup against Colorado College may just come down to which team wants it more.
“I feel like we played some decent hockey, [and] we're going in the right direction,” said head coach Mike Eaves in a Monday press conference. “We recognize that we're a young group … If you walk in the locker room and you talk to our kids, they're not down, they're excited about coming to the rink. They know the direction in which they're going.”
The Denver Pioneers present the weekend’s tougher challenge. Like the Badgers, they play their strongest hockey in the first and second period. Their power play percentage, while not stellar, is still triple that of the Badgers at 23 percent. Backed by a solid goaltender in sophomore Evan Cowley, the offense is free to shoot, which they do without hesitation.
The Badgers face off against Colorado College at 8:30 p.m. Friday and Denver at 8:00 p.m Saturday.
