The Badgers’ weekend covered a range of emotion, winning the first game in the series Friday against Michigan State (7-5-2 Big Ten, 13-13-2 overall) only to drop the second game the next night.
On Friday, the Badgers (2-10-2, 4-20-4) looked sharp, winning by a score of 2-1. Their offense has struggled this season, and Friday, the defense did the work that the offense failed to do.
After a slow first period where the two teams combined for only 14 shots, the Badgers heated up in the second in what turned out to be the game’s deciding period. Early in the period, senior defenseman Chase Drake faked a shot at the blue line only to shoot seconds later, sniping one past Spartan junior goaltender Jake Hildebrand to put the Badgers on the board.
With the period coming to a close, sophomore forward Grant Besse fed junior defenseman Kevin Schulze who knocked in a one-timer to put the Badgers up 2-0 with only 27 seconds left in the period. Those two goals would end up being enough for the Badgers due to the stellar play of senior goalie Joel Rumpel, who only allowed one goal in the third period.
“The goal he let in, there was nothing he could do about that. He stopped all the ones he should’ve, and he stopped some of the ones he wasn’t supposed to, so that was his formula tonight,” Eaves said.
Part of Rumpel’s success was due to the defense’s play. The unit had arguably its best game, and there were multiple times when Rumpel was sprawled out after making a save and the defense chipped the puck away just before MSU could shoot on the open net.
Saturday night was a different story. While Rumpel still made the plays he should have, the defense gave the Spartans room to make stellar plays en route to a 3-0 victory.
Both teams started slow, but in the second half of the first period Michigan State junior forward Ryan Keller had a pair of beautiful goals to give MSU all they needed.
The Spartans scored again in the third, but it didn’t matter at that point—the Badgers were already done. They failed to find good opportunities despite having 31 shots, which is high for them this year. The Michigan State defenders have a knack for blocking shots; it put pressure on the offense to perform, and they didn’t respond well.
“We had limited chances if any, we got a lot of shots blocked, our breakouts were tough, we couldn’t really establish in-zone offense. It wasn’t there tonight,” said freshman defenseman Tim Davison.
On the bright side, the Badgers’ Friday win gave them their first winning streak of the year, winning two in a row. Many would consider the next night’s shutout to be a step back, but the team didn’t cater to that idea.
“I don’t think we can look at it as a step back, we’ve got to look forward no matter what happened tonight,” said sophomore forward Morgan Zulinick. “We faced a tough opponent. Sweeping is hard no matter who it is.”
The Badgers will continue to face off against the state of Michigan next weekend when they go to Ann Arbor to face the Michigan Wolverines (8-5-0, 16-11-0) at 6:30 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday at the Yost Ice Arena.
