With just under ten minutes left in the third period, the Wisconsin Badgers (2-2) found themselves down 6-5 in the second game of a weekend series at the Kohl Center against No. 6-ranked Boston College (2-2). After the second period saw UW on the verge of a collapse, as the Badgers at one point trailed 6-2, few would have believed that the Badgers could even bring the game back to within that one goal margin. Still, the Badgers were indeed knocking on the door throughout the last ten minutes of the game, but the early UW mistakes proved insurmountable, as the Badgers ultimately fell 8-5 to the Eagles.
Although the Badgers did make what looked like a blowout into a close game, UW played some of its worst hockey of the season through the opening two frames. Just ten seconds into the game, the Badgers conceded the opening tally on a shot that sophomore goalie Matt Jurusik would likely save nine out of ten times. After that goal, the night only got worse for Jurusik, as he was pulled late in the second period after giving up his sixth goal on only 25 shots.
“I don’t think he got in a rhythm tonight. It looked like he was fighting it,” head coach Tony Granato said. “He was great Friday. Tonight he wasn’t as sharp.”
Throughout Jurusik’s short Wisconsin career, the goalie has already created a reputation of being inconsistent. He often fluctuates between playing confident, controlled hockey and playing frantically and giving up rebounds from not watching the puck into his body. After playing lights-out in the series opener, Jurusik showed that his lack of consistency is not just something of a nervous freshman goalie, but something that the Badgers may have to deal with throughout the rest of the season.
Despite Jurusik’s worst performance of the short season thus far, though, the loss was due to more factors than just goaltending. Specifically, the defensive zone coverage and the transition defense by the Badgers left holes to be exploited by the Boston College offense throughout the majority of the first two periods. This Badgers team should be able to score all year, but if they don’t tighten up on defense they will likely have games just like this, conceding five or more goals against good teams.
“I think we just need to be more consistent,” freshman defenseman J.D. Greenway said. “[We need to] make good first passes out of the zone on the breakout. We just have to clean up our game in all areas.”
Through the opening four games of the year, the Badgers defense has already been consistently giving up odd-man rushes and breakaway chances against opposing forwards. At least five times during the game with Boston College, the Badgers defense was unaware of opposing forwards behind them, and stretch passes and turnovers allowed the Eagle’s players to sneak in front of the net for easy, unforgivable chances. After the Badgers pulled their goalie with a minute and a half left in the game, it was only fitting that the they conceded the dagger empty-net goal off a lazy turnover in the defensive zone.
Still, even with the mishaps by the Badgers defensive corps, a lot of the Badgers’ problems in the defensive zone were a result of the forwards being out of position. The most concerning story of the early 2016 campaign for this Badgers team is that the top line of sophomore Luke Kunin, junior Cameron Hughes and senior Grant Besse, which is full of future NHL talent and the Badgers’ three captains, is now a minus-eight in goal differential on the year after that unit was on the ice for five of the Eagles’ eight goals tonight.
“I don’t think that line had a good night defensively,” Ganato said. “I thought we were sloppy on some defensive plays. If you cheat a little bit offensively or you don’t take care of your responsibilities, there’s a good chance that it will end up in your net. You’ve got to play 200 feet.”
Consequently, for the first time this season, Granato will have to find new line combinations going forward.
“There will be discussion on what we do with lines going forward,” Granato says. “I think some of our lines could be better.”
Despite the poor defensive play and the Kunin line conundrum, the Badgers did take away some positives from the game, many of which came in the form of freshman center Trent Frederic. When the Kunin line could not get anything going, Frederic’s line of sophomore Will Johnson and junior Ryan Wagner found a way to create some momentum for the Badgers.
Specifically, early in the second, the Badgers were down 2-1 and Frederic had the puck on a three-on-one. Remaining as patient as possible, Frederic held the puck, waiting for Greenway to cut to the net, and fired a pass over to him for his first goal as a Badger, knotting the game at 2-2.
“I saw him driving to the net and he made a nice play driving hard,” Frederic said. “I kind of used Dan Labosky as a decoy and passed it back to him and he put it in the net. It was a nice goal.”
Not only did the Badgers get an impressive performance from an individual player, but what they did in the third period as a team was much more impressive.
Last season, on January 23, the Badgers were pummeled by Minnesota 9-2, in a game that was a huge contributing factor in the firing of previous head coach Mike Eaves. After the second period of that game, the Badgers trailed 5-2, much like the three goal deficit they faced against the Eagles entering the third. In that game, however, Wisconsin came out for the third with little effort, conceding four goals and leaving many wondering whether the corps of this program was still driven to succeed.
Less than a year later, the Badgers have completely changed their identity. They have gone from a team that lets the wheels just roll off to a team that fights to win games, even after getting down big through two periods.
“I thought there were great parts of that game tonight where we did some really good things, especially in the third period when we fell behind,” Granato says. “You feel a little good about yourself, but you also look at it and you realize when you play any elite team, or really if you play anybody, if you don’t play 60 minutes, you’re jeopardizing [yourself].”
Clearly, even though Granato liked the Badgers come from behind effort, he was not satisfied with a “close enough” mentality.
“You can take positives out of the weekend. Boston College comes into our building and you win one and then you drop one,” Granato said. “But I think our expectations have got to raise to the point where we expected to win this game tonight.”
Despite the comeback effort, and what would have only been a one goal loss if not for two empty net goals, the Badgers still have a lot of work to do. The defensive zone needs to get cleaned up, and Granato will have to find a line for his three superstar forwards that won’t compromise the defense.
That being said, the new expectation is set, and these Badgers now know that they can stay in any game against any team.
