After shaking up his top line because of defensive lapses, head coach Tony Granato put Grant Besse, Luke Kunin and Cameron Hughes back together for last weekend’s road trip.
The move paid dividends, as Kunin recorded a five-point weekend with three goals and two assists, while Besse matched his production with one goal and four assists. Hughes added two assists of his own.
“We got our jump back,” said Kunin, a sophomore. “We got possession down low with the puck and got pucks to the net and finished on our chances, so we’re feeling good as a line right now.”
Much like the 3-4-5 batters in a baseball lineup, the top line of Wisconsin is the heart of the team, with Kunin as the big-hitting cleanup man. Drafted 15th overall in last year’s NHL Draft, the offense starts with the captain’s ability to put the puck in the back of the net and set up his teammates to do the same. It’s a small sample size, but Wisconsin is 3-0 in games where Kunin scores and 1-2 in games he doesn’t.
Nonetheless, the top line, and the rest of the squad, must continue to improve defensively. Kunin is currently a minus-4, Besse is a minus-4 and Hughes is a minus-6 in goal differential on the season. While that line has been prolific on the offensive side of the ice, their weak defense has cost the Badgers.
“As a team we can always tighten that up, our line especially, we want to be a plus line and be able to shut down other team’s best players,” Kunin said.
The defense will need to play better if the Badgers want to do better than a split with Northern Michigan (2-5-1) this time around. Since beating Wisconsin in the first game of the season, the Wildcats have won just one game.
But like most of the Badgers’ opponents, Northern Michigan had little trouble scoring on Wisconsin, totaling eight goals over the weekend. It all starts with forwards Robbie Payne and Darien Craighead, who combined for five goals in that opening series.
Wisconsin will need to slow down these scorers to earn a sweep this weekend. Defense continues to be the Badgers’ weak spot, as they are allowing just under four goals per game.
The offense, which is averaging 4.33 goals per game, continues to pick up the slack for the defense, which is why Kunin said he isn’t concerned about that side of the ice.
“As long as we’re getting more goals than the other team I’m happy,” Kunin said with a smile.
Wisconsin will look to its top line again to carry it this weekend, but if they fail to stop Payne and Craighead, the Badgers could slip back to .500 again.
After earning its first road sweep since 2014, the Granato era is off to a promising start. However, Wisconsin has been playing in front of a half-full Kohl Center thus far. Kunin is hoping that the Badgers faithfully take notice of their strong start.
“I think [if] we just keep playing the way we’re playing, it’s gonna fill in pretty soon here,” he said.
The puck drops Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.
