The goaltender position may be in a state of flux at his former school, but Jared Moe seems to have settled in at Wisconsin.
The junior goalie, who transferred from Minnesota during the offseason, has started the last eight contests for the Badgers and has backstopped the team to a 4-2-2 record in those games.
Wisconsin plays at Penn State this weekend after picking up its first conference sweep of the season last time out against Michigan State.
“We started off pretty slow and I think we’re starting to find our rhythm here ever since the Penn State weekend before Christmas,” Moe said on Tuesday. “We’ve started to come alive, and things are coming together like our special teams and our offense. It’s been cool to be a part of it and watch our team grow throughout the year.”
Every team in the country strives for consistency, and Moe said he saw some from the Badgers in the series against the Spartans.
“We didn’t have a whole lot of it the previous weekends,” he said. “We’d be up on a team going into the third and have a bad third period and choke it away. The Penn State weekend, we beat them that Friday night and that Saturday, we had a bad second period. We bounced back and lost in overtime, but that second period kind of cost us the game. Against Michigan State this weekend we were pretty consistent throughout the whole six periods we played.”
Moe, who has a 6-8-3 record with a 2.50 GAA and .925 save percentage for the Badgers this season, said that settling into Madison has been “pretty easy and seamless.”
“Just getting to know the guys was a big part of it,” he said. “I knew most of the Minnesota guys, or had at least heard of them, and playing against these guys the last two years, that helped because at least we had a sense of who each other was. It was pretty easy and now it feels like home.”
After playing in only three games during his sophomore season for the Gophers, 13 less than his freshman campaign, Moe decided to use the new transfer portal to seek a better opportunity to see the ice.
“Then Wisconsin came along,” Moe said. “I had talked to them before I went to Minnesota, so they had always been around and had interest. It just felt right and seemed like a good situation to come in and get some games in and have an impact on the team. I just wanted somewhere where I could get that, and for it to be another Big Ten team and have that pro environment was a huge contributing factor to my decision.”
Badgers coach Tony Granato has been known to give multiple goaltenders a chance. He split time evenly between Robbie Beydoun and Cameron Rowe last year, so Moe knew that there would be a chance to anchor the rebuilding Badgers in net.
“That was part of the conversation I had, and even with coaches at other schools, too, I’m transferring because I want to have a shot again to be the guy,” Moe said. “Obviously, it wasn’t going to be given, so I had to come in and earn it. I knew it wasn’t going to be handed to me, (Granato) said you’re going to have to battle and earn the job. I feel like I came in here and was able to make the most of my opportunities.”
Hindsight is always 20/20, but with the recent departure of Jack LaFontaine the Gophers probably wouldn’t mind having Moe back in the fold. Transferring to a conference rival obviously irked a few fans, but LaFontaine had previously stood up for Moe and he said all his former Gophers’ teammates respected his decision.
“I’m definitely still friends with all the guys there. They obviously understood my decision to leave and there were no hard feelings with any of them,” he said. “With Jack leaving, I’m happy for him. It’s something you don’t see too often, so I’m sure he’s gotten a lot of hate for it, but when there’s an opportunity like that for him to go and be up in the NHL right away, that’s amazing and I’m sure he’s going to make the most of it.”
Moe said he was trying to find a good time to reach out to LaFontaine when Carolina wasn’t on the road. He did call Minnesota’s Justen Close after he picked up his first collegiate win against Alaska last Friday but added that the conversation quickly turned to banter about the upcoming series between the two at the end of February.
“He’s their guy now, so I called him and congratulated him and gave him some crap about playing against them in a month,” Moe said. “That’ll be a fun time, it’ll be fun playing against those guys again.”
