Special teams provided the opportunities Saturday, and Wisconsin had the final answer.<\/p>\n
Forced to kill the entire two minutes of a Rochester Institute of Technology power play with the same four players on the ice, the Badgers blocked and scrapped their way out of the jam.<\/p>\n
Given a two-man advantage early in the third period of a tie game, they pushed their way into the lead for good.<\/p>\n
Those elements laid the foundation of Wisconsin’s 2-1 victory over RIT, delivered on defenseman Jake McCabe’s second goal of the weekend.<\/p>\n
“It was a grind,” McCabe said. “We got through it.”<\/p>\n
He was speaking of the drawn-out Tigers power play, but he might as well have been referencing the whole game for the Badgers (9-9-2), who returned to .500 for the first time since Nov. 11 by completing a non-conference series sweep.<\/p>\n
RIT (10-8-2) had the first big chance to break a 1-1 tie in the second period when it forced Wisconsin’s penalty killers to stay on the ice for the length of Matt Paape’s elbowing minor, and then some.<\/p>\n
Jefferson Dahl, Sean Little, McCabe and John Ramage took turns getting in the way of Tigers shots, with Little blocking three on his own. Not that he could keep count.<\/p>\n
“I couldn’t tell you. I kind of blacked out about halfway through,” Little said. “That was absolutely the longest shift of my career.<\/p>\n
“We were very fortunate that they didn’t score. … All four guys out there did not give a crap about their body and it was great to see.”<\/p>\n
Tigers forward Mike Colavecchia had the best chance, but he missed an open net from the right circle.<\/p>\n
“When we had them out there for two minutes and they’re tired, we had an open net and we put it over the net,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said. “So I was very happy with the power play, not that we controlled play but I thought it was just a good game — could have gone either way five-on-five but they won the special teams battle.”<\/p>\n
The Badgers’ power-play chance came less than two minutes into the third, after a hooking minor to Daniel Spivak and, 39 seconds later, a checking-from-behind major and game misconduct to Greg Noyes.<\/p>\n
Just after Spivak’s penalty ended — and before he could truly get back into the play — McCabe zinged a shot off the post and in from the top of the right circle.<\/p>\n
“We did exactly what we wanted to do,” Badgers coach Mike Eaves said. “Right before the five-on-three started they got in a little circle, they were talking about our options and what we wanted to run. They went through each stage and executed and eventually scored the goal. Kudos to them; they did a tremendous job.”<\/p>\n
Said Wilson: “There’s just times in a game when you’ve got to get things done, and they got it done when it was most needed.”<\/p>\n
Each side claimed a second-period goal despite RIT attempting 26 shots to Wisconsin’s four, and both pucks entered the goal off the opponent’s leg.<\/p>\n
Joseph LaBate got credit for the Badgers’ goal when his shot off a Tyler Barnes pass hit RIT’s Spivak and slipped past goaltender Jordan Ruby (17 saves).<\/p>\n
The Tigers equalized on the power play less than five minutes later when Chris Saracino’s shot from the left side redirected off Ramage’s skate and past Joel Rumpel (21 saves).<\/p>\n
RIT held Wisconsin to just two shots on goal in the second period; the Badgers went more than 16 minutes without forcing Ruby into a save.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes that can take you off your game because you get frustrated [that] there’s no rhythm,” Eaves said. “Guys didn’t do that. We talked about being patiently persistent, and we stayed with the game plan. We got through that rough spot, which I think for this young team was a victory within a victory because it showed that we’re growing mentally.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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