It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazing how much can change for a team in a two week span. <\/p>\n
Just a couple of weekends ago, the Wisconsin Badgers traveled to Mankato to take on the Minnesota State Mavericks. They left the Alltel Center with just one point, however, after giving up third period leads both nights. <\/p>\n
But at home in Madison for the first round of the WCHA playoffs, the Badgers disposed of the Mavericks in convincing fashion, winning 7-1 while outshooting MNSU 66-27 on the night. <\/p>\n
It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t until the second period that the scoring floodgates opened for Wisconsin. <\/p>\n
After a scoreless first, freshman forward Derek Stepan put the Badgers on the board just 1:38 into the second on the power play. Stepan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shot from the left faceoff circle found its way through screens set up by UW\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tom Gorowsky and Blake Geoffrion to beat Mavericks goalie Mike Zacharias. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The game was in limbo at that time,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d UW head coach Mike Eaves said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think both teams in the first period were kind of feeling their way around a little bit, trying to get their game going. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 In the second period, we were much better in the way we were moving and supporting each other. The goal was a direct result of doing those kind of things.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n
Ben Grotting made it a 2-0 Badger lead with his third goal in as many games. Grotting took a pass from Craig Johnson at the right faceoff circle and caught Zacharias out of position. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153(Grotting) thinks the game well,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Eaves said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the right place at the right time and doing good things.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely pretty impressive,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Gorowsky said of Grotting\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goal scoring streak. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m hoping he keeps it up. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been playing great.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n
Geoffrion pushed the lead to 3-0 in favor of Wisconsin early in the third period on what proved to be one of the biggest goals of the evening. Geoffrion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shot rattled off all three posts and was not initially ruled a goal. But officials took another look at the play and determined the puck just crept past the goal line. <\/p>\n
Even Geoffrion didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if he had scored. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I honestly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if it went in,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Geoffrion said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I just kind of played it off like it did and hope they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d call it a goal. But I was happy that it went in. It was good for our momentum.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n
The momentum Geoffrion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goal gave Wisconsin continued for the remainder of the third period. Mavericks head coach Troy Jutting pulled Zacharias after the third Badger goal, giving way to little-used reserve Dan Tormey. <\/p>\n
Tormey didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fare any better. On this night, there seemed to be nothing Minnesota State could do to stop Wisconsin. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They played very well,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jutting said of the Badgers. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We just got beat by a better hockey team tonight.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nOn the other end of the rink, UW senior netminder Shane Connelly made 26 saves on 27 Maverick shots to pick up the win. Connelly made a few nifty glove saves–including one in which he robbed MNSU\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Kael Mouillierat–to preserve what was then a thin Badger lead. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When it was 2-0, he made a couple of huge saves that allowed the score to stay at 2-0 and not allow them to get any energy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Eaves said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shane definitely gave us the timely saves tonight.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n
The only goal Connelly let in came on a fluky shot by Minnesota State\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Jason Wiley at 18:10 in the third. After UW\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Jake Gardiner and Geoffrion added third period goals to make it a 5-0 Wisconsin lead, Wiley fired a shot from the extended goal line that snuck its way between Connelly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pads and into the back of the net. <\/p>\n
The Badgers were quick to respond, however, and weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about to let up on the gas late in the game.
\nLess than a minute after Harrison got the Mavericks on the board, Badger forward John Mitchell caused a turnover in the neutral zone and took it into the MNSU end on a wide-open breakaway. Mitchell beat Tormey for his team-leading 15th goal of the season. <\/p>\n
Just 32 seconds later and under a minute to play in the game, UW defenseman Cody Goloubef scored the game\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s final goal on a rifle from the right point. <\/p>\n
Wisconsin finished with 24 shots in the third period. Two weekends ago in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Mavericks, they had just four in the final frame. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That was one of the things we felt we needed to do,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Eaves said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you want to be a championship-caliber team, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the things you have to do is keep your foot on the gas pedal.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nWith the win, the Badgers are just one game away from a trip to the Final Five in St. Paul next weekend. <\/p>\n
For a team needing to make it deep into the conference tournament to have a chance of making the NCAA playoffs, Saturday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game is a big one. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of a live or die series for us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Gorowsky said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We need to get past this series and get to St. Paul to stay alive. We knew we could play well against these guys if we played physical and compete really hard. I thought we did that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazing how much can change for a team in a two week span. Just a couple of weekends ago, the Wisconsin Badgers traveled to Mankato to take on the Minnesota State Mavericks. They left the Alltel Center with just one point, however, after giving up third period leads both nights. But at home in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9586"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}