Badgers Brush Colgate Aside
December 30, 2002 | Men's Hockey
Wisconsin (6-11-0 overall, 1-7-0 WCHA) defeated Colgate (7-9-1, 2-4-0 ECAC) 2-1 in the first round of the 14th Badger Hockey Showdown at the Bradley Center. The Badgers, who are now 25-9-0 at the Bradley Center, advance to the championship game where they will face the Northern Michigan. The Northern Michigan Wildcats defeated the Harvard Crimson in the first game of the tournament 3-2.
Wisconsin secured a lead early on with two first period goals. Brad Winchester (Madison, Wis.) passed the puck up to Adam Funk (Mendota Heights, Minn.) up against the boards. Funk then directed the puck back to Brian Fahey (Glenview, Ill.) who was in the slot and fired the puck in past Colgate goaltender Steve Silverthorn for the first tally of the game.
Less than thirty seconds later Pete Talafous (Hudson, Wis.) notched the second point for the Badgers when he knocked the puck in off of a rebound from Ryan MacMurchy's (Regina, Sask.) shot.
At 19:41 of the first, the Colgate Raiders took advantage of their two man advantage over the Badgers to score their lone goal of the game. Joey Mormina shot the puck in from the point. Rob Brown and P.J. Yedon assisted on the power-play goal.
The second and third periods were without scoring, but not without action as the two teams recorded a total of 40 minutes in penalties in the third period.
The UW's Bernd Bruckler (Graz, Austria) made 25 saves in the game while Colgate's Silverthorn made 26.
Showdown action continues tomorrow with Colgate and Harvard facing off in the third place game at 5:00 p.m. and the championship game of Wisconsin and Northern Michigan scheduled for 8:00 p.m. The meeting of the Badgers and the Wildcats will be the third match up between the two teams in the Badger Hockey Showdown championship game. The UW has a 2-0 record in Showdown championship games against NMU, the Badgers won 3-2 in 1993, and 4-3 in 1997.
