Badgers host Ferris State for two-game series
November 26, 2014 | Men's Hockey
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Wisconsin (0-8-0, 0-0-0-0 Big Ten) plays host to Ferris State (7-6-0, 4-4-0 WCHA) this Friday and Saturday to begin a stretch of eight consecutive regular-season home games. Friday’s game begins at 7 p.m., while Saturday’s game is an 8 p.m. start.
The Badgers will actually skate in nine consecutive games at home when adding in an exhibition game against the U.S. Under-18 Team on Dec. 12.
| Game 9/10 | Wisconsin (0-8-0) vs. Ferris State (7-6-0) | |
| Date | Fri./Sat., Nov. 28/29, 2014 |
| Location | Madison, Wis. | Kohl Center |
| Television | None |
| Video Stream | BTN2Go.com |
| Radio | WIBA-AM 1310 (Badger Radio Network) |
| Live Audio | BadgerSportsNetwork.com |
| Live Blog | UWBadgers.com |
| Live Stats | Collegehockeystats.net |
| Social Media | @BadgerMHockey  | Facebook  |
| Tickets | Buy Tickets |
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FSU Last Meeting: L, 5-3 -- Wisconsin dropped a 5-3 contest to Ferris State on Jan. 1, 2005 in the championship game of the Badger Hockey Showdown at the Kohl Center. The Bulldogs led 3-0 after the first period, but the Badgers fought back to tie the game with two second-period tallies by Matthew Ford and one by Ryan MacMurchy. FSU scored twice in the third period to regain the lead and capture the tournament title. Then-UW senior goaltender Bernd Brückler made 37 save in defeat.
FSU Series Notes: The teams meet for the fifth and sixth times, with all four previous meetings taking place in Madison ... Ferris State owns victories in the last two meetings, capturing wins in consecutive Badger Hockey Showdown championship games (Dec. 28, 2003 and Jan. 1, 2005) ... Ferris State is the defending WCHA regular-season champion ... UW and FSU were both in the 2014 NCAA Midwest Regional in Cincinnati last March, but didn’t face each other ... FSU senior goaltender CJ Motte serves as the Bulldogs’ captain.
KEY NOTES TO CONSIDER
• Wisconsin enters the weekend looking for its first victory. In their most recent action, the Badgers dropped a pair of games in Colorado, including 5-2 at Colorado College last Friday and 3-2 to No. 10 Denver last Saturday.
Ferris State split a WCHA series last weekend at home, falling 3-2 to Alabama Huntsville on Friday, before responding with a 5-2 victory on Saturday.
• Wisconsin’s four goals last weekend were scored by four different players, all tallying for the first time this season. On Friday, redshirt sophomore Morgan Zulinick tallied, while freshman forward Jason Ford notched his first career goal. Saturday, senior Joseph LaBate, UW’s leading returning scorer, lit the lamp for the first time this season. Freshman forward Adam Rockwood tallied his first career goal in the game.
• Senior assistant captain Joseph LaBate posted his best weekend of the season with a goal and two assists. LaBate got on the scoresheet last Friday with an assist and a shot, then scored his first goal of the season, while adding a primary assist, on Saturday. He also led all players with six shots in the Saturday game and was plus-1.
LaBate’s goal was his first in 10 games, dating back to March 14 of last season at Michigan State.
UW’s leading returning scorer boasts 26 career goals after scoring 11 last season. His career total is 17 more than the next closest current Badger, sophomore Grant Besse.
• Sophomore forward Grant Besse, who shares UW’s scoring lead, had his three-game point-scoring streak snapped last Saturday against Denver. Besse had a goal and three assists in his three-game streak.
Redshirt freshman defenseman Tim Davison had a similar streak stopped on Saturday after posting points in three consecutive games (one goal, two assists). Davison’s personal streak was interupted with a three-game absence due to an injury.
• Freshman defenseman Cullen Hurley made his collegiate debut last Friday, the 11th UW freshmen to play in a game this season. UW had 10 rookies in the lineup last Friday, and nine last Saturday.
• Joseph LaBate’s power-play goal last Saturday was UW’s second power-play goal of the season. The Badgers are 2-for-32 with the man advantage for a 6.2 percent conversion rate.
UW allowed a power-play goal to its opponent in both games last weekend, and has now allowed a power-play goal in six of the team’s eight games this season. UW has killed 18 of its 25 penalties for a 72.0 percent success rate.
However, UW is among the least penalized squads in the nation, averaging just 8.4 penalty minutes per game, which ranks 56 out of 59 teams in the country.
• Wisconsin is scoreless in first periods this season, having scored the first goal of a game once in eight contests this season.
• UW’s sweep at the hands of North Dakota on Nov. 7-8, marked the first time UW was swept at home since Nov. 23-24, 2012 against Minnesota State, a span of 19 home series. UW had at least earned a split in all of those series, posting sweeps in 12 of 19 series.
The two home losses in the first two games of the season equal the total amount of home losses the team absorbed in the entire 2013–14 season (17-2-1).
• A total of 11 Badgers have made their collegiate debuts this season. Three UW freshmen — forward Alex Shuchuk, forward/defenseman Cullen Hurley and goaltender Gabe Grunwald — have yet to see game action this season.
• Ten Badger freshmen played in UW’s game on Oct. 11 at Alaska Anchorage (Tim Davison, Matt Ustaski, Keegan Ford, Cameron Hughes, Jake Linhart, Ryan Wagner, Jack Dougherty, Jason Ford, Corbin McGuire, Adam Rockwood), the most freshmen in a game for Wisconsin since Jan. 18, 2004, when 10 Badgers skated for UW in a 3-1 loss to Notre Dame at the Kohl Center (Brian Elliott, Matt Olinger, Ryan Suter, Jeff Likens, Jake Dowell, Andy Brandt, Robbie Earl, Andrew Joudrey, Mark Heatley, Ross Carlson).
• UW will skate eight games this season against WCHA teams, including Alaska, Alaska Anchorage and Northern Michigan, who they already played, as well as Ferris State this week and Michigan Tech for two-game series in January.
• Freshman forward Matt Ustaski (Glenview, Illinois) scored Wisconsin’s first goal of the season with a tally at 2:31 of the second period on Oct. 11 at Alaska Anchorage. The goal, which tied the game at 1-1, made Ustaski the first Badger freshman since Michael Davies to score the team’s first goal of the year. Davies opened the scoring for the 2006–07 season with a goal against Northern Michigan on Oct. 6, 2006, at the Resch Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Wisconsin won the game, 3-0.
• UW returns its three goaltenders from last season, including Hobey Baker Award and Mike Richter Award finalist Joel Rumpel. The senior was third in the nation with a .789 winning percentage (21-6-1) in 2013–14, 10th in the country with a 2.07 goals-against average and seventh with a .929 save percentage.
Some of Rumpel’s numbers are among the best in UW history. His 49 career victories are tied for ninth all-time with two-time NCAA MVP Marc Behrend and are just two away from tying for the top-five career total for a UW goaltender.
Rumpel also boasts nine career shutouts, which is tied for second in UW history, seven behind school record-holder Brian Elliott, who now plays for the NHL’s St. Louis Blues.
The Swift Current, Saskatchewan, native owns UW single-season top-10 marks in victories, save percentage (three seasons), goals-against average (two seasons), win percentage and shutouts (two seasons).
He also posted one of the top-five goaltending win streaks in school history last season, earning victories in nine consecutive starts.
• The Badgers began the season with just 13 of their 26 players having seen collegiate action. Three of the 13 are goaltenders, leaving UW with 10 experienced skaters.
The 10 had combined for 59 goals, 117 assists and 176 points in 631 career games played entering the year, and went scoreless over the first weekend of the season.
2014 Second-Team All-American forward Michael Mersch wrapped up his four-year career at Wisconsin last spring with 67 career goals in 157 games played, while Mark Zengerle completed his four years at UW last spring with 162 points in 151 games played.
UW head coach Mike Eaves left campus after his playing days with 94 goals and 267 points in 160 games played.
• UW’s freshman class includes 11 newcomers and two redshirts. The 11 true freshmen match the 2003–04 team for the most rookies during the Mike Eaves coaching era (2002–present) and the second-most ever listed on a UW preseason roster. Only the 15-member 1974–75 Wisconsin freshman class, that happened to include Mike Eaves, has been larger. That team finished 24-12-2 and with a 19-11-2 WCHA mark to place fourth in the league.
• Freshman forward Matt Ustaski, at 6-6, is the second-tallest skater in UW history. Only 6-7 goaltender Dave McNab, who is currently an assistant general manager with the NHL's Anaheim Ducks, was taller.
Ustaski is taller than eight of the Wisconsin men's basketball team's 16 players.
• Wisconsin will play with co-captains in 2014-15, as senior forward Brad Navin (Waupaca, Wis.) and senior defenseman Chase Drake (Menomonie, Wis.) will share the duties. Senior forward Joseph LaBate (Eagan, Minn.) will serve as the assistant captain.
• Wisconsin enters 2014-15 coming off consecutive conference tournament titles for the first time since capturing the 1982 and 1983 WCHA playoffs. The Badgers won the 2013 WCHA Final Five, then captured the inaugural Big Ten tournament in 2014. Both events took place at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The 2015 Big Ten Tournament takes place at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
• Senior forward Joseph LaBate, a 2011 Vancouver Canucks fourth-round draft pick, enters the season as UW's current career scoring leader with 25 goals and 65 points in 115 games played. LaBate scored 11 goals last season and is UW's lone double-digit goal scorer returning from last year.
• Sophomore forward Grant Besse, a 2013 fifth-round draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks, scored eight goals last season and is tied with senior forward Brad Navin for second on UW in career goals.
• UW goes for its 37th 20-win season, its 26th official NCAA tournament appearance and its third consecutive NCAA bid in 2014-15.
Wisconsin goes for its fifth 20-win season in six years and its ninth in 13 seasons under head coach Mike Eaves. It also goes for its eighth NCAA tournament berth under Eaves.
• UW went 20-6-1 after Dec. 1 during 2013-14, which ranked second for most victories in the nation during that time behind Union's 25 wins. UW's .759 win percentage from Dec. 1 through the rest of the season ranked third behind Union (.867 -- 25-3-2) and Boston College (.808 -- 20-4-2). In 2012-13, UW went 21-6-4 from the start of December through the end of the season, the third-best record in the country over that span.
Over the last two seasons, the Badgers are 41-12-5 from Dec. 1 though the season's end.
• Nine Badgers hail from Wisconsin, more than any other state or province. Other states or provinces represented included Minnesota (six), Illinois (four), British Columbia (three), Connecticut (one), Alberta (One), Ontario (one) and Saskatchewan (one).
• All three Wisconsin coaches are NCAA champions from their playing days with the Badgers. Head Coach Mike Eaves won the 1977 title, while assistant coach Gary Shuchuk won the 1990 NCAA crown and assistant coach Matt Walsh won the 1983 championship.
This marks the first time in the modern era of Badger hockey that all three Badger coaches are UW alumni.
UP NEXT: Wisconsin opens the Big Ten conference season on home ice Dec. 5-6, as the Badgers welcome Penn State to the Kohl Center for a two-game series. Both games will begin at 8 p.m. with Friday's game airing live on ESPNEWS.
