Wisconsin opens conference season with Penn State series
December 03, 2014 | Men's Hockey
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Wisconsin (1-8-1, 0-0-0-0 Big Ten) opens Big Ten play with a home series against Penn State (7-4-2, 1-1-0-0 Big Ten) on Friday and Saturday at the Kohl Center. Both games begin at 8 p.m.
Friday’s game airs live on ESPNEWS with John Buccigross and UW Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner Blake Geoffrion calling the action. The duo will be appearing on Thursday beginning at 7 p.m. at The Nitty Gritty to talk college hockey.
The game on Saturday will air on American Sports Network (Madison: WMSN-2, Milwaukee: WCGV, Eau Claire: WQOW-2, Wausau-Rhinelander: WFSX-2, LaCrosse: WXOW-2).
| Game 11/12 | Wisconsin (1-8-1, 0-0-0-0) vs. Penn State (7-4-2, 1-1-0-0) | |
| Date | Fri.-Sat., Dec. 5-6, 2014 |
| Location | Madison, Wis. | Kohl Center |
| Television | Friday: ESPNEWS Saturday: American Sports Network |
| Video Stream | Friday: WatchESPN | Saturday: BTN2Go |
| Radio | Friday: WIBA-AM 1310 (Badger Radio Network) Saturday: WTSO-AM 1070 (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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PSU Last Meeting: W, 2-1 -- After falling behind early in the second period, Wisconsin responded with a pair of Michael Mersch tallies and Joel Rumpel won his 20th game of the season with 24 saves to help UW advance to the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 21, 2014.
PSU Series Notes: The teams meet for the eighth and ninth times, including the sixth and seventh times at the Kohl Center ... PSU senior forward Max Gardiner is the brother of former UW defenseman Jake Gardiner ... UW head coach Mike Eaves has connections to Pennsylvania, having spent two stints as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Flyers (1989–90 & 1993–94), two seasons as head coach of the AHL’s Hershey Bears (1991–93) and three seasons as an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins (1997–2000) ... four Badger letterwinners have hailed from Pennsylvania, most notably goatenders Mike Richter and Shane Connelly ... PSU forward Tony Scheid is the son of Jim Scheid, who played at Wisconsin from 1977-81.
KEY NOTES TO CONSIDER
• Wisconsin enters the weekend after an unbeaten home weekend against Ferris State, skating to a 1-1 tie and 5-3 victory over the Bulldogs. UW also won a post-tie shootout after Friday’s 1-1 deadlock.
Penn State dropped a 3-1 decision last weekend against Cornell in a game played Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York.
• Wisconsin snapped its eight-game losing streak last Friday with a tie. The streak was one shy of the longest in school history done three times previously, most recently during the last nine games of the 1996–97 campaign.
UW now boasts a two-game unbeaten streak (1-0-1).
• UW is 2-9-1 in conference openers under coach Mike Eaves, last winning its opener over Minnesota Duluth two seasons ago with a 2-0 road win on Oct. 26, 2012.
• Wisconsin begins December play this weekend, which has been kind to the Badgers over the past two seasons.
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).
After going 1-7-2 over its first 10 games in 2012–13, UW went 21-6-4 from December through the end of the season, the third-best record in the country over that span.
In Wisconsin’s two previous seasons, the Badgers are 41-12-5 from Dec. 1 though the season’s end, after combining for a 5-12-4 record through November.Head coach Mike Eaves is set to coach in his 500th career game for Wisconsin on Saturday. Jeff Sauer coached in 841 games at Wisconsin, while Bob Johnson directed UW for 565 contests.
• Senior goaltender Joel Rumpel (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) totaled 64 saves on 68 shots last weekend to post a tie and victory. The win made Rumpel the eighth goaltender in UW history to record at least 50 victories in his Badger career.
Rumpel is now one away from tying for fifth all-time with three All-American goaltenders in Julian Baretta, Bernd Brückler and Brian Elliott, who all had 51 career UW wins.
• Wisconsin’s special teams were key to its first winning weekend of the season last weekend against Ferris State. For the first time this season, UW scored power-play goals in both games of a weekend, while also going perfect on the penalty kill. The Badgers were 1-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill last Friday, while going 1-for-4 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill last Saturday.
UW now has power-play goals in three consecutive contests after playing its first four and six of its first seven games without scoring with the man advantage. The power play is 3-for-10 over the past three games (30 percent) and has moved up from last (59th) to 45th in the country at 10.3 percent (4-for-39).
UW’s penalty kill was perfect in just two of its first eight games before its consecutive perfect games last weekend against Ferris State. UW’s penalty kill is tied for 47th at 78.1 percent (25-for-32).
UW is among the nation’s least penalized teams in the nation, ranking 53 out of 59 teams with an average of 8.7 penalty minutes per game. Penn State ranks 55th at 8.4 minutes per game.
• Last Saturday was a game of firsts for the Badgers. Wisconsin posted its first win of the season, scored its first first-period goal, freshman forward Corbin McGuire and freshman defenseman Jack Dougherty scored their first career goals, Dougherty scored his first career game-winning and power-play goal, sophomore forward Aidan Cavallini collected his first career point with an assist, senior forward Matt Paape scored his first goal of the season and sophomore forward Grant Besse collected the first multi-goal game of his career.
•Senior forward Matt Paape (Appleton, Wisconsin) scored last Saturday, scoring his fifth career goal, but his first since Jan. 13, 2012 at Minnesota State during his freshman season. Paape went without a goal for 77 games before tallying.
Paape has played 98 career games for UW and can become the third current Badger to play in 100 games at Wisconsin with two games played this weekend. Senior forwards Joseph LaBate (125 GP) and Brad Navin (116) are the only others who have reached the century mark.
• Sophomore forward Grant Besse (Plymouth, Minnesota) tallied twice last Saturday against Ferris State for his first career multi-goal game. Besse leads the Badgers with three goals and six points this season.
• 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 hosts the U.S. Under-18 Team for a game Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. before breaking for Christmas.
