BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Five takeaways from the Wisconsin men's hockey team following its non-conference games with Colorado College and Denver:
One: There are few trips that will provide as much competitive diversity as the one the Badgers (7-5 overall) just made to the rarified air of the Rocky Mountains. They played a struggling club on an Olympic-sized ice sheet and emerged from a defensive struggle with a 2-1 victory over CC (3-9). One night later they then faced an elite opponent on an NHL-sized ice surface and came up just short in a 6-5 shootout with the second-ranked Pioneers (9-2-3). "A great developmental weekend," UW associate head coach Don Granato said. "As a coach, your job and responsibility is to help make your team better. Given those factors, this trip we became much better as a team."
Two: The Badgers have faced two of the best clubs in the nation in Denver and Boston College (11-3-1). Both opponents are ranked in the top 10 in team defense, but Wisconsin not only knocked off BC — a 3-1 decision in the home opener Oct. 14 — it scored five goals in a game vs. both. Yes, both were in losses, including an 8-5 setback vs. the Eagles on Oct. 15, but UW is clearly making strides on offense.
Three: Another encouraging development from the loss at Denver is that Wisconsin squeezed off 42 shots, easily the most allowed this season by the Pioneers. Their ultra-tough schedule includes BC, Ohio State (8-1-4), Western Michigan (7-3-2), Boston University (7-4-1) and defending NCAA champion North Dakota (7-5-3).
Four: The hand injury to freshman center Trent Frederic has forced UW head coach Tony Granato to assess other line combinations and power play options. One combo that intrigues is junior left winger Ryan Wagner, junior center Cameron Hughes and sophomore right winger and captain Luke Kunin. They combined for a whopping 22 shots on goal vs. Denver. Wagner had eight and the other two had seven apiece.
Five: Wisconsin has mostly thrived on special teams this season. It ranks sixth nationally in power play conversion ratio (.243 percent) and eighth in penalty-killing (.889) to join Michigan and Bemidji State as the only schools to be in the top 10 in both categories. But a major test awaits the UW in Nebraska-Omaha, which comes to the Kohl Center for a non-conference series Friday and Saturday. The Mavericks have the No. 1 power play in the nation (.325). Omaha has scored more than half its goals overall on the power play (25 of 49).
