BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Five takeaways from the Wisconsin men's hockey team following its Big Ten Conference series with Minnesota:
One: If the regular season ended today following an intense series split with the Gophers — a 3-2 victory and 3-2 loss — UW would have a bye in the first round of the league playoffs and would likely make the 16-team NCAA tournament. Pretty heady notions for a program that won 12 of 70 games the previous two years. But as far as Wisconsin associate head coach Don Granato is concerned, those possibilities represent distractions for a club that has a lot of work to do. The second-place Badgers (18-11-1 overall, 11-5 with 33 points in league play) have four regular-season games remaining — at Penn State on Friday and Saturday and home for Ohio State on March 10 and 11 — so the focus must remain on the task at hand. That would be preparing for the NIttany Lions, who swept Wisconsin in Madison Feb. 10 and 11 (6-3 and 5-2). "I'd like to think we've been in playoff mode since the season started," Granato said. "I don't ever feel like we just change or elevate from the standpoint that this (moment) is more important. I think Day One was important for different reasons. I don't see any different type of urgency or whatnot. We go into each game with an objective and game plan that we feel will help us best. That's all you can do. You have to stay in the moment."
Two: After splitting with Minnesota at Mariucci Arena, UW is now 10-4 in games played away from the Kohl Center this season (8-3 on the road, 2-1 at neutral sites). Remarkably, nine of those outings have been decided by one goal and the Badgers are 6-3 in those matches.
Three: The Badgers have the fifth-best penalty-killing ratio in the nation at .869, which is significant given the major tests they've faced. They've played 15 games against teams whose power plays currently rank in the top 20 nationally, including Ohio State (first, 29.8 percent), Minnesota (fourth, 26.2), Nebraska-Omaha (sixth, 24.6), Denver (11th, 21.1), Penn State 18th, 19.9) and Michigan (20th, 19.80). Wisconsin is a combined 50-for-61 (82.0) in those outings.
Four: When the season began, first-year UW coach Tony Granato and his staff raved about the number of quality playmakers in their midst. That has shown up in a variety of ways, including the stat sheet. The Badgers are averaging 6.33 assists per game (190 in 30) to rank seventh in the country. The last time their percentage was higher was in 2009-10 (7.02). Prior to that it was 1993-94 (7.0). For some perspective, arguably the two most dominant NCAA title-winners in Wisconsin history were in 1976-77 and '89-90. Those two clubs averaged an incredible 9.6 and 9.04 assists per outing, respectively.
Five: Tucked into that playmaking equation is that four players have double-digit primary assists for UW: Junior center Cameron Hughes with 14, senior right winger Grant Besse and junior left winger Ryan Wagner with 12, and sophomore right winger and captain Luke Kunin with 10. Sophomore center Seamus Malone and freshman center Trent Frederic aren't far behind with eight, while junior defensemen Tim Davison and Jake Linhart have seven apiece.
