BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Five takeaways on the Wisconsin men's hockey team following its Big Ten Conference series with Penn State:
One: If someone had told you three months ago UW would be in title contention heading into the final weekend of the regular season, you would have laughed. Loudly. Yet that's a storyline for the Badgers going into their Big Ten series with Ohio State on Friday and Saturday at the Kohl Center. They tumbled into second place and need help to overtake front-running Minnesota after their road split with the Nittany Lions — a 7-4 win and a 6-0 loss — but the moment begs for some perspective. Remember that Wisconsin (19-12-1 overall, 12-6 with 36 points in the Big Ten) mustered five league victories and 26 points combined from 2014 to '16. The 16th-ranked Badgers were projected to finish fifth in the six-school Big Ten — certainly nowhere near a berth in the 16-team NCAA tournament field — yet are on the verge of securing a first-round bye for the league playoffs that run March 16 to 18 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
Two: Wisconsin followed up one of its most impressive showings of the season with one of its poorest. The 11th-ranked Nittany Lions have the best home record in the league at 14-5-1, but the Badgers scored five or more goals for the 13th time this season — their most since 18 in 2009-10 — and wound up scoring a season-high in goals for an opponent at Pegula Ice Arena. One night later, UW was shut out for the second time this season and suffered its most one-sided road loss since a 6-0 setback at Boston College on Oct. 16, 2015. The Badgers have allowed six or more goals in a game on five occasions. Two have come vs. Penn State.
Three: The top three scorers for UW — sophomore right winger and captain Luke Kunin (20 goals, 15 assists, 35 points), freshman center Trent Frederic (15-17-32) and junior center Cameron Hughes (7-23-30) — were held point-less in the Penn State series. That's the first time it's happened over the course of a weekend to Frederic and Hughes this season. Kunin was held off the score sheet vs. Boston College on Oct. 14 and 16.
Four: Wisconsin has been a part of two leagues during the modern era — the Western Collegiate Hockey Association from 1969-70 to 2012-13 and the Big Ten from 2013-14 to the present — yet has had only one Coach of the Year recipient. That was the late Bob Johnson in 1976-77 while guiding the Badgers to WCHA regular-season, playoff and NCAA titles. It's hard to imagine a scenario where first-year coach Tony Granato's name isn't added to that list in the coming weeks when all-league award ballots are distributed.
Five: Thanks to a career-best three-point outing by junior right winger Will Johnson in the win over Penn State, the Badgers now have eight players with 20 points or more this season. Johnson (9-12-21) joins a list that includes Kunin, Frederic, Hughes, sophomore center Seamus Malone (10-18-28), senior right winger Grant Besse (9-19-28), junior winger Ryan Wagner (9-18-27) and junior defenseman Jake Linhart (6-16-22). The last time UW had more 20-point sources was 2009-10 with 10.
