Badgers lead WCHA ‘Final Six’ into NCAA
By John Gilbert
Five of the six WCHA teams that were selected to play in the 16-team NCAA tournament this week — St. Cloud State, Minnesota, North Dakota, Denver, and Minnesota State-Mankato — are primed to get a second chance to regroup and show their best stuff in the win-or-go-home NCAA, with hopes a national championship might be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
But the sixth team, Wisconsin, is so used to playing, and succeeding, with the same win-or-else obstacle, the Badgers would just as soon have nothing change.
Just like in the NCAA field, only one team can win the championship in the WCHA Final Five, and that team was Wisconsin, which continued its upward surge that has carried the Badgers since the end of November. After starting 1-7-2 in their first 10 games, the Badgers have soared to a 21-5-5 mark, for a 22-12-7 overall record as they embark on a very challenging NCAA schedule.
Freshman Nic Kerdiles, who formed a strong connection with linemate Tyler Barnes as they finished 1-2 in Final Five scoring — Kerdiles 3-3–6 and Barnes 4-1–5 — had an ineligiblity issue with contact from an agent after being drafted on the second round by Anaheim, and missed the first 10 games. Ten games was precisely when the Badgers went 1-7-2, so they are 22-12-7 with him in the lineup. They flank center Mark Zengerle on the top line that suddenly has emerged as a dangerous unit, every shift.
Behind their play, and that smothering defense, the Badgers rose form a three-way tie for fourth, fifth, and sixth in the WCHA to claim the automatic slot in the NCAA field by winning the Final Five, and coach Mike Eaves and his players knew that they came to the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with the task of winning three games in three days, or being done for the season.
Eaves was asked if this, because of the slow start, has been his most challenging season. “Challenging?” he said. “I’d say it was one of the most enjoyable.”
The start was puzzling, he acknowledged. “We weren’t playing terrible hockey,” Eaves said. “We were playing well, we just weren’t coming up with the big goal when we needed it. I was just trying to say the right things to these young men to keep them coming back.”
There was no question they were coming back. Captain John Ramage said: “At the start, even though we didn’t win, we knew exactly what kind of team we had. If we didn’t feel that, we wouldn’t be here rightd now. Our confidence level is high, and we’re riding high — we just want to keep it going.”
Wisconsin is in the Northeast Regional, as the tournament’s No. 14 seed, where the first opponent is Hockey East power Massachusetts-Lowell, the No. 3 overall seed, in a 3:30 p.m. game on Friday at Manchester, N.H. The other teams in the Northeast are No. 7 New Hampshire, also from Hockey East, against Denver, No. 9, from the WCHA, at 7 p.m. The winners collide on Saturday, at 5:30.
The other WCHA entries are also spaced, two each, in the West Regional at Grand Rapids, Mich., where Minnesota, No. 2 overall, opens the tournament at 1 p.m. Friday against No. 15 Yale from the ECAC, with No. 8, North Dakota, facing No 10 Niagara at 4:30 p.m. Those winners play Saturday at 3 p.m.
In the Midwest Region, at Toledo, Ohio, games begin on Saturday, with St. Cloud State, No 13, playing No. 4, Notre Dame of the CCHA, at 12:30 p.m., and MSU-Mankato, No. 11, facing No. 5 Miami at 4 p.m., with the winners meeting Sunday at 3 p.m. for a Frozen Four berth. The East Region, the only one where no WCHA team is slated, also starts Saturday, with No. 1 overall Quinnipiac facing No. 16 Canisius at 4:30 p.m. in Providence, R.I., and No. 6 Boston College, meeting No. 12 Union at 8 p.m. Those winners play at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
As far as using the NCAA tournament to make up for WCHA playoff disappointments, the rest of the entries have a lot of challenges. St. Cloud State won the regular season title, although they were tied on the final day of the season by co-champion Minnesota. Both flopped after sweeping two games to reach the Final Five, with byes into the semifinals. St. Cloud State fell victim to Wisconsin, which pinned a 4-1 defeat on the Huskies. Minnesota was stymied by red-hot Colorado College, which knocked out favored North Dakota 4-3 in overtime, then beat the Golden Gophers 2-0.
As the top seed in the WCHA, the Huskies incomprehensibly were victimized by the NCAA’s computer system, relegated to the No. 13 seed, while co-champ Minnesota is No. 2, after ranking No. 1 a week earlier. The Huskies have a consistently solid team that plays well at both ends of the rink, but they seemed to fall victim to Wisconsin’s tournament rhythm. After winning their first WCHA league title in their final year in the league, the Huskies need no more incentive than to realize they worked six months to prove they are the best team in the WCHA, then they got far less respect than the league champs from the CCHA, Hockey East, or the ECAC.
Meanwhile, nobody has more ground to make up than Denver, which was upset by Colorado College after winning the first game, then losing twice at home to the Tigers, who were, arguably, the hottest team in the Final Five but knew all along it was win the title or else. Denver, it must be noted, has in its history an NCAA title after losing in the WCHA first round but maintaining a high enough rank to still make the NCAA, rested and ready.
North Dakota, stung by the overtime upset loss to CC in the Final Five quarterfinals, had won three straight Final Five titles, and ranks with the Gophers as co-favorites at Grand Rapids, where they could meet for the final time as WCHA rivals, with both teams going to other conferences next fall — Minnesota to the Big Ten and North Dakota to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.
And Minnesota State-Mankato had a rough night in a 7-2 shocker against Wisconsin in the Final Five quarterfinals. The Mavericks, with a solid team and the league’s top goaltender in freshman Stephon Williams, had a miserable night and will welcome the reprieve of the NCAA selection — even though most hockey observers are completely overlooking their chances against powerful Miami.
All those five other teams could pile up a mountain of alibis and excuses for their shortcomings in the Final Five, but only Wisconsin can look back at last weekend knowing they have climbed to the top of one pinnacle, while looking ahead to the next one.
“It didn’t look like that early,” said Badger coach Eaves. “We had injuries, ineligibilities, an assistant coach leaving, and a problem scoring goals. But we are what we are today, because of those lessons we learned back then.”
After their terrible start, which included losing twice to Colorado College in Madison, tying and losing at Minnesota, then losing twice at MSU-Mankato, the Badgers tied and won at Denver, then tied Michigan Tech twice. Then Wisconsin took off, winning seven in a row. Thereafter, the Badgers never lost two games in a row, splitting nonconference games with Miami, sweeping Alaska-Anchorage, tying and losing at North Dakota, tying and winning against Bemidji State, splitting with arch-rival Minnesota, splitting a nonconference pair with Penn State, then sweeping at Nebraska-Omaha, and splitting with St. Cloud State.
Still, the Badgers have hit their peak in playoffs, sweeping Minnesota-Duluth, then beating Mankato, St. Cloud State, and Colorado College in five games that have seen them outscore those foes 21-7, as goaltender Joel Rumpel and the stifling Badger team defense has prevailed.
“They play a different style, and they’re so dialed into it, we were always a step behind,” said CC coach Scott Owens, of the Badgers.
The Broadmoor Trophy, given to the Final Five champion, is the last one Wisconsin will be playing for, and Eaves said, “It’s very special, and we will hold it in high esteem.”
But after his Badgers had won it, and were taking turns holding it high overhead on the Xcel Center ice, Eaves stood smiling on the bench, then walked down the runway to the dressing room, rather than joining them on the ice.
“That’s their moment,” said Eaves. “Watching them get together afterward was really fun, but it’s their moment.”
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About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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