Weekend Recap: Colorado College

Badgers Swept on the road once again, 2-4, 1-4

After a Friday night loss that saw his club drop to 0-4-1 on the road this season after finishing 1-6 down the stretch away from the Kohl Center last year, Mike Eaves made a decision he thought might spark his young club. When his players showed up to World Arena Saturday night to avenge Colorado College's 4-2 win from Friday, they found new uniforms in their lockers.

Unfortunately for the Badgers, they can change their jerseys but they can't change their stripes. Wisconsin fell behind just 1:19 into the first period after team captain John Ramage took an early penalty. Colorado College, who came into the weekend leading the country in power play percentage took advantage of the early opportunity, and Scott Winkler gave the Tigers a lead they would never relinquish.

One minute later Colorado College forward Nick Dineen found the net for the third time on the weekend, extending the Tiger lead to 2-0. David Civitarese would make it 3-0 half way through the first period, and Wisconsin had no answer.

Notes from the weekend:

• Despite owning one of the nations worst penalty kill units (54th in the country), the Badgers actually weren't terrible in that area this weekend. CC had 18 opportunities on the weekend and Wisconsin only gave up two goals. While it's far from perfect, holding the #1 power play unit in the country to 2/18 on the weekend should give the Badger penalty killers some confidence.
• Wisconsin forward Mark Zengerle was assessed a 10 minute major on Saturday night for chirping to the officials. Eaves benched Zengerle for 10 more minutes after he got out of the box to teach his young center a lesson.
• After his benching, Zengerle extended his consecutive games point streak to 13 games. Although after the game in talking with the Wisconsin State Journal's Andy Baggot, Zengerle said he doesn't care about points, he wants to win.
  

"The point streak doesn't mean anything," he said. "Ultimately it's about getting wins."

• Wisconsin split the goaltending duties over the weekend with Joel Rumpel getting thestart on Friday and Landon Peterson getting the nod on Saturday. This wasn't too surprising given the physical demands of playing at a high altitude in Colorado Springs. Rumpel stopped 26 of 30 shots, and Peterson stopped 23 of 27.
  
• Wisconsin out-shot Colorado College on the weekend 58-57 which is something that has been an issue for the Badgers all season. Last Saturday Wisconsin only put 14 shots up against Minnesota.
  
• Freshman forward Brendan Woods was inadvertently kicked out of Friday nights game and the officials didn't realize the mistake until he had already showered and started getting ready. Woods was assessed a 5 minute major for grabbing the face mask but one of the assistant referees thought it was an automatic ejection and ushered him off the ice. After realizing the mistake Woods was allowed to return to the game. Woods had a goal earlier in the game on Friday.
• Wisconsin will be at home over the holiday weekend to face Mercyhurst. The Lakers shouldn't be overlooked, as they are actually ranked higher in the RPI (32 to 41) than the Badgers.

Wisconsin Weekend Player Points (G-A-Pts)

Mark Zengerle 1-1-2
Justin Schultz 0-2-2
Frankie Simonelli 0-2-2
Brendan Woods 1-0-1
Keegan Meuer 1-0-1

WCHA Movers and Shakers

Minnesota State @ Minnesota-Duluth: UMD sweep
Nebraska-Omaha @ Denver: Denver 3 points
Michigan Tech @ Alaska Anchorage: Split
North Dakota @ Bemidji State: Split
St. Cloud/Minnesota home and home: Split

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