Stalock, Stalock!!! (sucks)

What a wonderful weekend of hockey up here in Duluth. I have some pictures from the DUMP, oh I mean the DECC, and I'll be posting those as the week goes on. The Duluth student section thought Stalock, Stalock!! was a good cheer, I guess it would be if he wasn't a huge sieve.

Friday the Badgers gave another one away, but they held on for the tie. A very strong 1st period was followed by the worst 2nd period I've seen this season. Blake Geoffrion got the team back into it w/ a few goals in the 3rd. Patrick Johnson accepted his task once again owning Alex Stalock to open the scoring in the game. Here are some articles for your enjoyment:

TCT (Milewski): UW's lead is short-lived in tie
The Ice House: Game Report (includes live blog)
WSJ (Baggot): Justice served in Duluth
uwbadgers.com (Capobianco): Game Day Blog

From Todd's blog, Geoffrion: "We didn't play 60 minutes tonight, and we've got to play 60 minutes. That's the bottom line. Our first and third period I thought were pretty good. That's the way we want to play consistently. The second period, I don't know where we went, myself included. We weren't bearing down at the blue lines and weren't getting pucks in. We're happy with the tie. We could be better."


Saturday was a pretty exciting night for the Badger fans in attendance. Wisconsin controlled the game for the majority, other than some stretches in the 3rd period when Duluth really brought the pressure. Connelly was huge in goal once again. Chris Hickey notched his first Badger goal and Tom Gorowsky was there early in the 2nd getting the eventual game winner. Tom had a great night. I've been pretty hard on Podge Turnbull, but its nice to see Wisconsin get a SH goal for once, as he was in the right place at the right time. Andy Bohmbach sealed the deal w/ the ENG. That second (corrected by author) goal of the season has been a long time coming for Andy who has played great all season long. His emergence from a 4th line grinder only playing half of last season, to a significant contributor during all facets of play is great, and Gorowsky had a beautiful assist connecting two of the hardest working players on the team for the final goal.

{Edited since it wasn't Andy's first goal of the season. Not sure how I missed the first one, now I feel like a MSNBC anchor during the 2008 election, spewing information w/ out actually knowing what I'm talking about.}

TCT (Milewski): Unbeaten streak rolls on with win over Bulldogs
The Ice House: Game Report
WSJ (Baggot): Success sustained in Duluth
uwbadgers.com (Capobianco): Game Day Blog

From TCT article, "With the schedule we had and the people we played and where we were, it's a little bit of a measurement of us," said Badgers coach Mike Eaves, whose team moved into a tie for third place, albeit having played two more games than the rest of the pack. "We've come a ways, but we know we have a ways to go."


The Badgers continue to improve every weekend. Three things that stick out to me. 1) the Badgers still need to improve their 5x5 play, its better than @ Denver for instance but it still needs work. 2) too many penalties plain and simple. If St. Cloud's PP is as good as last year, could be trouble next weekend. 3) Need to get 60 minutes of hockey each evening, close on saturday, but everyone need to play hard every shift. I'll add a fourth thing too, 4) the 2nd PP unit is HORRIBLE! Why is Patrick Johnson and Matt Thurber sitting on the bench in favor of 3 defensemen? Ratty was good enough for the PP last season, but not now? The 2nd unit was bad both nights, thankfully the 1st unit has meshed really well.

I saw Jake Gardiner get outskated late in the 3rd period saturday. I thought he was as fast as the wind. John Mitchell didn't have the best weekend either, I hope he's not trying to do too much based on his success last season.

Giving credit where its due, great weekends were had by Tom Gorowsky, Blake Geoffrion, Shane Connelly and Andy Bohmbach.