Badgers 6 - Seawolves 3

(Photo courtesy of Redheat15)

A bit of a stressful game for Badger fans at home, I think. First, the Badgers gave up an early goal, and then later after taking a 3 goal lead, they let the Seawolves climb back to within 1, which was a little scary after the recent collapse v. Northern. But the Badgers were able to hold the lead, scoring 3 more goals to win 6-3 (ENG). Nice!

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game blogs: Capobianco, Milewski
uwbadgers: Badgers sweep Seawolves, move to 2nd in WCHA
Nevala (WSJ): Badgers move into 2nd

All-American candidate Jamie McBain was named the Badgers' Player of the Game by Mike Cerniglia during the postgame radio show. With 1 goal and 1 assist, McBain had his 9th multi-point game of the season. With 4 goals and 22 assists, McBain leads all defensemen in the nation in points and assists. Among all skaters, he's 2nd in the WCHA and tied for 11th in the nation in points. And of course he leads the Badgers in points.

I was surprised to hear that the Badgers are the only team to sweep the Seawolves this season. But it's true. And hey, we did it twice! Nice work, Badgers!

I was also surprised to hear that this was the Badgers first road sweep since Denver during the 06-07 1st-round WCHA playoffs. I honestly didn't realize it had been that long, must've blocked that fact out.

6 different Badgers scored last night, but I think I was happiest for Aaron Bendickson. He's worked hard all season (he always does), and it was nice to see him finally get a goal. And it sounds like it was a nice one, too! Here's what Brian Posick had to say:

Aaron Bendickson undressed a defensemen, cuts to the slot, and put it back behind the goaltender for a 5-3 Wisconsin lead.

And speaking of nice goals, Sean Dolan had a pretty nice goal as well. From the WSJ:

The highlight-reel offering of the period came thanks to Sean Dolan at 16:29. After gathering Grotting's clearing flip at center ice, Dolan faked a toe drag on defenseman Trevor Hunt, instead rifling a shot high above Christianson's left shoulder.

And of course we're always happy to see Tom Gorowsky score on an assist from Andy Bohmbach. Gorowsky scored the Badgers 1st goal of the evening, and the goal involved hard work by all 3 players on the top line. Here's what Capobianco had to say:

Great shift by the UW's first line ends in a Gorowsky goal on his own rebound. Great work behind the UAA net by Bohmbach, who knocks a puck out of the air to keep possession. Geoffrion helped out the work as well and some nice passing back and forth ends with Gorowsky scoring from in front.

On the radio, Posick/Cerniglia said that Gorowsky kept getting his own rebound on that play and finally scored on his 4th shot.

It sounds like the top line played well all night, as it's not the only time I saw/heard "great shift by the top line" or something to that effect during the night.

Your other Badger goals were scored by Blake Geoffrion (PP), All-American candidate Jamie McBain, and Ben Grotting (EN).

I can't end this post without commenting on Derek Stepan. Based on what I heard/read (I opted to listen to Posick/Cerniglia rather than watch the Seawolves video), it appears that Stepan had another nice night. He had 2 assists, and it sounds like he generated some nice scoring chances and played quite well on the PK.