It's Friday, I'm in Love

Monday you can fall apart
Tuesday, Wednesday break my heart
Oh, Thursday doesn't even start
It's Friday I'm in love

BADGER MEN v. Michigan Tech: FRI / SAT 7 PM (Kohl Center)

“You can ask all 28 guys in our locker room. We’re all excited to get back on the ice. We feel like we came up a little bit short against Michigan, and we’re chomping at the bit to get back into game action.” - Derek Stepan [Gabriel]

UW: 8-5-1 overall, 5-4-1 WCHA (last weekend won 7-3 @ MSU, lost 2-3 @ Michigan)
MTU: 3-9-0 overall, 2-8-0 WCHA (last weekend lost 2-5, 2-3 @ Mankato)

Tech's PP is even worse than ours (MTU 11.7%, UW 15.8%), and their PK is downright terrible (64.9%).

Featured on this week's tickets are a couple of players who have been "on the bubble" this year.

Junior forward Podge Turbull saw action in 6 of the first 8 games of the season, but we haven't seen him since. Which I think is a bit of a shame. I'll admit I wasn't a huge fan last year - I thought he could do better than he did. But in the games he's played this season, I think he's shown that he can. Despite registering just 1 point (1G @ Mankato), I though he was solid and provided a lot of energy on the ice whenever he played. And so it appears I'm on the Podge Turbull bandwagon this season, and I sure would like to see him get another shot in the lineup. Unfortunately, it won't be tonight.

Sophomore forward Sean Dolan played in 4 of the first 5 games of the season. He was slated to play last Saturday, but the Badgers opted to go with 11 F and 7 D. And so tonight will be the first time we'll have seen him play in a while, as he's slated to center the 4th line. Dolan has 2 pts this season (1G, 1A), both coming in the Saturday game v. UNH.

Prior to this season, Dolan had been a regular in the Badgers' lineup, playing in 35 game (4-7-11) as a sophomore and 40 games (4-4-8) as a freshman.

Gameday Links
TV:
- Live - Friday TVW, Charter Extra Channel 87, Time Warner; Saturday FSN North
- Tape delay - both nights on The Wisconsin Channel (10 PM game day and 6 PM next day)
Radio: Friday WIBA 1310; Saturday WTSO 1070
Audio webstream: insideBADGERSPORTS ($9.95/mo), WSUM (free), www.pasty.net (free)
Video webstream:
- Live - Saturday only - insideBADGERSPORTS ($9.95/mo)
- Tape delay - both nights - The Wisconsin Channel's live stream (10 PM game day and 6 PM next day)
Live stats: CBS gametracker - Friday, Saturday
Live blog: Worgull (BN)*

* I don't have the direct blog link, but it should be linked on BN's front page at game time.

Weekly Shooutout Winner
This week, BRENDAN SMITH won the shootout over Podge Turbull.

Here are the previous winners and how they did that weekend:
Wk 7: Jordy Murray (0-1-1, E, 1 SOG, injured midway through 1st period on Sat)
Wk 6: Derek Stepan (0-1-1, E)
Wk 5: Jake Gardiner (0-0-0, +4, 3 SOG)
Wk 4: Blake Geoffrion (2-1-3, 10 SOG, +1)
Wk 3: Justin Schultz (0-0-0, E, 1 SOG, looked solid on D to me)
Wk 2: Mike Davies (0-2-0, 6 SOG, and sounds like he played really well)
Wk 1: Podge Turnbull (0-0-0, 5 SOG, and despite being held off the scoresheet I thought he looked really good)

Badger Lines
Mitchell - Geoffrion - C Smith
Lee - Street - Grotting
Bendickson - Stepan - Davies
Bohmbach - Dolan - P Johnson

McDonagh - Gardiner
Smith - Ramage
Goloubef - Schultz

Bennett
Gudmandson

John Mitchell is back in the linuep, and he'll start tonight on the top line. Aaron Bendickson, who started Saturday on the top line, will be taking Jordy Murray's spot on the Stepan-Davies line, as Murray is out with a shoulder injury. Sean Dolan has worked his way back into the lineup to center the 4th line.

The defensive pairings remain the same. Brett Bennett gets the nod in goal on Friday. As usual, I expect Gudmandson on Saturday night but we'll have to wait until Saturday afternoon to hear.

Husky/Huskey lines
Gwilliam -Olson - MacLeod
Schooley- Pietlila - Dobson
Soley - Vlaisavljevich - Bunger
Brown - Witt - Reddick

Kivisto - Nielsen
Cousens- Seigo
Dorlott - Van Wagner

Robinson
Genoe


Or at least that's how Baggot had the lines listed. I'm a bit confused, though, because Dobson, Vlaisavljevich, and Bunger are all defensemen. *shrug*

(I can't remember who originally posted the above photo or which school it was from (not UW).)

Fellow Tech alum Imaginary Dave tells me nice things about Wisconsite Brett Olson, but he has neglected to tell me that Olson is currently leading the Huskies in scoring (6-8-14). D'OH!

We'll also get to see Wisconsite Seth Soley play tonight, but Imaginary Dave doesn't say much about him.

Captain Malcolm Gwilliam is in the lineup tonight after not skating Monday or Tuesday in practice. Gwilliam was granted a rare sixth year of eligibility after suffering a stroke last year caused by a blood clot originating in a small hole in his heart. You can read about it here and here. (Thanks to crazypotoatoes for the links.)

Bennett Royer and Jordan Baker are out due to injury, as is Milos Gordic, who suffered a season-ending injury.

Eric Kattelus is out indefinitely after being suspended by the team at the beginning of the season for violating team rules. I'm sure Imaginary Dave told me something about this, but I sure can't remember.

Series Previews
uwbadgers: preview, game notes
mtu: preview, game notes
Baggot (WSJ): UW Men's Hockey vs. Michigan Tech
Baggot (WSJ blog): Murray's injury prompts Eaves to make changes
Warvie (Mining Gazette): Injury bug is back for Huskies
Henson (Badger Herald): Hockey to take on Tech at Kohl Center
Gabriel (Daily Cardinal): Badgers return home with a chance to pick up points

Other Articles/Links
uwbadgers: Stepan and Smith earn WCHA laurels
uwbadgers: Stepan, Gardiner, Ramage on preliminary 2o10 US Junior Team roster
Baggot (WSJ): Stepan steps us his assertiveness
Baggot (WSJ blog): Five good minutes with Scott Gudmandson
Baggot (WSJ blog): Stat of the week
uwbadgers: Mike Eaves' weekly presser
Holt (Badger Herald): Wisconsin working on manufacturing goals
Savidge (Badger Herald): Wisconsin Hockey: Celebrating 40 years in the WCHA
Baggot (WSJ): The Weekend that Was in the WCHA

A couple of interesting quotes from the Holt article:

“As a matter of fact, we’ve played pretty well. The challenge has been for us to finish, to score goals,” Eaves said. “If we were to take that whole spectrum of boom or bust, I don’t think that’s an honest perspective of how we’ve played.”

“I look at the difference between some of the games where we scored seven goals, and some of the games where we only scored two and lost by a goal — I think the biggest difference was we were shooting a lot more from the outside in those [losses],” he said. “We’ll still be generating a lot of shots, but we’re making it a little bit easier on the goalies.

The Usual Suspects
CHN: Tale of the Tape
USCHO: This Week in the WCHA (Spisak), What I Think (Milewski), Tuesday Morning Quarterback (Milewski/Connelly, USCHO Extra)
INCH: Friday Four-cast (national notebook), First Shift (national notebook), Minnesota not fazed by Mariucci (WCHA notebook)
Goon's World: Weekend Match-ups (Sioux7)

HatchetJoe says . . .
"Numoshuk me'shak konkiwin e' shegtukwok nwepugna shishi".......Potawatomi for "Dog that come from Land of Large Lake with much snow on frozen ground gonna git ass kicked".


BADGER WOMEN v. Duluth Foreign Legion: FRI / SUN 2 PM (Kohl Center)

UW: 9-5-2 overall, 6-4-0 WCHA (last weekend 2-2, 4-1 @ Providence)
DFL: 12-6-0 overall, 8-4-0 WCHA (last weekend 3-0, 5-1 @ BC)

Gameday Links
TV: none
Radio: none
Audio webstream: WSUM (free) - no confirmation
Video webstream: bigtennetwork ($2.99/game)
Live stats: CBSSports gametracker - Friday, Sunday
Live blog: none (away games only)

Series Previews
uwbadgers: preview, game notes
umdbulldogs: preview
Erickson (Badger Herald): UMD welcome in Kohl Center


Other Articles/Links
uwbadgers: DeKeyser's weekly presser
Jakiel (uwbadgers blog): Rhode Island
Baggot (WSJ): Steady as she goes in air or on ice
Hager (Badger Herald): Ammerman playing steady during rocky season
umdbulldogs: Wilson nets her second WCHA Rookie of the Week honor