MHKY G18: Badgers 4 - Sioux 3

“After the first period, we as a coaching staff addressed some issues that we felt were imperative and gave them some of our passion. They went out and played much better. In the third period, the leadership had ownership of the team at that point.” - Mike Eaves

“He's not going to crack under pressure, that's for sure. These last two nights have been some pretty high-pressure games and he's come up big and that's huge to show your teammates that.” - Ben Street, talking about Scott Gudmandson

“It's great for his confidence, great for our team's confidence in him. We always knew he had it in him, but it's good that he had to show that this early in the season.” - Blake Geoffrion, talking about Scott Gudmandson

Box: uwbadgers, collegehockeystats
Recaps:
- uwbadgers: UW edges UND, 4-3
- fightingsioux: Dominant first period not enough as Sioux fall to Badgers
- Baggot (WSJ): Gudmandson responds, helps Badgers dump Fightin Sioux
- Miller (USCHO): Gudmandson stops 31 as Wisconsin edges North Dakota
- Schlossman (GF Herald): Sioux men fall to Badgers
Blogs: Capobianco (uwbadgers), Schlossman (GF Herald blog)


Schlossman tells us that Sioux senior Darcy Zajac will miss the next 4-6 weeks due to an undisclosed injury.

I had to listen to the 1st period on the radio, but dang, the 1st period sounded brutal for the Badgers -- 3 SOG the whole period? 17 Sioux SOG? -- but hey, I'm willing to overlook that because Gudmandson was outstanding during the 5-on-3 PK and made a definite statement that the team can rely on him in net. Not that I think the team didn't feel that way before, Goody has played well all year, but I think his play during that 5-on-3 put a bit of an exclamation point on things, and that makes me happy.

Besides, it was also nice to see how the Badgers responded in the 2nd and 3rd after a less-than-stellar 1st period. Good stuff.

And it was nice to see the Badgers score 3 PP goals. It's one thing for the Badgers to hang a gazillion PP goals on Michigan Tech (whose PK is brutal), but it's something else entirely for the Badgers to go 3-for-7 on the PP v. North Dakota. Eidsness didn't play all that well last night, but nonetheless it was good to see the Badgers' PP clicking.

Oh, and being who I am, I can't neglect to post this excerpt from Baggot's game story:

They don't appear on the stat sheet, but the fourth line of senior left winger Andy Bohmbach, sophomore center Matt Thurber and junior right winger Patrick Johnson were major contributors. Their energy and effort in all three zones kept the Badgers in a rhythm all night.

"They gave us great minutes," UW coach Mike Eaves said after his club improved to 6-1-1 at The Ralph since 2005-06.

I suppose I may as well add that the officiating this weekend was terrible. You might think that it goes without saying, we've come to expect less-than-stellar officiating, but it seemed to me that Todd Anderson and Peter Friesema were especially inconsistent this weekend. I have pretty low standards -- officiating is never perfect, and there will be poor calls that your team just has to play past -- but wow . . .