Davies Leads Badgers To Showdown Title

With Sophomore sensation Derek Stepan gone for the weekend playing with Team USA in the World Junior Championship, the Badgers knew they needed a forward to step up and play a big role in an important weekend.

Senior forward Michael Davies apparently put on his big boy Bauers this weekend.

The 5'8 forward from St. Louis had his best weekend as a Badger and capped it off with a three goal night in the last ever Badger Hockey Showdown Championship.

In a performance that left a lot to be desired, the Badgers got an "official" tie in an important game against a very good Yale squad. After an awful first period, the Badgers got two goals from Davies in the second. In the third period, the Badgers played bonehead hockey and took late penalties that led to Yale tying the game and forcing OT.

After overtime went scoreless, they held a shootout to determine the winner (Shootouts do not count towards official records).

Before the game the coaches of each team are forced to submit the names and order of three potential shooters in case of a tie. For Eaves it was simple, Davies, Smith, and Geoffrion.

"Getting the first goal is really important and I think Michael would be a good guy for that," Eaves said.

After Davies scored in the shootout, Smith was denied. Senior captain Blake Geoffrion stepped up and scored the winner after goaltender Scott Gudmandson stopped two out of three Yale shooters.

Many people will look at the negatives of the game and how the Badgers played outside of Davies performance. Coach Eaves looks at it a different way.

"Is the glass half full or half empty?" Eaves asked rhetorically. "These kids did a (expletive) of a job tonight."

The tie leaves the Badgers in fifth place in the all important Pairwise Rankings, just on the outside of a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. I think now in the season is where you can start following the rankings religiously. If the season ended today, the WCHA would land an absolutely absurd six teams in the NCAA tournament.

(Quotes from Baggots game recap)

Photo courtesy of RedHeat15