Can you feel it? I am starting to feel it. We're less than five hours away from Frozen Four Semi-Final number 1 between Wisconsin and RIT.Wisconsin enters this contest after playing two strong games against Vermont and St. Cloud at the West Regional in St. Paul two weeks ago. RIT enters today riding a high after upsetting two of the top teams in the nation in Denver and New Hampshire.
What it's going to take for RIT to win:
It starts in the nets with Jared DeMichiel who has been on an unreal hot stretch as of late. He's going to have to play out of his mind for RIT to have a chance. Wisconsin is one of the highest scoring teams in the country and they get a ton of shots on goal. The first defense pairing of Dan Ringwald and Chris Tanev will probably play at least 30 minutes today and they are going to have to play the games of their lives.
Offensively they are going to have to capitalize on the Badgers mistakes. I don't think they are going to beat Wisconsin playing straight up so they may have to get a bit tricky. RIT likes to play low scoring games and capitalize on other teams mistakes. They are going to need to stick to this strategy to have a chance today. If they get into an up and down game with the Badgers they will get their doors blown off. Expect a lot of play in RIT's end.
What will it take for Wisconsin to win:
Wisconsin needs to be the aggressor and take their game at RIT at full speed. RIT likes to play lock down hockey and get a goal and sit on a lead. The Badgers need to come out right off the bat and get an early lead. If RIT gets down they are going to need to take more chances offensively and Wisconsin can exploit that any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
As usual, the Badgers need Scotty Gudmandson to step his game up. He's been good enough to get us this far, hopefully he can get us a little further. Like I've said all season, we don't need him to win us any games, we just need him not to lose us any games. If Scotty plays solid, we'll be alright.
Also, our special teams are going to be very important today. We're pretty much unbeatable when our PP is clicking. If the Badgers can convert a couple of times on the PP, they will be ok.
Badger Lines
Andy Bohmbach-Blake Geoffrion-Craig Smith
Ben Street-Derek Stepan-Michael Davies
John Mitchell-Aaron Bendickson-Jordy Murray
Podge Turnbull-Sean Dolan-Ben Grotting
Ryan McDonagh-Jake Gardiner
Brendan Smith-John Ramage
Cody Goloubef-Justin Schultz
Scott Gudmandson
RIT Lines
Stevan Matic-Cameron Burt-Sean Murphy
Taylor McReynolds-Mark Cornacchia-Mike Janda
Scott Knowles-Adam Hartley-Brent Alexin
Tyler Mazzei-Andrew Favot-Tyler Brenner
Dan Ringwald-Chris Tanev
Chris Saracino-Chris Haltigin
Alan Mazur- Daniel Spivak
Jared DeMichiel
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