It's Friday, I'm in Love

I don't care if Mondays black
Tuesday, Wednesday - heart attack
Thursday, never looking back
It's Friday, I'm in love

BADGER MEN v Michigan Tech: FRI / SAT 7PM

I think Friday was kind of an eye-opener for a lot of guys, for a lot of the freshmen, just seeing how hard the WCHA is going to be. I think the guys saw how quickly points can slip away on Saturday. - Scott Gudmanson

Coming out of Denver with a point is okay, but we’re not real satisfied with that, we felt we let a couple games slip there. - Podge Turnbull

We know that we need four points this weekend, that’s our goal for this weekend. - Sean Dolan [Holt]

We’d like to know a little more about both these teams, so what better way to find out than by having them playing each other in Madison this weekend? The Badgers have dominated lesser opponents Holy Cross and Alabama-Huntsville, but are 0-2-1 against ranked foes Boston College and Denver. A better showing against a quality team would give Wisconsin a boost. The question surrounding Michigan Tech is, are the Huskies a quality team? Off to a 3-0-2 start, Tech is, at worst, vastly improved, and has been scoring goals (24 of ‘em) in bunches. That said, the combined record of the teams they’ve played to date is an underwhelming 3-9-5. The trip to Mad Town will provide a measuring stick. - Mike Eidelbes [INCH]

UW: 0-1-1 WCHA, 3-2-1 overall (last weekend 2-4 and 2-2 @ DU)
MTU: 1-0-1 WCHA, 3-0-2 overall (last weekend 5-2 and 5-5 v Mankato)

Gameday Links
TV:
- Friday (none)
- Saturday: live - WISC, Charter Xtra, Time Warner Sports; tape delay (11PM) - Wisconsin Channel
Radio: Friday/Saturday WIBA 1310
Audio webstream: insideBADGERSPORTS ($9.95/mo), Pasty.net (free)
Video webstream
- Friday: insideBADGERSPORTS ($9.95/mo)
- Saturday: for those outside Wisconsin - insideBADGERSPORTS ($9.95/mo)
Live stats: uwbadgers - Fri, Sat
Live blog: - Capobianco (uwbadgers), Worgull (BN)?

Weekly Shooutout Winner
This week, RYAN LITTLE won the shootout.

Previous Winners:
10/21 Jefferson Dahl
10/14 Keegan Meuer

Badger Lines
Jordy Murray - Craig Smith - Mark Zengerle
Tyler Barnes - Derek Lee - Podge Turnbull
Patrick Johnson - Sean Dolan - Ryan Little
Michael Mersch - Jefferson Dahl - Gavin Hartzog

Jake Gardiner - John Ramage
Justin Schultz - Frankie Simonelli
Craig Johnson - Joe Faust

Scott Gudumandson
Brett Bennett

Just one change on the forward lines, flip-flopping Mike Mersch and Tyler Barnes, with Barnes getting a chance on the second line. On D, Joe Faust is in and Eric Springer is out, and the pairings have been switched up a bit. Gardiner remains with Ramage, but Schultz and Johnson have been separated so that each is paired with a freshman. Goody gets the start in net on Friday, and your guess is as good as mine as to who we'll see on Sat.

Husky lines
Bennett Royer - Brett Olson - Milos Gordic
Ryan Furne - Eric Kattelus - Jacob Johnstone
Aaron Pietila - Daniel Holmberg - Alex MacLeod
Mikael Lickteig - Patrick McCadden - Dennis Rix

Deron Cousens - Carl Nielsen
Daniel Sova - Steve Seigo
Tommy Brown - Ricky Doriott

Kevin Genoe
Josh Robinson

Jordan Baker and Anthony Schooley are out with injuries.

Keep an eye #16 Brett Olson. A junior from Superior, WI, he's centering the top line and he's fun to watch until he scores against your team. It sounds like sophomore D Steve Seigo, senior F Eric Kattelus, senior F Bennett Royer, and freshman F Milos Gordic are also playing well so far.

The Huskies have 9 freshman on the roster and, like the Badgers, have 7 freshmen in tonight's lineup. Baggot tells us that they're big, and that's not really a surprise; Tech has always liked the big players.

The Huskies have a tendency to start the season strong, having a better first-half of the season than the second-half. But this year they're starting stronger than usual, as they're undefeated in their first 5 games, giving them their best start since 1978. Despite not having faced any top teams yet, that's a pretty darn good start.

Series Previews
uwbadgers: preview, game notes
michigantechhuskies: preview, game notes
Baggot (WSJ): Lineup for Tech has some new wrinkles
Evans (Daily Cardinal): Wisconsin to open WCHA home slate
Holt (Badger Herald): Badgers hope to hand Huskies 1st loss
Warvie (Daily Mining Gazette): Scoring balance key to start
Erickson (Michigan Tech Lode): Hockey huskies ready for challenge in Madison against Badgers

Other Articles/Links
uwbadgers: Mike Eaves' weekly presser
Lucas (uwbadgers): Zengerle makes instant impact
Baggot (WSJ): Off to a hot start, Zengerle is compared to Davies
Baggot (WSJ): Five good minutes with Frankie Simonelli
Henson (Badger Herald): Johnson finally finding role as a senior

The Usual Suspects
CHN: Tale of the Tape
USCHO: This week in the WCHA (Spisak), Weekend of Oct 22-24 (Spisak)
INCH: WCHA notebook, Friday Four-cast, First Shift

HatchetJoe says . . .
Michael Mersch for Hobey . . .
(Once again, I unsuccessfully tried to get HatchetJoe to mix it up a bit and give me a different quote. Next time, I'm going to offer him a case of Schlitz and see if that helps.)