Badgers battle flu bug, pick up split in Duluth

Sorry, don't have time to do a game recap right now. Check out Madison.com, UWBadgers.com, and the Rink and Run blog for more coverage of Saturday night's 3-2 Wisconsin road victory over #5 Minnesota-Duluth.

Wisconsin is now tied for 7th in the all important PWR with Notre Dame.

Badgers blanked at new Amsoil Arena

Some nights you just can't seem to catch a break. Friday night seemed to be one of those for the Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey team. Fifth ranked Minnesota-Duluth's two first period power play goals would hold up for a 2-0 WCHA victory.

Bulldogs goaltender Kenny Reiter (pictured), a junior from Pittsburgh got the shutout. Reiter also shut out the Badgers last season in Duluth at the old DECC. Reiter stopped all 22 Wisconsin shots on Friday night en route to the doughnut.

Wisconsin controlled play early in the game but Reiter came up with a few keys saves to weather the storm. Duluth would jump on the score sheet 13:17 in to the first period on the power play. Duluth forward Justin Fontaine, who was playing the point on the power play snuck in and found a loose puck in the slot and beat Gudmandson to give the Bulldogs a lead they would never relinquish.

Three and a half minutes later the Bulldogs would extend their lead, once again on the power play when Mike Connolly buried another power play goal.

The Badgers would regroup in the second period creating multiple scoring opportunities but were never able to find the twine.

Give credit to Duluth in the third period as they played smart, defensive hockey and shut down the Badgers. They worked the clock and limited the Badgers chances.

Reiter would finish the game with 22 saves. Wisconsin's Scott Gudmandson would finish with 25 saves on 27 shots.

An interesting note Friday night was the fact that Wisoconsin suited up 7 defenseman, inserting Joe Faust into the lineup. We found out why during the broadcast when it was brought to our attention by the UMD radio crew that the Badgers had been hit by the flu bug. Most notably, star sophomore Justin Schultz was feeling the affects of the virus. Schultz only played on the power play most of the first and second period and finally started to see a 5 on 5 shift late in the third period. No word on how many Badgers were affected.

The Badgers will be back in action on Saturday night to avenge the Friday night loss. I think it's safe to assume that senior backstop Scott Gudmandson will be back between the pipes for the Badgers.

chuckschwartz@live.com
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Minnesota-Duluth Week

Ok let's cut right to the chase. The nice 7 game winning streak Wisconsin is on right now is all fine and dandy but winning games against teams who could be confused with Minnesota Junior Hockey League teams isn't something to put your dancing shoes on for.

Wisconsin faces a serious test of how far they have come this season as they travel this weekend to the states northern border where they will take on the fifth ranked Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs who are playing their first full WCHA series in their new barn, Amsoil Arena.

Last weekend Wisconsin broke their ridiculous overtime drought which had spanned multiple seasons in their sweep over Atlantic Hockey foe Canisius.

Sophomore forward Craig Smith had himself a huge weekend for the Badgers en route to being named the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week. The Madison native put together 3 goals and 3 assists including 4 points in the 6-5 OT thriller on Saturday night. With his huge weekend, Smith overtook the team scoring lead from defenseman Justin Schultz. Smith now had 31 points (13 goals) in 24 games for the Badgers.

Speaking of Schultz, it was his goal with eight seconds left in overtime on Saturday which ended the painful streak of not being able to win an overtime game. The goal was Schultz's 13th of the season which ties him for the team lead with Jordy Murray and Craig Smith. Schultz's 30 points currently lead the country in scoring for all defensmen. The next highest scoring defenseman has 26.

Badger goaltender Scott Gudmanson was up to his old tricks on Friday night stopping all 18 shots he faced for his fourth shutout of the season. Gudmandson is having an All-WCHA type season with a .933 save percentage and 1.77 GAA. Brett Bennett got the nod on Saturday night but I would venture to guess that we'll see Scotty both nights this weekend.

Minnesota-Duluth has been no stranger to the win column this season either. They are ranked #3 in the current PWR and are coming off a sweep at Clarkson and an exhibition win over the NTDP.

If you remember, and I'm sure you do, Duluth came into the Kohl Center earlier in the season and left with a full four points. Both games went to overtime and the Friday game ended on an extremely controversial no call when Jake Gardiner was clearly tripped leading to a game winning goal by the Bulldogs.

Since the last time we've seen the Bulldogs there has been some changes. The Connolly's and Fontaine are still great and trying to match the Dolan line up with them all weekend is going to be one of the keys to taking road points. The biggest change for Duluth has been the loss of Dylan Olsen who failed out of school and signed with the Chicago Blackhawks. Olsen was playing some great hockey for UMD and no doubt will be missed. Winger Kyle Schmidt will also be out for the series due to a broken hand. Sophomore defenseman Wade Bergman also reportedly missed some practice time this week.

I'm guessing we'll see both goaltenders for the Bulldogs this weekend, similar to when they were in town earlier in the year. Neither one has been playing spectacular hockey this season. It's kind of crazy looking at their stats because they are almost identical in every category from wins to save percentage.

Another interesting scenario could come up this weekend. If you remember correctly, there was an incident after the game when Duluth first came to town between Aaron Crandall (a former Wisconsin recruit) and Mike Eaves in the post game hand shake line. It will be interesting to hear how their interaction will be after this weekends series which should be a battle.

As always a key for this weekend is going to be the success of the special teams. The Badgers are second in the country in power play percentage with a 27.2% success rate and the Bulldogs are 12th with a 21.93% success rate. The Bulldogs have the slight advantage on the penalty kill where they are killing penalties at 83% to Wisconsin's 81%. Duluth is also one of the more dangerous teams in the country converting on short handed goals. They have five this season.

COVERAGE

There is no television this weekend that I'm aware of but the games are being webcast on B2Live.com for a fee.

POLLS

The Badges continue to climb the rankings and this week they are #9 in the USCHO.com poll and #11 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll. Minnesota Duluth is #5 in both polls.

INJURIES

Jeffeson Dahl sat out last weekend due to a leg injury and is supposed to be back this weekend. Captain Sean Dolan missed some practice time this week due to a lower leg injury but is also expected to go.

Update: New information has come to light Thursday morning. Apparently Sean Little and Tyler Barnes statuses are both up in the air. Rumors are that Barnes may have a broken hand.

PREDICTIONS

I have no doubt the Badgers are still salty about the way things turned out when Duluth stole 4 points at the Kohl Center earlier in the season. Behind a strong goaltending effort on Friday night I think the Badgers get the victory. Saturday night I see another hard fought game ending in a tie. 3 points should be within reason this weekend.

Friday Night: Wisconsin 4, Minnesota-Duluth 2
Saturday Night: Wisconsin 3, Minnesota-Duluth 3

chuckschwartz@live.com
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UMD's Olsen fails out of school, signs pro contract

When Dylan Olsen returns from the World Junior Championships where he is currently playing for Team Canada, he won't return to his college program at the University of Minnesota-Duluth where he has played for the past year and a half. Instead the first round draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks will report to Rockford of the American Hockey League.

Olsen reportedly has signed a 3 year entry level deal with the Blackhawks according to Duluth News Tribune writer Kevin Pates.

Rumors started to swirl late last night about this story and Grand Forks Herald writer Brad Elliott Schlossman who was in Duluth last night for the opening of Amsoil arena between UMD and North Dakota notes that it looks like Olsen's signing has to do with an academic situation.

I had heard rumors over the summer that Olsen had struggled during his first year at Duluth academically so this news isn't entirely surprising.

The loss of Olsen will certainly be a hit for a Bulldog squad who is having an outstanding season ranked in the top 5 in both major national polls.

chuckschwartz@live.com
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Friday Night Live Blog vs #1 Minnesota-Duluth

Kind of a last minute deal here but I thought playing the #1 team in the country deserved a live blog. Feel free to leave comments and questions. We'll take this baby live shortly after 6:30.

A Friendly Reminder:

Bob Barker would like to remind you to have your pets spayed and neutered.

Especially if that pet happens to be a bulldog of some sort. Neuter the bejeesus out it.

Duluth Week: #1 In the Nation comes to Mad-Town

"The great part about coaching is that you understand the realm is coming together, growing together, suffering together, and hopefully, regrouping together, and continually growing together so you can celebrate together."-Head Coach Mike Eaves

The 2010-11 Wisconsin hockey team took two on the chin this past weekend against North Dakota. The greatest thing about college hockey is that they have two games this weekend to redeem themselves.

The University of Minnesota-Duluth, ranked #1 in the country by both the USCHO and USA Today/USA Hockey polls rolls into Madison this weekend to take on the Badgers.

last weekends offensive output was brutal by all definitions. The Badgers managed only 2 goals on the weekend and both came off the sticks of defensemen. The boys in cardinal and white also only managed to rack up 32 shots on the entire weekend. To say the least, an uncharacteristic weekend for the team that came into the weekend leading the nation in total goals scored and was third in the country in goals per game.

Wisconsin's talented trio of Mark Zengerle, Craig Smith, and Jordy Murray were held scoreless all weekend which is the first time all season that all three were held off the score sheet, and it happened on back to back nights. Murray suffered an injury on the Brett Hextall hit but he should be ready to go for this weekends games.

Scott Gudmandson played in net both nights and was spectacular all weekend. As usual, he will be your Friday starter and Eaves will decide on Saturday if he will stick with Scott or go with Brett Bennett (who more than deserves the chance).

Duluth rolls into town this weekend with a 9-1-2 record and boasts (With all due respect to Miami's Camper/Meile/Smith) the best line in the country with Mike Connolly, Jack Connolly, and Justin Fontaine. The Connolly's both have 18 points through 12 games and Fontaine has 16. Most likely you will see the Patrick Johnson/Sean Dolan/Ryan Little line trying to match up with with Duluth's top unit this weekend and obviously Jake Gardiner and Justin Schultz will be on the ice against that unit as much as possible.

Duluth also boasts a talented blueline with Mike Montgomery, Dylan Olsen, Justin Faulk, Trent Palm, Wade Bergman and Brady Lamb. Faulk has stepped in as a freshman out of the NTDP and has 10 points through the first 12 games of the season.

Talented freshman J.T. Brown who played with Badger freshman Tyler Barnes last season in Waterloo (USHL) has also lived up to his billing so far in the young season. Brown has 13 points in 12 games playing on the second unit with Travis Oleksuk and Kyle Schmidt.

Between the pipes the Bulldogs have been rotating between Kenny Reiter who got most of the action last season and former Badger recruit Aaron Crandall. Both goalies have played decent this season and I wouldn't be shocked to see both goalies play this weekend like they did when Duluth split up at North Dakota a few weeks ago.

COVERAGE

The Friday night game will be broadcast on FSN and rebroadcast on the Wisconsin channel at 11PM. Saturday night the game will be broadcast locally on what is usually My Network Tv. It will be rebroadcast at 10 on the Wisconsin channel.

POLLS

Last weeks sweep at the hands of UND dropped the Badgers from #13 to #15 in the USCHO.com poll and from #14 to #15 in the USA Today/USA Hockey poll.

Duluth's sweep of Michigan Tech propelled them into the top spot in both polls.

INJURIES

Jordy Murray got pretty banged up on Friday after the Hextall hit and needed stitches in his chin. Eaves expects him full go this weekend. Gavin Hartzog is still out with what is believed to be a sprained ankle.

PREDICTIONS

There is no way this team gets swept on back to back weekends in their home building. Last weekend was the first time in 62 games that the Badgers have even been beaten in back to back games. Wisconsin will come out hard on Friday but relax a bit on Saturday where Duluth will pick up a split.

Friday: Wisconsin 5, Duluth 3
Saturday: Duluth 4, Wisconsin 2

chuckschwartz@live.com
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Saturday PWR Update

After a workman-like win over UMD, Wisconsin now sits tied with UMD in 16th position in the PWR. Friday's win shifted the individual comparison between the Badgers and the Bulldogs into UW's favor, but both teams have the same number of comparisons won.

(all PWR and RPI tables from USCHO)

Rk	Team	PWR	Rk	W-L-T	Win %	Rk	RPI
1	Boston University	24	2	19-5-1	.7800	1	.5994*
2	Notre Dame	23	1	19-4-3	.7885	2	.5813
3t	Vermont	20	10	14-6-4	.6667	4	.5740
3t	Cornell	20	3	14-3-3	.7750	5	.5730*
3t	Michigan	20	7	19-8-0	.7037	6	.5723
3t	Minnesota	20	13	12-6-5	.6304	7	.5612*
7	Northeastern	18	5t	17-6-2	.7200	3	.5777
8t	Miami	17	14	15-8-4	.6296	9	.5510
8t	Denver	17	9	16-7-3	.6731	8	.5612
10	New Hampshire	15	18	12-8-4	.5833	10	.5477
11t	Yale	13	4	14-5-1	.7250	13	.5400*
11t	Princeton	13	8	14-6-0	.7000	11	.5444*
13	Boston College	12	22	11-8-4	.5652	12	.5405
14	Ohio State	11	11	16-8-3	.6481	14	.5373
15	North Dakota	10	21	15-11-3	.5690	16	.5327
16t	Wisconsin	9	19	14-10-3	.5741	17	.5325
16t	Minnesota-Duluth	9	17	13-8-6	.5926	15	.5355
18	St. Lawrence	7	23	13-10-2	.5600	19	.5277
19	St. Cloud State	6	24t	14-11-2	.5556	18	.5289
20	Air Force	5	5t	17-6-2	.7200	20	.5238
21t	Colorado College	3	20	13-9-6	.5714	21	.5227
21t	Alaska	3	24t	12-9-6	.5556	22	.5225
21t	Massachusetts	3	28t	11-11-3	.5000	24	.5150
24	Dartmouth	2	15t	11-7-2	.6000	23	.5212
25	Mass.-Lowell	0	28t	12-12-0	.5000	25	.5133

For Saturday's game, a win might allow UW to win the comparison with North Dakota (especially if the Sioux drop another game to SCSU), but more importantly, it will ice down the comparison win against UMD.

While the PWR's intricacies can be confusing, the most important part of the formula is the RPI. The RPI breaks ties within individual comparisons and also breaks ties when three or more teams have won the same number of comparisons.

If you look at the above PWR standings, you'll note that the PWR rank is remarkably similar to the RPI rank. In fact, in the relevant part of the RPI (the teams under consideration for the tournament, the top 15 or so), the rank order almost exactly matches, with a few exceptions (Northeastern is underperforming compared to it's RPI, Yale is above it, and UMD is under).

Big picture, this means UW's single biggest improvement in the rankings will come from improving its RPI. UMD currently has a better RPI than UW, if only by a small margin. A win tonight is another step in the right direction for UW's RPI.

The current RPI looks like this:

Rk	Team	RPI	Rk	W-L-T	Win %	Rk	SOS
1	Boston University	.5994*	2	19-5-1	.7800	2	.5385
2	Notre Dame	.5813	1	19-4-3	.7885	23	.5123
3	Northeastern	.5777	5t	17-6-2	.7200	6	.5302
4	Vermont	.5740	10	14-6-4	.6667	1	.5431
5	Cornell	.5730*	3	14-3-3	.7750	30	.5045
6	Michigan	.5723	7	19-8-0	.7037	7	.5285
7	Minnesota	.5612*	13	12-6-5	.6304	3	.5378
8	Denver	.5612	9	16-7-3	.6731	10	.5239
9	Miami	.5510	14	15-8-4	.6296	9	.5248
10	New Hampshire	.5477	18	12-8-4	.5833	4	.5359
11	Princeton	.5444*	8	14-6-0	.7000	39	.4922
12	Boston College	.5405	22	11-8-4	.5652	5	.5323
13	Yale	.5400*	4	14-5-1	.7250	45	.4777
14	Ohio State	.5373	11	16-8-3	.6481	34	.5003
15	Minnesota-Duluth	.5355	17	13-8-6	.5926	19	.5165
16	North Dakota	.5327	21	15-11-3	.5690	11	.5207
17	Wisconsin	.5325	19	14-10-3	.5741	14	.5186
18	St. Cloud State	.5289	24t	14-11-2	.5556	13	.5200
19	St. Lawrence	.5277	23	13-10-2	.5600	18	.5170
20	Air Force	.5238	5t	17-6-2	.7200	53	.4584
21	Colorado College	.5227	20	13-9-6	.5714	28	.5065
22	Alaska	.5225	24t	12-9-6	.5556	24	.5114
23	Dartmouth	.5212	15t	11-7-2	.6000	36	.4949
24	Massachusetts	.5150	28t	11-11-3	.5000	12	.5200
25	Mass.-Lowell	.5133	28t	12-12-0	.5000	15	.5178

Earlier, I discussed the RPI's forumla. USCHO's RPI page amalgamates the OPct and OOPct factors into one "strength of schedule" component. Thus, UW's RPI displayed above (.5325) is the result of a 25% weight on the winning percentage and a 75% weight on the SOS (as USCHO has already done the math on that end).

So, improving UW's winning percentage will help increase their PWR. Also, UW's remaining opponents, including tonight's game against Duluth, should also increase the SOS factor. 4 of the 5 teams left on UW's schedule have better RPIs than UW - thus winning games will both improve the RPI and bump up UW in the WCHA standings.

WCHA 08/09 Previews: Minnesota-Duluth

School: Minnesota Duluth
Mascot: Bulldogs
Head Coach: Scott Sandelin, 9th year, 122-160-37

Last Season: 9-14-5, 8th place WCHA; 13-17-6 Overall

Predicted 08/09 WCHA Finish: 8th

Key Departures:
D Jason Garrison, 5-9-14*
F Matt McKnight, 6-10-16
F Mike Curry, 3-4-7
D Travis Gawryletz, 1-5-6
*All stats listed from 07/08

Key Returnees:
F Sharp McGregor (Sr), 7-10-17
F Nick Kemp (Sr), 7-8-15
F Andrew Carrell (Sr), 8-6-14
D Josh Meyers (Sr), 6-8-14
F Jordan Fulton (Jr), 5-9-14

Top Sieve: Alex Stalock (Jr), 13-17-6, 2.35 GAA

Key Additions:
D Brady Lamb, 10-22-32 in AJHL (Outstanding Defenseman Award)
F Jack Connolly, 26-46-72 in USHL (USA Junior POY)
F Mike Connolly, 25-41-66 in AJHL
G Brady Hjelle, 22-14-4, 2.50 GAA in USHL
F Travis Gleksuk, 14-30-44 in USHL

When Wisconsin Beats tUMD: @ DECC 11/14 & 11/15, KC 1/30 & 1/31

07/08 Recap: Similar to Michigan Tech, Duluth went out of the gate pretty strong last season. They were in the running for home ice until the very end of the season, but slowly slid down the standings as the weeks went by. Duluth’s biggest problem was offense, hard to win when you don’t score many goals. Alex Stalock was pretty solid in net, when he wasn’t taking a swipe at Blake Geoffrion, or taking other stupid penalties for a goalie.

08/09 Thoughts: Duluth could finish higher than my predicted finish of 8th. The obvious is that they are going to have to score more goals this season. They didn’t lose much to graduation, and have a solid group of seniors leading the way, though none of them jump out to me. Alexander “the great big sieve” Stalock should anchor a solid defense each night. I would think Scott Sandelin needs a good year too. It wasn’t that long ago that he had Duluth in the Frozen Four, but lately they’ve been battling to stay out of the WCHA basement. One thing that Duluth has going for them is their freshman class. In researching this post, it appears that Duluth has one of the better classes in the WCHA. Jack Connolly and Brady Hjelle are both coming off very good seasons in the USHL. While Hjelle won’t see a ton of time in net, Duluth should have a good one in the future. Being honored as the USA Junior POY is no small honor for Jack Connolly, who could be a top scorer for Duluth. Adding the AJHL Oustanding Defenseman in Brady Lamb doesn’t hurt either.

The blog is headed to Duluth in November. I can’t wait to see how big of a dump the DECC really is.