UW men's hockey: Once again, Badgers are waiting, watching, hoping

Todd D. Milewski  —  3/17/2008 6:14 am

ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- Two weeks earlier, Mike Eaves stood in the same ice-level hallway at the National Hockey Center, talking about how his University of Wisconsin men's hockey team had to wait and see where it would fit into the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff picture.

At least he could be certain then that the Badgers had more games to play.

In a similar situation Saturday night -- his team having just lost a heartbreaker and facing a long, agonizing bus ride home -- there was a lot more doubt.

Was it the last ride for these Badgers? There are many reasons to think it should have been.

They're out of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs, swept away by St. Cloud State with a 4-3 overtime loss Saturday. Their record is under .500, 15-16-7.

They had a number of chances late in the season to improve their playoff picture and NCAA tournament resume but didn't.

That being said, there's one reason why the Badgers wait this week with hope. The PairWise Rankings, a clear favorite to be the most-visited Web page among UW players next weekend, show the Badgers tied for 13th.

The tie is with Minnesota State, which pushes the Badgers down to 14th because it ranks higher in the Ratings Percentage Index. Because the cutoff line for inclusion into the 16-team NCAA tournament appears to be the top 13 teams, UW is in a tough spot. Air Force and Niagara, which are further down in the PairWise, are already in with automatic bids, and an ECAC Hockey League team not in line for an at-large spot will get in by winning the league playoff championship.

There are, however, scenarios involving the 16 conference tournament games to be played between Thursday and Saturday that would give the Badgers an NCAA spot when the field is revealed on Sunday.

After emerging Saturday night from a UW locker room he described as "emotional" and featuring "dead silence," Badgers sophomore center Aaron Bendickson said he thinks UW should have another shot at pulling things together.

"I don't know how it's all going to play out," said Bendickson, one of the Badgers' better players in a spirited effort Saturday. "I know that there's a heartbeat for us still, and as long as there's a heartbeat, I know that we're going to do what we can to prepare and be ready. If we get the nod, we're going to be ready to play."

Is another chance deserved? The Badgers could have given themselves a home playoff series with a victory at St. Cloud State in the regular-season finale, but they lost a second-period lead and left their fate in other teams' hands.

They could have -- and probably should have -- forced a third game against the Huskies, but they forfeited another second-period lead and didn't capitalize on a bunch of chances afterward.

The most recent loss will sit with Badgers players for a while.

Bendickson will be ruing a missed chance from close range in overtime. Huskies goaltender Jase Weslosky denied Wisconsin senior Matthew Ford on a partial breakaway just 30 seconds before St. Cloud State won it.

Goaltender Shane Connelly might have the worst feeling of all. In a game the Badgers needed to win, he started on a low note -- allowing a goal on the first shot he faced -- and things didn't get much better.

The junior was pulled from the game after one period.

"I'm hoping the hockey gods are smiling down on us to give us another opportunity," Connelly said. "Because if not, I'm going to have a long summer to sit back on that 20 minutes that I played."

Connelly's confidence in those hockey gods is pretty high.

"We've had some bad calls this season," he said. "We've been through tough stretches. I hope they're smiling down on us because that's the only thing that's going to keep us hanging on right now. We've still got a fighting chance, but this is tough to swallow."

The Badgers were good enough Saturday night to win but they didn't get the job done. They're the ones that have to deal with that harsh reality.

"Sometimes the game isn't fair. Sometimes life isn't fair," Eaves said. "They put their hearts and souls on the ice for each other, and the game didn't fall their way tonight, and that's hard. Because that's what you ask of them. If they do anything, do that, and then you can walk away with some measure of dignity and pride. They can walk out with that, but we didn't walk out with the win."

By the numbers

1 -- Wisconsin's all-time total of overtime losses against St. Cloud State. The Badgers were 6-0-8 against the Huskies in overtime games before Saturday's 4-3 loss.

11-15-5 -- The Badgers' record against teams under consideration for the NCAA tournament, defined as those in the top 25 of the Ratings Percentage Index.

92-46 -- Wisconsin' advantage in attempted shots in Saturday's game.

66.7 percent -- Wisconsin's penalty kill in its last six games (20-for-30).

5-13-7 -- The Badgers' record when allowing the first goal, as it did both times in the series. They're 10-3 when scoring first.

Todd D. Milewski  —  3/17/2008 6:14 am