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UW men's hockey: Scoring chances foiled by unlucky bounces

Todd D. Milewski  —  3/31/2008 6:25 am

Little things always seem to end up being among the biggest separators in NCAA tournament games.

So when the University of Wisconsin looks at the box score from Sunday's 3-2 overtime loss to North Dakota in the Midwest Regional final and sees that it hit the post three times, there's bound to be some head-shaking.

"I think we've experienced that a few times this year, where you have chance after chance, you're clanging the iron," Badgers defenseman Davis Drewiske said. "It's just that close. If you don't get rewarded eventually, I think that can be emotionally draining for a team."

Drewiske hit iron twice in the second period, when the Badgers gained a 2-0 lead. One of those chances came on the UW's third power play of the game, when his shot appeared to change course after hitting traffic, then rang the crossbar.

Badgers center Kyle Turris hit the right post from the left wing 11 minutes into the game, and the puck came back out through the crease, just above the goal line.

Compare those fractions of an inch to North Dakota's tying goal, when Ryan Duncan's shot hit the post and went into the net instead of back out.

"You take a look at that as, 'Jeez, why couldn't we have had one of our four posts do that?'" Badgers coach Mike Eaves said.

The Badgers weren't devoid of fortunate bounces Sunday. Cody Goloubef scored late in the second period when his shot went wide right and hit a live spot near the top of the boards. The puck bounced back at the goal and rebounded in off North Dakota goaltender Jean-Philippe Lamoureux.

Goloubef scored a similar goal in Saturday's victory over Denver, but that one hit the post before rebounding in off the goaltender.

"That was a fortunate bounce, but we hit a lot of crossbars and posts tonight, too," UW center Ben Street said. "If maybe one of those goes the other way, it's a completely different story. Maybe it's out of reach."

Wisconsin also had a goal waved off in the first period Sunday when a video review confirmed that referee Matt Shegos had whistled play dead before Aaron Bendickson was able to poke the puck out of Lamoureux's glove and over the goal line.

Lamoureux also stopped Badgers winger Michael Davies on a second-period breakaway by falling to his side and stacking his pads.

"We had some lucky bounces, we got some unlucky ones," Street said. "That's hockey. That's the way it goes."

Worn down: North Dakota may have won the game in part because of its physical play.

"We couldn't quite find the answer physically with energy at the end there," Eaves said. "They may have wore us down, I'm not sure."

The Badgers started the game with a number of hits, but those became fewer and fewer later in the game.

"As the game went on, they might have worn us down a little bit, but I think emotionally we still had energy and the crowd helped us," Turris said. "We just wanted to keep going, and we tried to do everything that it takes."

No look: Turris finished as the Badgers' top scorer with 35 points, and the freshman's last assist of the season was impressive.

He appeared to draw the North Dakota penalty killers one way by looking toward the boards, then sent the puck toward the net, where defenseman Jamie McBain leaned in to direct it in.

"Kyle made a great look, great pass," McBain said. "They really had no chance. All I had to do was tap it into the empty net."

Wisconsin was 1-for-4 on the power play, although both of its goals came in special teams situations. McBain's goal came two seconds after North Dakota's Kyle Radke finished serving a charging penalty, and he wasn't back in the play yet.

Todd D. Milewski  —  3/31/2008 6:25 am