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UW men's hockey: Familiar faceoff

Todd D. Milewski  —  3/29/2008 7:05 am

When you pull into the faceoff circle and see the same person so many times that you can't even estimate the number, you get to know a little bit about the opponent.

The University of Wisconsin's Kyle Turris and Denver's Tyler Bozak fit into that category, so it's only fitting that they'll face off as opposing top-line centers one more time today.

The Midwest Regional semifinal at the Kohl Center will be the 16th time that they have met over the past three seasons, and the sixth in the postseason.

The first 13 meetings came in the British Columbia Hockey League, where last season they were the top two regular season scorers. Turris won the goal scoring race with 66; Bozak was the top point-getter with 128.

They each had their moments of offensive brilliance in head-to-head matchups, but their familiarity was born at the faceoff dot.

"With the amount I've played Kyle, we kind of know each other in the faceoff circle," Bozak said. "We know what tricks that we're each going to try."

Nothing different on the other side.

"When there's a skill guy on the other team and you try to be a skill guy, you kind of respect each other," Turris said. "We always talk on the draws, just like, 'You going to let me win this one?' He's a really good faceoff man. He's really strong on the draws. It's going to be a battle there."

That shapes up as one of the elements to watch in a first-round NCAA meeting of young teams led by young forwards.

Both the 22-year old Bozak (18 goals, 34 points) and 18-year-old Turris (11 goals, 33 points) top their team's scoring list. (Denver and Wisconsin are the only teams in the tournament with freshmen as leading scorers.) They were both third-team all-Western Collegiate Hockey Association selections and all-rookie team members.

Turris has the scoring advantage in games against Bozak, 14 goals to eight and 25 points to 16. He also has the lead in games won, 9-6.

With the Burnaby Express of the BCHL last season, Turris recorded a pair of hat tricks against Bozak's Victoria Grizzlies. One of them was a seven-point outing that was still fresh in his mind this week.

Turris had two goals and an assist in a series split at Denver this season, while Bozak didn't get in on the scoring.

That January weekend was just before Bozak's rookie season with the Pioneers took a turn.

His left winger, Pioneers leading scorer Brock Trotter, played his last game for the team on Jan. 19. He reportedly was suspended by the team and then signed a pro contract in early February.

Sophomore Tyler Ruegsegger joined Bozak's line for Denver's next series after Trotter left the lineup, at Minnesota State, but Ruegsegger was injured in the series finale and missed eight games.

That left a lot of the scoring responsibility on Bozak.

"I think that he felt an awful lot of pressure without those two guys in the lineup," Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky said. "I think his game struggled, no question in my mind. When you start to put more pressure on yourself to score, to carry the offensive load, there's that tendency to start to cheat a little bit, to anticipate what might happen without really knowing and feeling comfortable with it."

The Pioneers hit a rough stretch during and after the Trotter drama, going 4-7-1 in their last 12 regular season games.

But Bozak and Denver have responded nicely in the playoffs. The rookie scored twice in the first game of the first-round series against Minnesota-Duluth and again in last Saturday's WCHA title game victory over Minnesota.

"It was good to get back on track," Bozak said, "and it felt like we were back to the team we were earlier in the year, when we were winning all those games."

Bozak's commitment to being solid in all areas of the game is evidenced in that he leads the Pioneers in plus/minus rating at plus-14.

Gwozdecky said that, even though Bozak leads the team in offense, the freshman's strength is in defense.

"He's a very effective player away from the puck, probably a lot better than a lot of freshmen," Gwozdecky said. "I have found over the years that guys who are real good scorers coming out of juniors, when they step into this level they struggle because many of them are floaters. When they don't have the puck, they kind of float around. And, yeah, they know they have a responsibility, but they're going to take some shortcuts.

"Tyler isn't that kind of player at all. He is very disciplined to his defensive game, and as a result he gets the puck a lot."

And he makes the most of those chances with the puck. All the more reason Turris and the Badgers will have their hands full again today.

Todd D. Milewski  —  3/29/2008 7:05 am