ST. CLOUD, Minn. — As far as Ben Street is concerned, the topic should be kept off-limits to members of the University of Wisconsin men's hockey team.

"It might be a little taboo to talk about it," the junior center and assistant captain said.

At issue is the fact UW hasn't lost in 13 consecutive games against St. Cloud State heading into the teams' critical Western Collegiate Hockey Association series Friday and Saturday at the National Hockey Center.

Acknowledging the streak — the 10-0-3 run dates back over four years to the 2003-04 season and is the tied for the longest of its kind for the 13th-ranked Badgers against another WCHA school — might be construed as tampering with fate.

"I didn't know that," Street said when informed of the streak, "so there you go."

The third such run of its kind in program history — UW was 10-0-3 against Alaska-Anchorage from 1996 to '98 and 13-0 against Michigan Tech from 1989 to '91 — only is one chunk of a massive story line.

The fourth-place Badgers (25 points in league play) desperately need points this weekend to solidify their place among the top five and home ice for the opening round of the WCHA playoffs.

One point back are the Huskies (24 points). They are tied for fifth place with Minnesota State-Mankato, while Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota have 21 and 20 points, respectively.

Complicating things for UW is that it has two regular-season games remaining, while everyone else in contention for a top-five berth have four.

Then there are the unofficial Pairwise rankings, which mimic the process used to seed and align the NCAA tournament.

If the event were staged today, the Badgers would be in the 16-team field, meaning they would play in the Midwest Regional at the Kohl Center.

But tied for 14th, their situation is extremely tenuous.

"We need to win all our games from here on out," Street said. "That's the biggest thing that everyone's focused on."

The streak - which includes one blowout (6-0), three shutouts, four overtime affairs and a 39-18 goal differential - has no specific theme.

"Just playing well at the right times against this team," UW coach Mike Eaves said. "I can't tell you it's the power play, it's the penalty killing, it's the goaltending. It's probably all of them that come into something like this."

This series looks like it might come down to special teams.

St. Cloud is one of three schools — Miami (Ohio) and Michigan are the others — ranked in the top 10 nationally in power play (22.3, fifth) and penalty killing (88.7, seventh).

Huskies right winger Ryan Lasch, left winger Andreas Nodl and center Garrett Roe have combined for 29 power-play goals — 11, 10 and eight, respectively — which is more than UW (27) and the totals of 41 other NCAA Division I teams.

Perhaps most amazing is St. Cloud has had 166 power plays and had to kill off 115. That plus-51 differential is far and away the best in the nation.

For reference, the Badgers are even and top-ranked Michigan is a minus-two. For what it's worth, over the 13-game unbeaten streak against the Huskies, UW has won the special teams battle only twice.

But it seems clear that an upgrade is needed.

The Badgers are 8-for-52 (15.4) on the power play and 36-for-44 (81.8) killing penalties over the last 10 games.

"We know what we need to do," UW senior defenseman and assistant captain Kyle Klubertanz said. "It's not about them; it's more about us doing what we need to do."

No. 13 Badgers vs. No. 12 St. Cloud State

When, where: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, St. Cloud, Minn.

TV: None.

Radio: 1310 AM.