Say this for the University of Wisconsin men's hockey team: Its members should be well-rested, physically and mentally, heading into the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs.

The Badgers found out Saturday night that process will begin on the road with a best-of-three, first-round series at St. Cloud State starting Friday.

UW began its bye weekend in sole possession of fourth place with 27 points, but fell two spots because Minnesota State-Mankato and St. Cloud came through with critical decisions.

Mankato needed two points to pass the Badgers and did so by splitting its series with Michigan Tech.

St. Cloud needed two points to pass UW and did so by battling to a pair of overtime ties at North Dakota.

Mankato and St. Cloud finished in a tie for fourth place with 28 points, but Mankato got the higher seed because it won the primary tiebreaker (2-0 in head-to-head meetings).

Though the Badgers (15-14-7 overall) are seeded sixth, they should be buoyed by the fact they won three of four meetings with St. Cloud (17-14-5) during the regular season. All four were decided by one goal.

The bye week saw UW players stage two uptempo practices -- one geared toward conditioning and the other competition -- as well as a voluntary skate with coach Mike Eaves in attendance.

"Coach gave us two days off this week," sophomore left winger Blake Geoffrion said. "We haven't had that ever since I've been here.

"It's good to get away from the rink a little bit. We've been going strong here for 10 weeks straight. A lot of guys were sore with bumps and bruises. Some guys are hurt. It gives us another week just to get recovered.''

This is the second straight season the Badgers have opened the WCHA playoffs on the road. They swept Denver last March and advanced to the Final Five semifinals.

"We know what we have to do," UW sophomore right winger Michael Davies said. "We know crunch time is coming up."