You can come up with a slew of reasons to explain why the University of Wisconsin men's hockey team will open the postseason on the road.

Most are based in performance by UW, but there are controversial elements that cannot be ignored.

The sixth-seeded Badgers will begin the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs Friday when they travel to fifth-seeded St. Cloud State for a best-of-three series.

UW finished the regular season one point behind St. Cloud and fourth-seeded Minnesota State-Mankato. That narrow, but decisive difference between going on the road and a home-ice berth can be traced to a variety of things.

Like iffy special teams: The Badgers finished the regular season having allowed 40 goals on special teams -- 31 on the power play, nine shorthanders -- last in the WCHA.

Like slow starts: UW was outscored 28-16 in the opening period of league games -- the worst in the WCHA -- en route to a 1-10-3 record when trailing after the first period.

Like an inability to enjoy home cooking: UW was 3-4-1 in WCHA home games during the second half.

But if you've followed the Badgers this season, you know possible points were lost as a result of officiating errors acknowledged by the league.

"I know two that cost us points," UW coach Mike Eaves acknowledged last week.

The first came Jan. 11 when a last-second tying goal by senior left winger Matthew Ford was wrongly disallowed by referee Randy Schmidt during a 3-2 loss to Denver.

The mistake was so obvious -- video replay evidence confirming the goal was ignored -- that Schmidt hasn't worked a league game since and UW officials filed an unprecedented protest that was denied on the basis of NCAA rules.

The second came March 1 when a tying goal by sophomore left winger Andy Bohmbach in the third period was incorrectly denied by referee Derek Shepherd.

Not only was Shepherd out of position behind the play when he blew his whistle prematurely, he seemingly anticipated St. Cloud goaltender Jase Weslosky would glove an airborne rebound that fell to the ice instead.

Eaves spoke last week with Greg Shepherd, Derek's father and the WCHA supervisor of officials, about the sequence. Eaves was asked what Greg Shepherd said about the play.

"It was a missed call," Eaves related. "Just flat-out missed it. "

Eaves picked his words carefully.

"I've got to be really careful here," he said, mindful that publicly criticizing game officials could lead to sanctions from WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod.

With two more points, UW (11-12-5 with 27 points in league play) would be seeded fourth and hosting Minnesota in a first-round playoff series at the Kohl Center.

With two fewer losses, the Badgers (15-14-7 overall) would likely be deep inside the NCAA tournament discussion because their power rating and pairwise ranking would be better.

Instead, UW has to open the league playoffs on the road, where it is 2-2 under Eaves.

Instead, the Badgers are 14th in the latest unofficial pairwise ranking, which has them on the fringe of the 16-team national tournament field.

How do you not dwell on those realities?

"It's in the past," Eaves said. "I think we acknowledge it, and then we have to move forward and control the things that we can."