Friday, April 07, 2006

Badgers Advance to NCAA Title Game

Congratulations to the Wisconsin Badgers for advancing to the NCAA Title game on Saturday. Their win over Maine certainly was not mistake-free, but pretty impressive considering the errors they did make.

The Wisconsin defensemen did not do a good job breaking the puck out of their own zone, especially in the second period which gave Maine several quality scoring chances. Also, Wisconsin's fourth line got out-hit which is very unusual, and took 3 or 4 penalties that gave Maine power play opportunities that could have been avoided.

Junior Ross Carlson came up huge for the Badgers and really stood out. His line, which includes Freshman Center Ben Street and Freshman Winger Jack Skille dominated every time they were on the ice.

One other note. I thought the officiating in this game was bad. I didn't agree with many of the calls, I thought others were missed on both the Badgers and Black Bears, and I thought Maine dove quite a bit.

Best of luck to Bucky in the Championship game tomorrow.