Sorry, I don't have the game stats, but I'll give a quick summary from
memory...
 
The series was Thursday-Friday instead of Friday-Saturday because exams
begin at Wisconsin sunday morning (Minnesota's exams were the reason
for the Saturday-Sunday afternoon scheduling for last week's
Wisconsin-Minnesota series, according to the paper).
 
-------- Thursday Night --------
 
I was at Thursday's game (usually I go to the "Saturday" games).  The
first 10 minutes or so of the first period were exiting, with Wisconsin
getting 3 goals. Numbers two and three were 10 seconds apart. Denver's
goalie looked VERY shakey, but he got a lot of help from the pipes.
 
Denver got one back in the first, and one more in the second.
Wisconsin was *very* flat in the second period (and the second half of
the first). They also had 4 consecutive penalties to kill, three of
which were stupid penalties to take, the fourth was questionable. While
already a man down, Denver got a 1-man breakaway. Sean Hill raced back,
stretched out low to the ice, reached around and knocked the puck into
the corner with his stick.  He was called for tripping.  The fans (of
course) didn't see it that way. On the replay it looked like he *might*
have had his other hand in the Denver player's skates. The replay did
not show where the ref was. I don't think he saw anything other than
the Denver player going down.  Other than that one, the ref (Ames ?)
did a reasonably good job -- he didn't call it too close, but he didn't
miss anything major.
 
According to the papers, during the second intermission, Jeff Sauer
(Wisconsin's coach) said "there are 8000 people out there asking for
their money back. I'm first in line." The badgers came out with more
zip in the third period, and finally scored again in the last 7-10
minutes. They also hit the pipe a few mre times.
 
Denver never gave up, and Wisconsin gave them every reason to hope they
could pull it off.
 
-------- Friday Night --------
 
Wisconsin played better in the first period than they did most of
Thursday night. Denver played a different goalie (sorry, I missed his
name too). Both goalies made good saves, the period ended 0-0. In the
second period, Wisconsin got 4 goals. Between #3 and #4, Denver got
one, when Wisconsin had a breakdown and couldn't get the puck out of
their end.
 
Denver got one more early in the third, and wisconsin got #5, after
really buzzing the Denver net.
 
Denver played hard and didn't give up for most of the game. Their
defense was very weak -- two of Wisconsin's goals came on shots that
the defense should have prevented or stopped.
 
Wisconsin had one goal called back (late in the second, I think) which
on replay looked to be clearly in. The shot was from a bad angle, and
hit on the inside of the far post, and came back out accross the front
of the goal.  The goal judge said yes, the ref said no. He was on the
same side as the pipe that the puck hit, so the pipe blocked his view
of the puck -- which, as I said, on replay it was in. Also, the angle
at which it came back out ade it look like it hit the post, not inside
the post.
 
There were less than 10 penalties in the game.
 
	--david