Coach Sauer juggled his lines, the entire team focused on the
job, executed well (very well at times) for most of the game, and
Wisconsin recorded a big 6-1 win over the Bulldogs tonight.
 
It was a big win because they started to play smart, consistant
hockey. Duluth played them tough, but the Badgers got the bounces
and stepped up when they needed to.
 
It was 1-0 after one. Andrew Shier scored with about 5 minutes
left in the period on a delayed penalty call. Shier fed the puck
to Tok. His shot was blocked by Duluth goaltender Lendzyk, but
the rebound came back to Shier in front, who put it away.
 
Early in the second, Shier's line got two goals 26 seconds apart
(I think) for a 3-0 lead.
 
It was 6-0 after Shier's hat-trick goal midway through the
third. Duluth got their goal with about 4 minutes left after keeping
the puck in the Wisconsin end for a long time.
 
Wisconsin had difficulty at times getting the puck out of the
zone, but it only cost them the one time, and most of the time
they made the smart plays instead of the bad give-aways.
 
The fourth line got a lot of ice time, as did two little-used
defensemen: Freshman Tim Krug played his first non-exhibition
game, and although burned once on a breakaway, played very well.
Jeff Sanderson has played in a handful of games in a few years,
and also played smart and hard. They two were in the lineup
because juniors Maco Balkovec and Brian Rafalski are injured.
 
The crowd was the sparsest I've seen for a WCHA game in a long,
long time. School starts Monday, which explains some of it, but
there were more people at the Coliseum last weekend, when it was
30-40 degrees colder (it broke above 0 today -- in fact, it hit 20!).
 
Hoping the badgers come out and play as well tommorrow,
 
        --david
 
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david parter                                         [log in to unmask]
university of wisconsin -- madison          voice: 608-262-0608/262-2389
computer sciences department                           fax: 608-262-9777