> Is anyone in Badgerland going to be posting a summary of the games this
> weekend?  I was only able to listen to Saturday's game on the radio.
 
I caught a few minutes of Friday's game (first period) on TV and was at
Saturday's game.
 
After seeing Friday's Badger performance during the first period, I was
debating whether or not I wanted to even see Saturday's game at all.
Wisconsin looked lethargic out there on the ice--NoDak's agressive forecheck
at both offense and defense was no match for what the Badgers were able to
muster up, leading to a 3-0 score at the end of the first period, if I
remember correctly. Wisconsin must have cleaned up their act later in the game
to pull a 6-5 loss to the fighting Sioux (I had a game to play in that night,
so I didn't see it).
 
Saturday's game started out a whole lot better.  Scoreless after 2 full
periods of play, NoDak was still showing a faster and stronger forecheck than
the Badgers, but time on each end of the ice was pretty well split.  I haven't
seen the Badgers play that well against a good team for quite a while.
 
Somewhere in the second period Adam started flipping coins on whether or not
to call a penalty.  As usual, the home team was victimized by the ref more
often than the visiting team (I estimate by 3:1).  A very marginal penalty in
the third period lead to the first power play goal by NoDak; at that point
Wisconsin was starting to look weak.  The second goal was a defensive
breakdown from the cardinal and white.  Our offense had a few good shots that
just weren't quite on net.
 
With 2 minutes remaining, Wisconsin decided to pull the goalie.  The extra man
wasn't enough to overcome NoDak's speed and quick passing, leading to and one
man race for the empty net and the third goal of the game.
 
In short, I think the score would have turned out to be 2-1 NoDak had Adam not
been there to screw things up.  Then again, that's typical WCHA officiating,
isn't it?  Judging by the number of times the crowd outright boo'ed the refs
after blowing the whistle, I'm not the only one who thought the zebras screwed
up.
 
Overall, it was a good game to see.  Definitely happy I didn't give away my
ticket after seeing the start of Friday's game.
 
John Perkins
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