Wisconsin recovered from last night's miserable performance to
get a split at home tonight, beating St. Cloud 5-4.
 
The badgers started freshman walk-on netminder Jake Soper
tonight, in place of sophomore Kirk Daubenspeck, who has been
struggling lately. The coaching staff told Soper at about 5:45
(game time is 7:05) so he wouldn't have too much time to get
nervous before his first collegiate start. Jeff Sauer also
juggled his lineup, giving Maco Balcovec and Dan Tompkins a
rest, in order to work some other players into the lineup (Steve
Sabo played in place of Balkovec, I'm not sure which winger was
in Tompkins' place).
 
Game notes, from memory:
 
Wisconsin started sluggish, giving up a power play goal about 4
minutes into the first period, and another a few miniutes later.
The badgers finally got on the board, making it 2-1, but St.
Cloud came back to make it 3-1 near the middle of the 2nd. The
first three St. Cloud goals came on rebounds (possibly on 2nd
rebounds).
 
Late in the 2nd period, while killing a penalty, the badgers were
putting good pressure on St. Cloud. A husky turned over the puck
to Jamie Spencer at center ice. He raced in on 1 defenseman and
the St. Cloud goalie. He was pulled down by the defenseman, and
as he was sliding across the ice, the St. Cloud goalie (sorry,
I forgot his name!) went down, and Spencer golfed the puck under
him for a short handed goal.
 
Wisconsin tied it in the third on a power play. With 30 seconds
left in a St. Cloud minor, the Huskies got called for another
one. 31 seconds later freshman Brad Englehart had has third Badger goal
(in his second game -- he had been out with a shoulder inhury).
Officially it was a 5x4 goal, but the play was made while 5x3.
 
With about 5 minutes left in the game, Mickey Elick jabbed the
puck free at the Wisconsin blue line, to Mike Strobel. Stobel
skated in on the St. Cloud net, waited for the netminder to go down,
and roofed it for the the Badgers' first lead of the weekend.
 
With less than two minutes to go, Max Williams was given a
perfect centering pass on a quick rush up the ice, which he
backhanded into the net.
 
St. Cloud scored a 4x3 power play with 16 seconds left to make it
close. They pulled their goalie for the last 16 seconds, but did
not score.
 
Sorry I don't remember all the names and times. If no one else
posts it, I'll type in the box score from the paper in the morning.
 
        --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: 608-262-6626