The University of Wisconsin Badgers defeated the St. Cloud State University Huskies 5-3 on Saturday night in NCAA tournament play at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN. It was a game dominated by the Badgers, and left little doubt in the minds of the fans who was the better team tonight.
Period one saw Wisconsin jump out to a 1-0 lead 2:31 into the game on a John Mitchell goal. Eleven minutes later, they struck again on a Blake Geoffrion goal. 1:30 later, the Huskies Jared Festler put one home to bring the score within one for the Huskies, but the Badgers struck again less than a minute later to retake their two goal lead. The third goal chased SCSU goalie Mike Lee from the net and saw Dan Dunn come in in relief.
There was no scoring in the second period. Both team scored a pair of goals in the third period. St. Cloud's Jared Festler scored his second of the game, shorthanded, at the 4:16 mark. The Badgers got it back just under three minutes later on John Mitchell's second of the game. Tony Mosey scored on a bad angle shot at the 17:10 mark of the third to get the Huskies back within a goal, but UW's Aaron Bendickson added an empty netter at 18:52 to end the scoring for both teams.
The Huskies were 0-for-7 on the power play and the Badgers were 0-for-6. Scott Gudmandson had 26 saves on 29 shots for the Badgers. The Huskies Mike Lee stopped 8 of 11 and Dan Dunn stopped 31 of 32.
The Badgers will face RIT on Thursday, April 8 at Ford Field in Detroit, MI. The time of the game is TBD.
A note on the refing this weekend: I, and everyone around me, thought that the refs were absolutely terrible this weekend. Never in my life have I seen such inconsistency in their calls, and I'm not just talking about calls against the Huskies. The refs were equally terrible for all teams involved. I thought the WCHA refs were bad, but they're nothing compared to the incompetent fools we had to put up with this weekend. I honestly don't know how these people have jobs doing what they do.
I'll have more on the regionals and the Frozen Four match-ups on Monday morning. I need to take a day to unwind and get over the end of my teams season. See you Monday!
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