March 13, 2010
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MADISON, Wis.—The No. 3 Wisconsin men’s hockey team (24-9-4, 17-8-3 WCHA) punched its ticket to the WCHA Final Five after topping the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves (12-22-2, 9-17-2), 7-2, Saturday night in the Kohl Center. The Badgers saw two-goal games from senior forwards Blake Geoffrion (Brentwood, Tenn.) and Aaron Bendickson (Thief River Falls, Minn.), as well as 35 saves from junior goaltender Scott Gudmandson (Sherwood Park, Alberta) in the win.
Just like last night’s game, the Badgers struck first. At the 3:32 mark of the first period, Geoffrion notched his team-high 22nd goal. After senior forward Andy Bohmbach (Hudson, Wis.) swung the puck behind the net to freshman forward Craig Smith (Madison, Wis.), Smith dished the puck off to Geoffrion. The tri-captain was anchored in a crowd of Seawolf defenders just outside the crease, but was able to drive the puck past UAA goaltender Bryce Christianson.
With less than four minutes to go in the same period, senior forward Michael Davies (St. Louis) added to the Badgers’ lead. Sophomore forward Derek Stepan (Hastings, Minn.) charged the net and slid the puck into the right faceoff circle to a swinging Davies. Davies fired a top-shelf one-timer to put the Badgers on top, 2-0. Senior tri-captain Ben Street (Coquitlam, British Columbia) tallied the secondary assist on the score.
The Seawolves brought it within one with under a minute remaining in the period. After the Badgers successfully killed off a 5-on-3 penalty, UAA blue liner Trevor Hunt fired a shot from just outside the left faceoff circle that deflected off a Badger past Gudmandson to bring it to a 2-1 Badger advantage heading into the second.
Though the Badgers led on the scoreboard, the Seawolves outshot UW, 13-10, in the period.
UAA had a great chance to tie the game in the first five minutes of the second when Sean Wiles faked a shot and fed teammate Tommy Grant to the left side of Gudmandson. The junior stuck out his glove and robbed Grant to keep the Badgers up one.
However, with 4:33 remaining in the second, sophomore forward Curtis Leinweber tied the game up. UAA forward Tyler Currier beat UW’s Gudmandson to the puck behind the net and sent it to Leinweber, who slid the puck into an open net. The game was now knotted at two.
The Badgers proved to not be content with the tie, because the squad scored two goals in the final two minutes of the period.
The first one came from Stepan. After some fancy stick work starting in the defensive zone, he took the puck coast-to-coast and fired a wrister from just outside the right faceoff circle. Brendan Smith tallied the power-play goal’s sole-assist.
The second goal came from freshman defenseman Justin Schultz (West Kelowna, British Columbia). Again on the man-advantage, Brendan Smith put the puck in the slot off Geoffrion. The puck bounced out to Schultz in the high slot, where the freshman picked it up and fired a shot to Christianson’s glove side and into the back of the net.
Though being outshot, 12-11, in the period, the Wisconsin held a two-goal lead heading into the final 20 minutes of regulation.
At the 13:06 and 13:18 marks of the final period, the Badgers added to their lead after two goals by Bendickson just 12 seconds apart from each other.
In the first, Bendickson took a pass from Brendan Smith and slid a backhander past Christianson. The second came off a nice pass from Bohmbach. The pass found a charging Bendickson, and he drove home a top-shelf wrister to bring the score to a 6-2 Badger lead.
Geoffrion capped off the game’s scoring after redirecting a straight-on slapshot by Brendan Smith with less than two minutes to play.
The Badgers’ ended the game having outshot UAA, 41-37.
Gudmandson starred in the nets for Wisconsin, making 35 saves and improving to 16-3-4 on the season. For UAA, Christianson’s record fell to 3-8-0 after stopping 34 Wisconsin shots.
With the series sweep, the Badgers reserved their spot in next weekend’s WCHA Final Five in St. Paul, Minn. The Badgers will play at 2 p.m. this Friday in one semifinal, but the opponent is still to be determined. FSN will air the entire Final Five live.
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Brady Hartung, UW Athletic Communications
