April 6, 2006
NCAA Frozen Four Notebook
Delivering a Win
It wasn't always pretty, giving Wisconsin room to improve for Saturday

By Joe Gladziszewski, Mike Eidelbes and Jess Myers

Tom Gilbert clears space in front of Ben Bishop. (Photo by Larry Radloff)

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Tom Gilbert and Jeff Likens are two of the best defenseman in the entire nation and each will probably have professional careers when their playing days at Wisconsin have ended. And while it might not be as financially lucrative, another career option for the Badger defense tandem might be in pizza delivery.

In hockey dressing room jargon, “serving up a pizza” means that a player has turned the puck over to an opponent in a dangerous scoring area. Gilbert and Likens were guilty of the fault and were able to joke about it after the victory, but those gaffes were commonplace in a game filled with turnovers and giveaways.

“We got pizza here after the game and we said that two of the boxes are over in Maine’s locker room and I brought them a pizza and he brought them a pizza on a delivery right up the middle,” Likens said. “That’s one thing we’ve got to do. We’ve got to take care of the puck more and keep things simple.”

“Me, personally, in the first period we had a few that we call ‘serving pizzas,’” Gilbert said. “For us, we had two weeks off and it was just a little bit of jitters. We’re a veteran team and we know that we’ve got to get the puck off of the glass. For the most part after the first period we settled down and didn’t do that.”

Those were surprising errors from a Wisconsin team that prides itself on defensive responsibility and is most successful by playing a safe, smart game. Being able to win on a night when a team doesn’t play its best is a great time to learn, and Wisconsin might consider itself fortunate to have an opportunity to improve on its performance.

It’s important that the Badgers address those concerns before taking the ice against Boston College. No team is better at capitalizing on turnovers than the Eagles. Opportunities that went by the wayside for Maine will probably be goals for Boston College.

“We know we’ve got to play better and protect the puck better as a team and keep the puck to the outside,” Likens said. “They’re a quick, fast, transitional team and we’ve got to keep the puck and get it deep on them.”

The sloppiness continued even when Wisconsin was in the process of wrapping up the victory. When Maine’s goaltender was pulled with approximately 2:30 remaining the Badgers made an ill-advised bid for the empty-net goal from their own defensive zone. It was an icing and gave the Black Bears another in-zone draw during their comeback attempt.

The Badgers escaped that minor difficutly and Robbie Earl scored an empty-netter on the game’s next shift. It was indicative of how things went for Wisconsin, but if they keep making those types of mistakes, the post-game pizza on Saturday will be in Boston College’s dressing room.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

For some families, the chance to see a child win a NCAA hockey title is a once-in-a-lifetime dream. For the Burishes of Madison, it's happening every few weeks nowadays.

Two weeks ago, sister Nikki won a NCAA title for Mark Johnson’s Badger women’s team, as they beat archrival Minnesota 3-0 for the school's first women’s hockey crown. On Saturday, the sibling rivalry between Nikki and brother Adam gets kicked up a notch as the senior wing on the men's team's top line gets a chance to equal sis.

“She said, ‘If you don't win this, I’ve got one up on you for the rest of your life,’” Adam said after Thursday’s game. "You know Nikki, she’d never let me forget it if I don’t win this thing.”

There’s been a precedent set in the hockey sibling rivalry world fairly recently. Last season Minnesota’s Krissy Wendell won a NCAA title with the Gophers, three seasons after her older brother Erik won the men’s title with the Gophers in 2002.

Ross Carlson, in the background, celebrates Ben Street's goal that gave Wisconsin a 4-2 lead. (Photo by Larry Radloff)

EASY STREET

Ben Street scored an important third-period insurance goal, giving the Badgers a 4-2 lead less than a minute after Maine’s Mike Lundin cut the Wisconsin edge to one goal. Street, a freshman forward from Coquitlam, B.C., was shocked to see a loose puck sitting just to Maine goalie Ben Bishop’s right with no one else nearby.

“I saw the puck and took a swing at it out of desperation,” Street said. “I regained my composure, stopped and got some wood on the backhand. It was laying there on the post and I just shoveled in the garbage.

Kind of like a pulling guard on a trap play, linemate Ross Carlson assisted Street – albeit indirectly – when he was hauled down by a Maine player as he drove to the net. No penalty was called.

“I whiffed on it, so I spun around on my knees and I hit it again and it hit the pipe,” Carlson explained. “I don’t know what happened after that because I was flying into the boards trying to protect myself.”

INCH's Three Stars of the Game

3. Wisconsin's penalty killers Maine entered the game with the third-best power play in the nation and failed to score a PPG in seven opportunities against the Badgers. Adam Burish was among several penalty killers that blocked shots and stayed in passing lanes to disrupt the Maine man-up unit. 2. Ross Carlson, Wisconsin His short-handed goal was the play of the night when he put on the breaks and jumped back to beat a Maine defender. Then he cut into the slot and fired the puck through Ben Bishop’s pads to give the Badgers a lead they would never relinquish. 1. Brian Elliott, Wisconsin Following the example set by Chris Collins earlier in the day, Elliott showed why he’s a Hobey Hat Trick finalist by making 32 saves. More importantly, Maine was never able to generate offensive flurries because of his demeanor and rebound control.

Related Coverage

Game Story: Sea of Red Adam Burish and Brian Elliott were among the heroes who sent the home crowd happy.

SEEN AND HEARD AT THE BRADLEY CENTER

• As the game between Wisconsin and Maine was wrapping up, the NHL tilt between the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings was just beginning and Matt Carle was playing for the Sharks. He’ll be catching a Friday morning flight from California to Milwaukee and will be on hand for Friday night’s Hobey Baker ceremony.

• The Badgers are a self-motivated bunch. They had a team meeting before the start of the WCHA playoffs and all of the players on the team brought an item to share in as teamwork. At first glance, the items spread across the floor look like a cluttered corner of an attic. Further inspection shows family photos, inspirational books, duct tape, hockey pucks, and a stuffed toy frog.

• Each of Thursday’s semifinal games were temporarily delayed as the game officials worked with the scoreboard operator to correct the game clock.

• Barry Melrose took note of John Hopson's background during the ESPN2 broadcast, noting that the travels of the former Alaska Anchorage Seawolf and Prince George, British Columbia, native, who now plays in Orono, haven't taken him to many tropical locales. "I can guarantee you he's never had a tan in his life," said Melrose – himself the co-owner of a minor league team named the "Frostbite."

• We were still at work, but we’re willing to bet that there were long lines outside of most bars and taverns near the Bradley Center around 9:45 Thursday night.

PLUSSES AND MINUSES

It's rare, but not unheard of, for kids to ask Mike Eidelbes to autograph a puck during a game. (Photo by Larry Radloff)

Thursday was “Give a Kid a Puck Day” on the Bradley Center press row as two errant biscuits sailed into the media seats. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer was beaned in the first period of this afternoon’s Boston College-North Dakota tilt. In the second game, INCH’s Mike Eidelbes was nearly pegged by a faulty clearing attempt. In both cases, the pucks ended up in the hands of young fans seated nearby, much to the delight of rest of the people seating in that section.

After a lengthy wait – the Wisconsin band’s usual second-period fanfare was eliminated by a myriad of oft-seen NCAA public service announcements and replays from past championship games – the Badger musicians finally regaled those in attendance with their rousing rendition of the Bud Song. An INCH fave, it’s one of the best traditions in college hockey. Much better than say, a replay of the goal that won the 1991 NCAA Frozen Four championship, which we’ve seen every year since 2002.

One of the more questionable penalty calls of the day – OK, the absolute worst call – came when referee Dave Hansen whistled Wisconsin’s Joe Pavelski for a phantom minor late in the second period when he allegedly shoved Maine’s Keith Johnson and sent him tumbling into goalie Ben Bishop. Pavelski did make contact with Johnson, but it occurred long before the play moved into the crease area.

“I just gave him a little push,” Pavelski said. “I thought he was planted. He was weaker than I thought he was.”

Maine’s chippy play late in the third period was the low point of the day. Goaltender Ben Bishop’s swing at a Wisconsin forward and two Rob Bellamy plays – he tried to knee a Badger forward as he skated back to the neutral zone and took a run at goalie Brian Elliott – were especially egregious. We certainly appreciate Maine’s hard-nosed style, but the cheap shots left us with a bad taste in our mouths.

WHAT'S NEXT

Much to the delight of local merchants and ticket scalpers, Wisconsin’s quest for its first NCAA championship since 1990 continues against Boston College Saturday. In order for the Badgers to be the first team in college hockey history to win a title without leaving their home state, they’ll have to take care of the puck better than they did against Maine.

“They’ve got great forwards,” Pavelski said. “They’ve shown that all tournament and all season. We’re going to have to be detail-oriented and play a little better. We need to stick with our game plan and everyone has to play their roles.”