WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
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BY MIKE LUCAS • UWBADGERS.COM
aybe it would be less painful if
Barry Richter could forget what
happened 20 years ago.
Not that he has to be reminded but …
On March 27, 1993, he was the captain of a
Wisconsin hockey team that got eliminated in the
NCAA tournament quarterfinals, one step away
from the Frozen Four at Milwaukee's Bradley Center.
On Nov. 2, 1993, he was traded before ever putting on the sweater of the National Hockey League
team (Hartford) that took him in the second round
(32nd pick overall) of the 1988 entry draft.
That's a lot to digest for a young athlete but he
handled everything in stride, befitting of someone
who got the most out of his college and professional hockey careers.
Surely, there's plenty to remember about '93.
Not only was Richter, a skilled puck-moving defenseman, recognized as a first-team All-American,
but he graduated from the UW School of Business
with a degree in marketing.
In 1993, he also joined the U.S. National Team,
which paved the way for Richter to play in the 1994
Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway; a oncein-a-lifetime experience.
If anything, Richter would like to forget one game
in 1992; a game that was never played according to
the NCAA Committee on Infractions, which voided
the UW's participation in the tourney.
Lake Superior State rallied from an early 2-0 deficit and beat the Badgers, 5-3, in the NCAA championship game in Albany, N.Y. Twenty one years
later and Richter still hasn't watched the replay.
"That really stung,'' he said, "and it actually still
stings today how that all went down.''
There was the good (a Jason Zent hat trick), the
bad (ECAC referee Tim McConaghy, who helped
Lake State to four 5-on-3 power plays) and the ugly
(some unruly UW players and their grad assistant).
The NCAA came down hard on Wisconsin for its
lack of discipline during and after the game.
"As a player, we felt the game was taken out of our
hands,'' said Richter, who was voicing what many
others felt about the uneven officiating. "Other
people had a more objective viewpoint.
"But they felt that we were wronged a little bit,
too. For some of us it would have been our second
national championship in three seasons. I know it
