30 // VARSITY February 20, 2014
W
hile eating breakfast Saturday morning
at their Columbus hotel, many of the play-
ers on the Wisconsin men's hockey team,
including Mark Zengerle, had their eyes glued to the
Sochi Olympics.
Everyone stood up, Zengerle said, when Patrick
Kane got the puck on his stick and had a breakaway
on Russian goalie Sergei Bobrovski, who happens to
play for the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Bobrovski came up with the overtime save on
Kane ― one of the many young NHL stars on Team
USA and a childhood friend of Zengerle's ― and the
outcome of the game came down to a shootout.
Fate may have intervened because if Kane, the
Chicago Blackhawks' leading scorer, had beaten Bo-
brovski ― he tried to go 5-hole ― America would
have never been introduced to Timothy Leif Oshie.
As it was, T.J. Oshie, who played collegiately at
North Dakota, became an instant folk hero, in Mike
Eruzionesque fashion, when he scored on 4 of 6
shootout attempts and had the game-winner.
Zengerle was impressed with the composure
shown by Oshie, a role player with the St. Louis
Blues. "Honestly, what I was thinking," he said, "was
how much anxiety or pressure he was feeling."
To a small degree, Zengerle could relate. " I had a
penalty shot against Michigan," he said, "and I can
remember it was one of my most nervous times in
hockey."
But he didn't let his nerves get the best of him. In-
stead, he beat Michigan goaltender Zach Nagelvoort
on the penalty shot ― he went 5-hole ― the first suc-
cessful Wisconsin conversion in 18 years.
Nagelvoort later got the best of Zengerle, stopping
him from close range on UW's third and final shoot-
out attempt after a 2-2 tie between the Badgers and
Wolverines on Feb. 1 in Ann Arbor.
Reflecting on Oshie's cool and calm demeanor as
a shootout specialist on the Olympic stage, Zengerle
said, "He had a smile on his face, so I guess that he
has the right personality for the job."
After watching the United States outlast the Rus-
