GREG ANDERSON
of the nine, former Badger Jake Dowell, a fellow
Eau Claire native, reached out to McCabe.
"He sent me a direct message on Twitter while
I was over there," McCabe said. "He won a gold
medal in 2004 with Coach Eaves. It was nice of
him to do that, to send words of encouragement
and good luck."
"I tried to keep it simple for him," Ramage said of
his advice to McCabe. "I said, 'Just play your game
and you'll be fine.' Jake's a good player, so I had
full confidence in him. When you play your game,
you're most successful."
Handling his business some 5,000 miles away
in Russia, McCabe couldn't help but follow along
with the recent success of his Badgers teammates
back in Madison. With the internet connection
just fast enough to stream games on his laptop,
McCabe watched from afar as UW extended the
its unbeaten streak to eight games.
McCabe acknowledged the physical toll and
grind that playing seven games in 10 days had on
him while competing with Team USA, but the excitement to get back and contribute to UW's recent success made the physical wall ahead of him
loom a little less large.
"You come back from playing in a tournament
over there with some of the best players in the
world," Ramage recalled of his experience. "Obviously, it makes you have to elevate your game.
You're kind of on that high coming back. You're
ready to go, even after playing nonstop."
McCabe echoed just those emotions, anxious to
bring his newfound confidence back with him.
"I've got a lot of confidence right now," he said.
"When Coach (Phil) Housley named me captain, I
had a bigger role that I had to take on. I had to
be consistent and perform on the ice. Hopefully I
can keep contributing in the second half and keep
us going."
His gold medal and Team USA jersey now put
away safely, McCabe has since picked up his cardinal and white sweater and got right back to work
with his Badgers teammates.
This past weekend, McCabe and the Badgers
swept then-No. 11 Minnesota State on the road
in Mankato, extending their unbeaten streak to
10 games (7-0-3) and earning their third straight
series sweep — and first in program history in
Mankato.
Ironically, it was Ramage, the 2011 Team USA
world juniors captain, who scored two straight
game-winning overtime goals to seal the series
sweep.
The first overtime goal secured a 5-4 win for UW
with less than a minute left in overtime, while the
second score stole a 2-1 victory with just 6.2 seconds left on the clock.
Maybe, just for that weekend, McCabe handed
back the title of "Captain America" to Ramage.
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