52 // VARSITY March 27, 2014
NCAA-bound UW hopes to
replicate 2006, 2010
Win total, seeding, attitude tie teams together
W
ith its Big Ten tour-
nament title, the
Wisconsin men's
hockey team secured itself a
spot in the NCAA tournament
as a No. 1 seed.
It's a familiar position for
the Badgers, as they've found
themselves as a top seed seven
times before, including most
recently in 2006 and 2010.
Usually the No. 1 seed is a
good omen for UW, which has
won three championships,
finished runner-up twice and
third once as the high seed.
In addition to each hav-
ing earned the No. 1 seed, the
2006 and 2010 teams bear
plenty of other similarities to
this UW squad.
All three teams posted simi-
lar regular-season win totals,
with the 2006 team netting
23 victories, followed by 22 in
both 2010 and 2014.
Keegan Meuer was a mem-
ber of the 2010 team and no-
tices the similarities, too.
"There's a lot of account-
ability with this year's group,
and a lot of it comes internally
from the captains and the old-
er guys," he said. "There was
a lot of that mentality in the
2010 team."
While the similarities are
easier to see now, there was a
point in the season where UW looked far
from the level of the 2010 squad. A home
split with Anchorage on Jan. 6 dropped it
to No. 15 in the PairWise and firmly on
the NCAA bubble.
Since that series, however, the Bad-
gers have lived up the the hype that saw
them open the season ranked third in
both major polls.
A pair of victories over Minnesota on
Feb. 6-7 as well as the Big Ten tourna-
ment championship helped them regain
the No. 3 PairWise ranking and secure a
No. 1 seed.
While nothing is guaranteed in the
postseason, Wisconsin hopes its regular
season work will serve it as well as it did
the 2006 and 2010 teams. So far, so good.
SCHEDULE (24-10-2, 13-6-1-0)
BIG TEN TOURNAMENT
March 21 vs. Penn State W, 2-1
March 22 vs. Ohio State W, 5-4 (OT)
NCAA MIDWEST REGIONAL
Friday vs. North Dakota 7 p.m.
Saturday vs. Ferris/Colgate 5:30 p.m.
INSIDE
MEN'S HOCKEY
BY PAUL CAPOBIANCO @BADGERMHOCKEY
