45
with less than seven minutes remaining and Ohio
State leading 4-2, it was OSU that was poised to earn
the Big Ten's automatic spot in the NCAA tourna-
ment ― a move that would squeeze North Dakota
out of the dance.
The Badgers were down, but not out of, the fight.
Goals by Jefferson Dahl and Tyler Barnes in a 28-sec-
ond span sent the title game into overtime. In the
extra session, Mark Zengerle snuck the puck past
OSU netminder Christian Frey to give Wisconsin its
second-straight conference tourney title ― and the
Big Ten's first automatic NCAA bid.
"We're a resilient group," Zengerle said. "It started
with Jefferson, the next shift. Sometimes it might
be tough going down two with seven minutes left.
They came out right away and got that next goal, 4-3.
It gained a little more confidence in our group, the
bench.
"The rest of the game there, we were buzzing."
Eaves agreed, "When we got down 4-2, it seems
we got desperate, but we played to a higher level and
got the job done in overtime. You're going to have
to battle through some things, the adversity of being
behind, and stay with it, stay patient. I thought our
group showed some maturity getting behind twice
by two goals.
"That maturity and that steely resolve paid off for
us."
Besides giving the Badgers an automatic ticket to
the tournament, the Cardinal and White also pushed
their rivals in green into the field.
After the events of Saturday night, many of the
Badgers received texts and Tweets from North Da-
kota players thanking them for extending their sea-
son.
"I got a few texts from a guy that I know on the
team," UW senior captain Frankie Simonelli admit-
ted. "There were things going around Twitter saying
thanks for getting us in. I know they were excited
about getting in."
"There was a tweet by one UND player saying along
the lines of 'Drinks on me, Wisconsin' for us helping
them get into the tournament," Michael Mersch said.
"I thought that was kind of funny."
"I heard from Jordan Schmaltz (a Verona, Wis.,
native) on their team," junior defenseman Jake Mc-
Cabe said. "We played together growing up here and
there. He tweeted at me and a UMass Lowell player
saying thanks for the ticket to the dance."
• • • •
WATCH: THE WATER BOTTLE GAME
