Wisconsin Hockey Heaven

Yesterday I traveled to Madison yet again, this time for a hockey doubleheader.

Since the men's team has sunk far below last year's status, the women's hockey team, which is still unbeaten, has taken a bit more attention. We decided we wanted to see what women's hockey was all about (but still end the night with a men's game, so that we wouldn't be completely lame.)

The women's game was definitely slower paced, but still fun to watch. Definitely not as bad as going to a women's basketball game.

The women's team passes well and utilizes every player. You don't really see any one girl standing out, though last year's national MVP Sara Bauer and Jinelle Zaugg, yesterday's goal scorer, do lead the country at #1 and #2 with most points and most goals.

The game was 1-0 and there wasn't much to report. It's clearly a family event and I was impressed that they even had girl mighty mites to play at the period break.

The men, however, snapped a six-game losing streak beating #6 Michigan State 2-0. Andrew Joudrey and Ben Street scored for the Badgers.

The Badgers have suffered mightily from the injury bug, especially when top goal-scoring prospect Jack Skille was out for 11 games. Friday night marked his return to the ice, where he scored against Michigan, but he was pretty quiet at last night's game.

This is the second game I've attended this year and there was a world of difference in the play on the ice. The Badgers looked much cleaner, with sharp passes and an actually visible attack.

The game actually featured a lot of fast-paced attack on both ends, with quick break-aways and lots of shots. UW outshot Sparty 27-19.

The first game we went to featured little, if any, attack of any kind. The team looked disorganized and as though they weren't quite sure how to handle the puck. Last night the Badgers looked much more cohesive.

By far the most entertaining parts of the evening were surrounding the student section's taunting of Michigan State's goalie Jeff Lerg, who is only 5'6". Standing in the net alone you didn't really grasp his minute stature, but any time the team surrounded him, he looked like one of the girls we saw playing earlier in the day.

Cheers of "Midget Goalie, clap clap clapclapclap" were spattered throughout the game, but by far the best was near the end of the third period, when cheers of "pull your sieve" normally break out. Instead, for 2 full minutes, we cheered "Pull your midget". It doesn't look as funny when I type it, but I promise it was more the entertaining while you're standing there, trying to figure out what they're saying.