Everyone in the Big Ten has played at least four games.
Every team in the Big Ten, with one exception, has at least two wins to start the season.
That exception is Wisconsin, which is 0-4 to start the season.
The Badgers opened 2022-23 with 3-1 and 4-3 road losses to Ohio State. In each game, Wisconsin gave up late third-period power-play goals, including the game-tying marker in Ohio State’s come-from-behind Saturday win.
After that series, coach Tony Granato acknowledged that his team played better as the weekend progressed but made it clear that Wisconsin was going into its nonconference series against St. Cloud State last weekend with an imperative to win.
“Those moral victories, they don’t mean anything to our team right now,” said Granato. “We’ve got to get victories. Learning from what just happened and now applying it is the most important thing. We’ve got to apply the lessons that we’ve learned, immediately. It’s not a month or so down the road [that] we’ve got to be better. We’ve got to be better.
“We can’t wait 10 games to see what kind of team we have. We’ve got to get that going and be our best real fast.”
At home against St. Cloud last weekend, the Badgers didn’t get the results that they wanted, but Granato said that the games did bring noticeable improvement. After losing to the Huskies 5-1 Friday, the Badgers dropped Saturday’s rematch 2-1.
“We had a really solid game Saturday,” said Granato. “We thought we played really well, deserved a little better. That doesn’t make anybody feel any better, but it gives us a little focus heading into the weekend. If we can play the same game and repeat the consistency we had in that game, we’ll get our results. That’s the way we have to stay with it. We played well. We just didn’t win.”
The last time Wisconsin began a season with four losses was in 2014-15 when the Badgers went 1-8-1 through their first 10 games, the first eight of those being losses. That ninth game was a 1-1 tie against Ferris State, and through those first nine starts, Wisconsin was held to one or fewer goals five times, averaging 1.33 goals per game through that opening stretch.
The Badgers went on to win just four games that season, which was the opening act to the end of Mike Eaves’ career behind the Wisconsin bench. Under Eaves, the Badgers had eight wins in 2015-16, Eaves’ last season.
There is nothing to suggest that Wisconsin will suffer a similar fate this season, and Granato was justifiably optimistic about the way the Badgers responded to Friday’s loss to St. Cloud with a solid effort Saturday. One especially bright spot from Saturday’s game was the play of junior goaltender Kyle McClellan, who made 25 saves in his first game as a Badger after transferring from Mercyhurst. Another was the way that Wisconsin responded to allowing yet another third-period power-play goal.
“I thought individually, our performances were outstanding,” said Granato. “I thought the way we worked together as a group was outstanding. I thought that even though some things happened in the game that could break a team didn’t. We kept going. Even after they scored on the late power-play goal, I thought the last four minutes of the game, we went back after. We had our chances to get even.
“There were lots of good things from our end.”
Kyler Kupka had the game winner on the power play for the Huskies at 13:58 in the third Saturday, just over five minutes after defenseman Corson Ceulemans earned his first goal of the season, an even-strength tally that evened up the game at 1-1. Wisconsin outshot St. Cloud 9-4 in that third period, marking just the second time this season that the Badgers bested an opponent in shots in a given stanza.
Trailing 3-1 in the third period of Friday’s loss, the Badgers allowed a power-play goal at 15:11, a little over two minutes after scoring themselves. The Huskies added an even-strength goal 1:16 later.
“In general, the big thing in the first four games is our power play and penalty kill,” said Granato. “We’ve got to get better in those areas. I think our five-on-five play has been really solid, our coverage in D-zone with the exception of a few minutes at the end of the [Friday] St. Cloud game has been pretty solid, so there’s been lots of things to build off of, but the special teams have to produce for us and win us games.”
Wisconsin is 1 for 12 on the power play (83.3 percent) and has allowed five power-play goals on 15 opponent chances (66.7 percent).
Granato said that one area that is rock solid for Wisconsin is the core leadership on the team, including three fifth-year players. Captain Dominick Mersch and alternates Brock Caufield and Jack Gorniak are now all graduate students at Wisconsin. They’re joined by alternate captains Mattieu De St. Phalle and Anthony Kehrer, both juniors.
“I will compliment those guys in a big way because they’ve been that way for the last year plus,” said Granato. “Last year, everyone expected us to follow up that Big Ten season, that championship season, with a good year.”
The Badgers were the regular-season B1G conference champions for 2020-21 with an overall record of 20-10-1. Wisconsin finished the 2021-22 season tied for fifth in the Big Ten with an overall record of 10-24-3.
“Last year was a struggle, but the one thing you can say is that our team stayed together and battled through it and guys understood that part of the process is dealing with tough times,” Granato said. “If you can stick together through those, eventually, you’ll get out of it.”
After the season-opening losses to Ohio State, Granato said that the returning veterans have a sense of urgency this year.
“We’ve got great older players,” said Granato. “We’ve got three fifth-year guys that are all part of our captaincy group. Those guys know that. This is their last chance to get 35, 40 games left as Badgers, and they want to make the most of it.”
The Badgers travel to Minnesota Duluth this weekend, or as Granato put it, “Big-time program, big-time team.” Granato said that while Wisconsin’s early schedule is challenging, the Badgers have “another opportunity to get on track and we’ll try to do that Friday night.”
