Sometimes when you’re down, every setback seems to add another rung to the ladder you’re climbing.
In situations like these, even the littlest things get amplified.
Sometimes when you’re down, though, something that looks small to outsiders really is bigger than it appears. It’s only diminished to others because you appear diminished to others.
The perfect example of this is the major penalty called to Wisconsin’s Charlie Stramel in the Badgers’ 6-4 loss to Minnesota Saturday. At the 15:54 mark of the first period – when the Badgers were leading 2-0 – Stramel was given a five-minute major call for contact to the head during a dust-up with Minnesota’s Brock Faber. Specifically, Stramel was called for head-butting Faber.
Let’s be clear here: contact to the head is no joke, and it’s a penalty that should be called when it is an intentional act. In this case, Stramel’s helmet did make contact with Faber’s head, but it’s very clear that it happens only because Faber pulls Stramel in by the jersey. Stramel didn’t initiate any head butting, nor could he have avoided that contact once he was pulled in by Faber.
Faber got two minutes for roughing. Stramel was ejected from the game. Minnesota scored three times in the final three minutes of the first period, once four-on-four and twice on the ensuing power play, including Luke Mittelstadt’s spirit-breaking goal with one-tenth of a second left in the period.
After the game, Wisconsin’s Tony Granato had more than a few things to say about that call.
“That’s not a major,” said Granato, and then he repeated it for emphasis and clarified it even further. “That’s not a major. It’s not a penalty.
“Sometimes referees see things that other people don’t. There’s four of them out there. Not one. Four of them had to make the decision that was an intentional head butt, but I’ve never seen a head butt with a chin when a guy’s pulling a jersey forward, but that’s what they decided to call.”
Charlie Stramel received a game misconduct penalty for this and has been ejected. Big loss for the Badgers. pic.twitter.com/qFiv3oGPi7
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) December 11, 2022
The penalty came at a point in the game where Wisconsin was working on salvaging something of the series after dropping Friday’s game to the Golden Gophers 7-1.
“There’s momentum for their team,” said Granato. “We got rattled for sure. They took advantage of an opportunity that’s given to them, and they made the most of it.”
The Gophers – as capable as any team in the country of taking advantage of a momentum shift – opened the second period with their third power-play goal on the Stramel major, this one at the 44-second mark, 10 seconds before the advantage was to expire.
The Gophers added goals at 3:04 and 3:30 in the second, meaning that all six Minnesota goals were scored within six minutes of real play time spanning the end of the first period and beginning of the second.
“Did that change the momentum of the game? Absolutely,” said Granato. “We played as good a period as we could until that point, and then they took advantage of it and they get the goal at the end with point one second left. That’s another kick to us. Then at the start of the second period, they sneak one inside again.”
Wisconsin went on to score two third-period goals, which made Connor Kurth’s goal at 3:04 in the second – the fifth Minnesota goal – the game winner.
“In the second period, we never really got going,” said Granato, “but in the third period we did, played hard, got ourselves somewhat back in the game. I give our guys a ton of credit for playing as hard as they did, battling the way they did.
“Again, you hate to see your team have to go through something like that when you play that well and a call goes against you.”
The phrase “go through something like that” in context refers to that call, that six-minute span, that awful outcome for the Badgers. It’s also a metaphor for the season Wisconsin is having. This was the last weekend of play for the Badgers before heading into the midseason break, and Wisconsin allowed 13 goals in two games against Minnesota.
That is a bitter ending for a tough first half that saw just one Big Ten win for Wisconsin, at home Dec. 2 against Michigan. At the end of the first half last season, Wisconsin had three B1G wins.
The Badgers will take a three-game losing streak into the start of the second half of the season, having surrendered 17 goals in their last three contests. And the gulf between the last-place Badgers – with their single win and three conference points – and the first-place Golden Gophers and their 10 wins for 30 points couldn’t be more starkly contrasted than the outcome of this series.
Every bit of that first-half frustration was evident in Granato’s voice after the Saturday’s game.
“All the way until the penalty, we were on it,” said Granato. “Four lines were going. Charlie was playing great. I’ve not seen a call like that, ever. I don’t know how you can explain that, but again, that’s what they saw.”
What makes this single call so much larger than it appears to anyone outside of the Wisconsin organization goes beyond the Badgers’ desire to end the first half on a higher note than a 6-4 loss to a very old rival. Stramel’s ejection affected the entire Wisconsin team, obviously, but it also affected freshman Charlie Stramel.
Stramel is a native of Rosemount, Minn., a small city near Minneapolis. An alum of the U.S. National Team Development Program, Stramel is eligible for the 2023 NHL draft and began his season with Wisconsin as a prospect expected to get chosen in the first round. His four goals and three assists so far on a team that is underperforming may dampen enthusiasm that teams have for him. He’s also headed to Plymouth, Mich., this week for the U.S. National Junior Team camp. Stramel was on the 2022 World Junior Championship team.
“We’ve got a star player playing in his home state in front of lots of scouts,” said Granato, “and he’s kicked out of the game because the guy pulls his jersey.”
For the Badgers, the penalty to Stramel had a ripple effect, but Granato also saw in the heat of the moment that the call made Stramel more of a target than a pebble.
Wisconsin returns to play against Lake Superior State Dec. 28 in the first game of the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off in Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum. Clarkson and Massachusetts round out that field.
— Special thanks to Todd Milewski for assistance with this column.
