“The one thing you worry about right now is that it’s intense for a lot of our athletes in the classroom.”
That, said Wisconsin coach Mike Hastings, is one piece of the focus puzzle as the first half of the season comes to a close.
“They’re getting toward finals,” said Hastings. “There’s a lot on their plates.”
As No. 6 Wisconsin prepares to host No. 17 Penn State in this last series before the holiday break, Hastings and his staff have faith in a team that understands how important it is to be present in the moment.
“You know one thing I’ve found about the collegiate athlete? They’re pretty good at staying in the now,” said Hastings. “We’re going to rely on the guys that have gotten us here, which is our leadership group and what’s inside that locker room, to stay focused and go out and get our dailies done.”
For the Badgers – one of the most intensely focused Big Ten teams for the first half of the season – it’s that ability to remain clear about immediate goals that has Wisconsin sitting one point behind first-place Michigan State in conference standings.
“When we started back in September,” said Hastings, “we asked the guys to focus on their dailies, the things they get to control, not worry about things that had happened that we could no longer control and not focus on our first game until our first game got here, they did a good job of that.
“We’ve asked them to stay on that path and just finish our first half.”
Before playing Ohio State last weekend, Wisconsin sat tied with Notre Dame in second place, each team seven points behind No. 7 Michigan State. The difference this week between the Badgers and the Fighting Irish – and between the Badgers and the Golden Gophers, Wolverines, Nittany Lions and Buckeyes – is that Wisconsin was able to make the most of an opportunity. With Michigan State sidelined during a bye week, Wisconsin swept Ohio State while Notre Dame split with Michigan, as did Minnesota and Penn State.
And just like that, Wisconsin is a single point behind Michigan State and three ahead of third-place Notre Dame. In a season running its way toward a photo finish, that sweep may have enormous implications in March. The wins also keep Wisconsin high in the PairWise Rankings. When the rest of the season plays out, Big Ten teams won’t have the opportunity to play nonconference opponents whose PWR matches or surpasses theirs, giving conference teams little chance of upward mobility. At sixth in the PWR, Wisconsin is the league’s top team in those rankings.
Against the Buckeyes, said Hastings, the Badgers saw some room for improvement after Friday’s 3-0 win, particularly on the power play.
“I thought our power play zapped energy from our club, took momentum away,” said Hastings. “I want to give credit to Ohio State for killing penalties well, but then going back and asking our power play group and asking them to have a little bit different mindset, keep it a little bit simpler at trying to make the guys who were killing penalties have to defend second and third shots.”
Wisconsin went 0 for 4 on the PP Friday and 2 for 4 in Saturday’s 6-1 win on goals from David Silye and Simon Tassy.
“Yes, it was good for David Silye to score off of a shot, but there was a good net-front presence by Carson Bantle,” said Hastings. “The second power-play goal gets scored because we’ve got net-front presence by Simon Tassy. Tassy ends up grabbing a rebound and finishing. Progressing from Friday with things that we didn’t really do as well as we’d like to and having that pay you back on Saturday.”
Hastings said that the Badgers had a “greater overall” team improvement from Friday to Saturday.
“Sometimes that gets lost if you’re fortunate enough to win on Friday,” he said.
Wisconsin earned its fifth and sixth wins of the season in the sweep of Ohio State. Wisconsin had six wins total last season.
It was, as Hastings called it, “a good weekend” for the Badgers.
Hastings said that the Badgers are “just trying to finish what we’ve started here and then put that to bed,” which, he added “doesn’t happen until Saturday night probably around 10 o’clock.”
In their home split with No. 10 Minnesota, the Nittany Lions lost Friday’s contest 4-1 and rebounded with a 6-3 win Saturday. Penn State outshot Minnesota 77-47 in the series, with 43 of those shots coming in the win.
“Year in and year out, if you’ve followed Penn State from their first opportunity to compete in the Big Ten, they’ve got as much of a shot-first mentality as anybody in the country,” said Hastings, who cautioned that teams need an “awareness of where everybody’s at after a shot’s taken” because the Nittany Lions can score from anywhere.
“They can come from below the goal line,” said Hastings. “When it gets up top, it’s usually going to be delivered to the net quickly. They’re just a real aggressive mindset when they have the puck and when they don’t.
“So what does it do to you? You’d better make sure that you’re getting inside ice and you’re getting back to your net once a shot is delivered because they’re about as hungry as a team in that area that we’re going to see in the first half.”
The Nittany Lions sit in sixth place in the Big Ten standings, trailing the Badgers by seven points and eight points out of first place.
Michigan State hosts third-place Notre Dame. The Irish are four points behind the Spartans and two points ahead of fifth-place Minnesota. The Golden Gophers travel to play the last-place Buckeyes, who are still looking for their first Big Ten win of the season. Ohio State sits nine points behind Penn State.
Michigan – sitting one point ahead of Penn State and seven points out of first place – is idle this week.
Big Ten teams return to action in nonconference play the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. B1G conference play resumes Jan. 5-6 when Notre Dame hosts Wisconsin, the first league play in the new year.
