It was a pretty quiet first 40 minutes of hockey. It was a one-goal game, and everyone was hoping for someone to make a play.
And UW’s lone senior, defenseman Eric Springer, did just that.
Sophomore forward Michael Mersch brought the puck up the ice on a break and found Springer on a centering pass. Springer knocked it backdoor to put the Badgers up 3-1 only 50 seconds into the third period.
Notching not only the game-winning goal, Springer’s goal was the second of his career, ending a 61-game drought. Springer wasn’t surprised the drought lasted so long.
“Yes, absolutely,” he said with a laugh. “But I’m happy it came.”
The score may suggest otherwise, but Wisconsin’s sweep over Mercyhurst was not exactly pretty. In fact, it was messy, and put the Badgers’ growing pains on display.
The Badgers started out slow, and looked sluggish, although coach Mike Eaves believes it was just both teams trying to establish themselves that caused his squad to look slow.
“They came with a great desire to try and establish themselves,” Eaves said of Mercyhurst. “So it is two teams trying to establish themselves. We were actually better tonight [than Friday]; you might not have noticed as much because they picked up their level.”
However, after going down 1-0 after just over two minutes, UW was able to head into the locker room after the first period with a steady 2-1 lead.
With a scoreless second, Springer’s goal launched an energized third period that didn’t have a down moment.
Mercyhurst kept things close, making it 3-2, but Wisconsin’s momentum was undeniable, and the Badgers went on to score two more times. Sophomore forward Tyler Barnes’ power-play goal 17 minutes in was the final dagger for the Lakers, causing a brawl between most of the players on the ice. Both MC’s Charlie Carkin and UW’s Mark Zengerle were ejected from the game for game misconduct calls.
“We were coming in here the least penalized team in the country,” Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin said. “I’m sure that play changes that. We’ve been pretty good about staying out of the box. It wasn’t an overly-physical game, I didn’t think, or an overly physical series, I don’t think. We were actually trying to get our team to be a little more physical.”
While Wisconsin made sure they kept their WCHA record clean against Mercyhurst — which is 0-2 against the WCHA this season — the Badgers struggled to connect consistently on passes.
Still suffering from a slew of injuries, all four lines of forwards were comprised of sophomores and freshmen, and it showed.
“With having so many young people, every turn that we get to, every shift, there’s huge things that are going on, because every player on the ice is young,” Eaves said. “They’re going through new things, and we’re asking a lot of them. They don’t have a junior or senior beside them on the bench to help them through this stuff.”
Youth in tow, one veteran voice was the difference maker for Wisconsin.
Junior defensemen Justin Schultz posted a three-point night from a power-play goal and two assists.
According to Gotkin, there’s really no way to prepare for an All-American like Schultz.
“He’s a game changer,” he said. “I think any team that has a ‘Justin Schultz’ on their team, it clearly makes that team so much better. He’s the real deal.”
