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April
6 , 2006 | 12:02 p.m.
 2006
NCAA FROZEN FOUR
Rocky Road
Forced to play in a hostile environment in
Milwaukee, Maine fell to Wisconsin, 5-2, in the other Frozen Four
semifinal Thursday.
By Adam Wodon
Players like to say the crowd doesn't matter, but usually that's
the visiting team that says that.
With 90 percent of the 17,691 people at the Bradley
Center firmly in the Badgers' camp, Wisconsin fed off the energy
and hounded Maine all night to the tune of a 5-2 win in Thursday's
second Frozen Four semifinal.
The Badgers will face Boston College for the national
title Saturday (7 p.m.).
"Outstanding," Wisconsin captain Adam
Burish said about the home-state support. "The warm-ups were
a thrill, the band, the crowd. It was an extra boost, extra push.
And they would start at weird times. In the second period when the
game starts to get long, and all of a sudden they start clapping
or singing 'On Wisconsin' and it's a boost."
Even Maine had to begrudgingly admit the fans
were a factor, after getting flustered all night and going 0-for-7
on the power play.
"It's a tough environment to come into,"
Maine captain Greg Moore said. "It's like having an extra guy
on the ice. But it can work against you. There's pressure, if you
get down you feel like you're letting the building down. But they
captured the momentum well."
And a reason for sustaining the momentum was Wisconsin's
ability to shut down the Maine power play – something that’s
been very effective all season before it ran into a Wisconsin team
that now hasn’t allowed a power-play goal in the entire postseason
(32 kills).
"We had trouble setting up," Moore said.
"They did a good job taking away time and space. We were constantly
trying to rim the puck around and find space. They did a good job
forcing us to make mistakes."
To top it off, Ross Carlson scored a shorthanded
goal at 4:18 of the second period to give the Badgers a 2-1 lead,
one they never relinquished.
"Probably the only reason we're here was
special teams, so it's ironic that's what cost us," Maine head
coach Tim Whitehead said. "We lived on the edge all year with
our power play, so it's not surprising to allow a shorthanded goal.
We give our guys freedom."
Carlson's goal came after a pirouette, and then
he put it through the five-hole of 6-foot-7 Maine goalie Ben Bishop.
"I was lucky. It was a good bounce behind
their D," Carlson said. "I knew I was going to cut to
the middle, I just didn't know when or how. The puck bounced up
over their D. (Andrew) Joudrey didn't come. We would've had a nice
2-on-1."
Wisconsin then immediately went about putting
its hands on Maine's throat.
"Any time you score a shorthanded goal, or
any goal, you have to bear down because they're going to come back
strong," said Burish. "Being on that side, I know what
they're going through. It's frustrating."
After it built a 3-1 lead, Wisconsin played textbook
Badger hockey, with a strong forecheck and a suffocating defense.
Brian Elliott gets plenty of deserving accolades for his solid goaltending,
but he rarely sees a quality shot.
"We want to take away time and space,"
Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said. "We want to make them
hurry. A couple times, the best penalty killer has to be the goalie,
and Brian was a couple of times."
"We got the puck in deep on their D and didn't
let them win the
1-on-1 battles," Carlson said.
With Bishop keeping Maine in the game, the Black
Bears eventually broke through, finding a tiny seam. Josh Soares
made a drop pass to Moore, who floated a pass across the ice to
Mike Lundin. Lundin then put a shot in the top corner, over Elliott's
glove, to make it a 3-2 game with eight minutes to go.
But before Maine could seize on that momentum,
the Badgers got it right back. Maine defenseman Bret Tyler tried
to pinch at the left point and missed. And then a miscue at center
ice helped lead to a 2-on-1 for Wisconsin. Ben Street's shot was
stopped by Bishop, and then Bishop robbed Ross Carlson on the rebound.
But Street kept working and put in a backhander over Bishop for
a 4-2 cushion.
"He's a big goalie," Burish said. "You
thought we could get him moving from side to side. We wanted to
throw it at him from anywhere and throw them at his feet."
Said Eaves, "It's like a three-act
play. They took over the second part, but we came back. Our great
players came up big, Brian Elliott, Robbie Earl, Adam Burish. ...
We said we needed our goalie to be good, our specialty teams to
be good, and the big players to come up big. And that's what happened."
Adam Wodon can be reached at feedback@hockeyjournal.com.
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