I echo some others thoughts that Wisconsin won, but certainly didn't play a great game overall. I really liked Rumpel's calm play throughout, no matter the pressure Minnesota was putting on. Even the goal he gave up, he was really hung out to try with the completely unexpected terrible turnover by McCabe.
With that said, McCabe played with a chip on his shoulder for the rest of the game after that. Kerdiles added a lot of energy up front and he and Zengerle had several quality looks. I really hope he can stay healthy for the remainder of the season.
BTN didn't have a great broadcast. Some wrong names, wrong hometowns and Andringa sounded like he was in a tin can reporting from the ice level. The play-by-play guy even said that they were going for a "record" crowd on Friday. Umm, Kohl Center has been sold out before so I'm not sure what he was talking about. I expect things to be cleaned up much more for tonight's game.
While I didn't expect 14,000+ for last night, I'm surprised they couldn't crack 10,000. I assume that it being Thursday night was the biggest reason for it, but weekday games have never stopped basketball games from pulling just as big of crowds as on the weekends. I know the Friday/Saturday night format has been around forever, but Thursday night isn't that far out of the box. I will say though that the student section really came across as very loud on TV.
Biggest game of the year is tonight. With a sweep, Badgers really do get back in Big Ten contention. Overall, they do need a better overall effort, because I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect Rumpel to hold the Gophers to one goal again.