2008 Woodie Awards
Badgers Take Frozen Four
Wisconsin outlasts BC to win their first National Championship since 1990
Dakota Rubin
Issue date: 4/11/06 Section: Sports
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The Catamount's league, Hockey East, was well represented by the Maine Black Bears and the Boston College Eagles who both made it to the final four.
The top team in the tournament, the Wisconsin Badgers, and the Fighting Sioux of North Dakota joined Maine and BC to make up an intriguing Frozen Four.
The first semifinal pitted the Eagles versus the Fighting Sioux in a rematch of last year's regional final, which North Dakota won handily 6-3.
The Eagles jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. They were carried by their senior captain and Hobey Baker Award Finalist, Chris Collins, who finished the game with an impressive hat trick and lead his team on both the offensive and defensive end.
North Dakota was able to crack through BC goalie Corey Schneider, who brought a six period shutout streak into the game. But their five goals were not enough to catch the offensively charged Eagles, who won 6-5.
The other semifinal matched the Black Bears against the Badgers.
Like Boston College, Wisconsin is lead by solid goaltending from Brian Elliot, who had his shutout streaked snapped in the semifinal, and stellar leadership from Robbie Earl, who lead the Badgers with two goals and an assist.
The Badgers and Black Bears played even for the fist part of the game but Wisconsin used the leverage of a partisan crowd to lift themselves to a 5-2 victory and a date in the finals with Boston College.
The Black Bears cut the lead to 3-2 on a goal with less then nine minutes remaining in the game. But the Badgers responded just a minute later and then put the game out of reach with an empty netter with just over a minute remaining.
The final featured a clash of styles. The BC Eagles play a high energy, emotional style of hockey contrasted with the Wisconsin Badgers who play a very physical, fast game.
But both teams rely heavily on their goaltender to lead them and keep them in games. And this is exactly what they did.
Schneider kept the Eagles in the game by stopping 17 of 17 shots in the first period and making an incredible 37 saves in the game. But it was not enough against the physically superior Badgers, who won 2-1.