By Ricardo Cooney
DETROIT – The Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers’ dream season came to a screeching halt early Thursday evening at the hands of a school steeped in college hockey tradition. Led by standout performances from sophomore forward Derek Stepan and junior defenseman Brendan Smith the Wisconsin Badgers used a dominating first 40 minutes to steamroll past RIT 8-1.
The Badgers celebrate the first goal of their 8-1 rout
“We ran into a buzzsaw tonight,” said RIT coach Wayne Wilson. “They had an answer for everything. They were just physically stronger, quicker and really answered anything we tried to generate and we had a tough time generating anything.”
RIT captured the underdog hearts of many college hockey fans by rolling off 12 straight wins, including NCAA East Regional upsets of Denver and New Hampshire, to earn a spot in the school’s first-ever Frozen Four.
But Wisconsin, playing in its 11th Frozen Four and not being far removed from its 2006 national title win, looked like a team filled with NHL draft picks – 10 to be exact – against a fledgling group of Tigers, that were experiencing the big time for the first time.
On the strength of three power-play goals, two which came on 5-on-3 man advantages, the Badgers got goals from seven different players to end the Tigers’ dream.
“We talked all year about how one of the strengths of our team was depth,” said Hobey Baker candidate and senior forward Blake Geoffrion. “Guys stepped up.”
“We started rolling over the bench with four lines and when we’re playing our best is when we’ve got four groups going over the boards,” Stepan added.
During extended stretches in both the first and second period, the contest looked more like a mismatch than a matchup between two teams seeking an opportunity to play for a national title. The Badgers won most of the one-on-one battles for the puck and coming away cleanly with loose pucks that went to the corners.
“They have a tremendous power play and we knew that going in so we didn’t want to give them those opportunities,” Wilson said. “Scoring early and executing on their power play and being rewarded were, I thought, were the keys, besides them just being a better team tonight.”
RIT, which prides itself on team speed, a strong transition game and driving to the net was neutralized in those areas by a Wisconsin team that has strong, offensive-minded, puck-moving defensemen who kept possession of the puck with crisp passing, never allowing the smaller, speedier Tigers a chance to sustain any offense.
“We never really got a good look up the ice and a good clearing pass. They pinned us down,” Wilson said. “We never got any long passes and I thought they did. They were able to get themselves turned around, look up ice and make the really nice passes to generate their transition game.”
And by the time the Tigers did figure out Wisconsin’s defense, scoring their only goal of the game when Tyler Brenner sent a shot past Badgers’ goalie Scott Gudmanson at 19:32 of the second period on the power play, it was too late because that only made the score 6-1 in Wisconsin’s favor.
The Badgers added two more late in the third period after Wilson had pulled DeMichiel in favor of backups Shane Madolora and Jon Ropponen, with each giving up a goal apiece, but this semifinal had long since been decided.
Maybe even when John Mitchell scored on the third shot of the game at 1:27 of the first period because Wisconsin was 17-2-1 entering Thursday’s contest when scoring the game’s first goal this season.
Mitchell’s goal like many of the others that were scored on Thursday came because Wisconsin camped a big body in front of the net, limiting the line of sight for RIT netminder Jared DiMichiel, who gave up the first six goals on 27 shots.
