The Wisconsin men’s hockey team has a record above .500 and is currently ranked fourth in the B1G standings.
This season, the Badgers are undefeated when playing on the road, and at 5-3-0, the team is already more than halfway to besting last year’s record of 8-19-8.
The new coaching staff and the newfound life in the Badgers roster has already affected more than the team’s record. Ticket sales for the 2016-17 season are up to 11,029 from last season’s 9,377, but are still less than 19,707 mark from the 2006-07 season—the season following the Badgers’ most recent National Championship victory.
Coming off of a split-series against Northern Michigan, the Badgers have a bye week to prepare for their next matchup against Merrimack (4-4-2) starting November 18th at 7:00pm at the Kohl Center, but the team can’t afford to lose their momentum over this break. For the first time since the 2013-14 season, the Badgers have a winning record. Keeping the energy and sustaining the winning mentality into the series against Merrimack will be crucial for the team’s success.
Wednesday commenced the early National Letter of Intent signing period. Lasting eight days, early NLI signing dates allow Coach Tony Granato and his team to sign recruits. With the possibility of Luke Kunin (15th overall 2016 Minnesota Wild draft pick) leaving after this season to start his time in the NHL, the coaching staff must be wary of over-/under-signing recruits.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Granato and his coaching staff have not officially signed any new Badgers, while Boston College was the first to act by signing Michael Karow of the Youngstown Phantoms (USHL) to play starting the 2017-18 season.