At the beginning of the season, asking if the Wisconsin Badgers were the best team in the Hockey Big Ten would have been close to laughable. But now, Wisconsin has won five straight games, three over top ten teams in Minnesota and Ohio State. After a series sweep in East Lansing this weekend against Michigan State, Wisconsin is now tied for the lead in the Big Ten standings.
Next week, another elite opponent will come to Madison in Penn State. While the Nittany Lions were ranked number one in the country just a few weeks ago, they have since lost five in a row and got blown out in both games against Minnesota.
Meanwhile, the Badgers are scoring at an elite rate. They haven’t scored fewer than three goals since December 10th at Michigan. Additionally, the goaltending duo of Jack Berry and Matt Jurusik have been playing superb, allowing just nine goals in their last four games. For the past few weeks they have each played one game a weekend and they have both looked in their game.
With the firepower of stars like Luke Kunin, Trent Frederic, Grant Besse, and the list goes on and on, any defense in the country will have their hands full.
So to answer the question, are the Badgers the best team in the Big Ten? No, that title currently belongs to Minnesota. It is exciting for the program to at least be having this discussion. With a good weekend against Penn State, the answer might be different.