Putting on the Foil – Friday Links

It’s Friday, so that means there is a lot of college hockey news to be read and sift through. It’s also the All Star break so there won’t be a lot of NHL news this weekend, except for the All Star game. Frankly, I find the All Star Game to be boring.

Bruce Ciskie has a nice article; Jack Connolly Marches Toward History.

Here is this weeks Through These Doors episode 12. If you watch the video you will see UND defenseman Andrew MacWilliam wearing the yellow jersey, that is the jersey that they give the players that are injured.

Tyler Buckentine and Brian Halverson of USCHO have their weekly WCHA picks. And you can see from their analysis neither the Badgers nor UND are setting the world on fire.

Wisconsin (12-10-2, 7-9-2 WCHA) at No. 18 North Dakota (13-10-2, 9-9-0 WCHA)

Tyler: The Badgers have won five of six but not against any strong teams and their first road win of the year came Jan. 13 at Minnesota State. The Mavericks blanked UW the next night. Also, the Badgers’ power play is failing the past five games (2-for-14). UW’s 1-6-1 road record doesn’t look good going into Grand Forks this weekend. UND sweep

Brian: The Badgers, who swept UND in Madison in Oct. (5-3, 5-4) have won six of the last 10 meetings overall (6-3-1) and are 6-1-1 in Grand Forks since the 2005-06 season. But Wisconsin is just 1-6-1 on the road in 2011-12 with its only win coming at Minnesota State two weeks ago. Penalty killing has been a staple of success in recent weeks for both UW (82.5 percent in last 13 games) and UND (90 percent in last nine and 83.7 percent overall) but UND’S power play inefficiency lately (5.2 percent in its last five games) is alarming. I think Wisconsin finds a way to pick up a road split.

Roman Augustoviz invited Brian Halverson to be his guest prognosticator, so here are their picks for this weekend’s series between UW vs. UND at the Roman Empire.

Wisconsin (12-10-2, 7-9-2 WCHA) at No. 18 North Dakota (13-10-2, 9-9-0 WCHA)

Brian: The Badgers, who swept UND in Madison in Oct. (5-3, 5-4) have won six of the last 10 meetings overall (6-3-1) and are 6-1-1 in Grand Forks since the 2005-06 season. But Wisconsin is just 1-6-1 on the road in 2011-12 with its only win coming at Minnesota State two weeks ago. Penalty killing has been a staple of success in recent weeks for both UW (82.5 percent in last 13 games) and UND (90 percent in last nine and 83.7 percent overall) but UND'S power play inefficiency lately (5.2 percent in its last five games) is alarming. Wisconsin finds a way to pick up a road win. … SPLIT

Roman: Huge series for home ice in first round of WCHA playoffs down the road. UND is in sixth place, last spot for home ice, the Badgers are ninth, but just two points behind the team without a nickname. Badgers freshman goalie Joel Rumpel is 4-1 with a 1.01 GAA and two shutouts in his last five games. Justin Schultz has a team-leading 12 goals and could become first D-man to lead Badgers in goals for a season. … UND SWEEP

At Tradition of Excellence has his Fighting Sioux vs. Wisconsin: Notes and Links

Brad Elliott Schlossman has his Friday morning reading links up...Brad also has a nice articlea about the Knight Line. Today we also find out that the, Water bottle game turns 30 this weekend.

Inside Hockey has it’s UW and UND series notes.

Andy Baggot the beat writer for the Wisconsin Badgers has his series preview up. UW men's hockey preview: Badgers vs. No. 18 North Dakota

Bucky's 5th Quarter: Take Five With UND Beat Writer Brad Elliott Schlossman.

Mike Chambers of the Denver Post says that Ryder, Brittain have joined trip to Alaska...