Brugge Blog

It can now be in the past tense: the Badgers won the 2006 men’s hockey title. No more planning, it’s done and documented.

And I have to say, they deserved the win. They may not have gotten as many breaks as they would have liked, but they hustled like they wanted to create them all game long. And I’ve got to believe that their talk of team unity throughout the year was a big part of it. And even if they hadn’t won, I think they would have been proud of what they had done together. It certainly would have hurt, and as I heard someone quote “it hurts more to lose than it feels good to win,” yet I think they would have pulled through it.

Instead, they played intense hockey for 60 minutes, like they wanted it and weren’t ready to give up. Sure, the last few seconds were very tense, and much was made of the desparation shot of Boston College that hit the post with 1.7 seconds to play, but if you want to play “what if’s” there were plenty of other close moments throughout the game that you would have to bring up. Hard shots that almost got through, whiffed shots, blocked shots, and even a crossbar hit by Wisconsin that could have made it 3-1. But none of them did, and the story told is now there.

Looking through the list of past championship games, being close is not uncommon. Overtime games are not rare, and opportunities in each of them were certainly ripe for second guessing. So you hoist the banner, breath a sigh, and move on.

But, of course, while it’s going on, it’s quite a trip.