Ice Hockey
Main articles: University of Wisconsin Ice Hockey and Wisconsin Badgers Men's Hockey See also: Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockeyThe Badgers made history in 2006 when both the men's and women's hockey teams were crowned NCAA Division I National Champions. This was the first time a Division I school has won both the men's and women's crowns in the same year.
The Badger men won their sixth National Championship on April 8, 2006, at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, with a 2–1 victory over Boston College. The men's team had previously won the National Championship in 1973, 1977, 1981, 1983, and 1990.
The Badger women won their first title on March 26, 2006, at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis, with a 3–0 victory over the defending champion Minnesota Golden Gophers. This was the first women's hockey national championship for Wisconsin and the first time that the NCAA Women's National Championship trophy left the state of Minnesota. (Minnesota-Duluth won the trophy in 2001, 2002, and 2003; Minnesota won it in 2004 and 2005.) The victory did, however, continue the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's dominance of the women's crown. On March 18, 2007, the Badger women captured the back-to-back National Championship with a 4–1 win over Minnesota-Duluth at Herb Brooks Arena, in Lake Placid, New York. The Badgers returned to the National Championship game in 2008, but suffered a disappointing 4-0 loss at the hands of Minnesota-Duluth. In 2009, the Badgers became the first team in NCAA history to reach the title game in four consecutive seasons, winning their third National Championship with a 5-0 victory over Mercyhurst. The Badgers went on to win their fourth and most recent national championship in 2011, defeating Boston University 4-1 at Tullio Arena in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Mike Eaves is the head coach of the men's hockey team, while Mark Johnson coaches the women's hockey team. Both coaches were teammates on the Badgers' 1977 NCAA title team. Denver Pioneers head coach George Gwozdecky, the only other person besides Eaves and Johnson to win ice hockey national championships as both a player and head coach, was also a member of Wisconsin's 1977 national championship team.
Both the men and women play home games at the Kohl Center in Madison. The women's team is scheduled to move to the new LaBahn Arena, currently being built adjacent to the Kohl Center, beginning with the 2012-13 season.
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Famous quotes containing the word ice:
“Every incident connected with the breaking up of the rivers and ponds and the settling of the weather is particularly interesting to us who live in a climate of so great extremes. When the warmer days come, they who dwell near the river hear the ice crack at night with a startling whoop as loud as artillery, as if its icy fetters were rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going out. So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)