Some University of Wisconsin men’s hockey fans might still make the connection to a water bottle and the North Dakota rivalry that will be renewed Thursday in the Frozen Four.
The Badgers and the Fighting Hawks will square off in the first NCAA semifinal at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Michigan and Denver will meet in the other semifinal.
Wisconsin and North Dakota have enjoyed a colorful history dating to their fiercely competitive years as rivals in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.
Previously, they met just once among the final four teams in the NCAA Tournament that was rebranded the Frozen Four in 1999.
In 1982, North Dakota knocked off Wisconsin, 5-2, in the national championship game at the Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island.
The Badgers were seeking to become the first program in a decade to defend a national title. The teams had split six previous games that season in the heated series.
“It’s always a tough feeling to lose,” admitted Wisconsin forward Brian Mullen. “But it’s especially tough to lose to North Dakota.”
UW fans still left their mark on Providence watering holes. Just like they had done in 1978 when the Badgers lost in the semifinals to Boston University, the eventual champion.
The Providence Journal opined, “Their (Wisconsin fans’) return for the 1982 tournament this weekend is the most exciting comeback since MacArthur’s return to the Philippines.”
The Player’s Corner Pub estimated it sold over 2,000 cans of beer in four days. People got their money’s worth given the on-ice talent they saw among the ’82 finalists.
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The UW and North Dakota had a combined 21 players in Providence who went on to skate in 10,264 National Hockey League games, according to College Hockey News.
That mark has not been topped.
Wrote Adam Wodon, “Back then, less than 10 percent of the NHL was made up of former NCAA players. Nowadays, that number is 33 percent.”
The nine NHL Badgers players were Mullen, Chris Chelios, Bruce Driver, Patrick Flatley, Marc Behrend, John Newberry, Paul Houck, John Johannson and Terry Kleisinger.
Chelios played in 1,651 games, ninth all-time.
The water bottle incident
During that same 1982 season, tempers were short between Wisconsin and North Dakota. Especially during a Jan. 30 matchup at the Dane County Coliseum.
After a third-period whistle, North Dakota’s Gord Sherven and UW’s Bruce Driver began jawing at the blue line. Sherven’s teammate Cary Eades joined the conversation.
Eades shoved Driver. The officials separated the players. As Eades skated past the Wisconsin bench, Newberry squirted him with a water bottle.
Eades stopped. Newberry squirted him again. An enraged Eades charged through the open gate on the bench and UW’s Pat Ethier greeted him with a punch to the head.
Wisconsin sophomore Ted Pearson was injured and not dressed for the game. But he was in the middle of a fracas between the bench areas as the brawl escalated.
North Dakota’s Jim Archibald came over their bench and Pearson grabbed him by the facemask and dragged him down a hallway leading to one of the beer gardens.
Order was eventually restored. But not before Archibald mixed it up with a fan over the plexiglass and several UW players tossed North Dakota gloves into the stands.
Archibald skated off the ice without his jersey. For his actions, he drew a five-game suspension from the WCHA. Newberry and Eades were suspended two games each.
In that chaotic, brawl-marred third period, there were three double-major penalties, three major penalties and two bench penalties.
For comparison, when the Badgers and North Dakota played for the national championship in Providence, there was only a two-minute minor in the final period.
It was hard-hitting and intense, minus all the theatrics and fisticuffs from Madison. It was also Bob Johnson’s final game as a college coach, final game at Wisconsin.
The history between Wisconsin and North Dakota includes this brawl in 2007 with three minutes left in the game at the Kohl Center. Ten players, five for each team, were ejected for their involvement.
JACOB ELA
Always a Badger
On June 1, 1982, Johnson was named the head coach of the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League at a press conference in Alberta.
Johnson wore a brown sports coat with two pins on his lapel. One was a Flames’ pin. The other was a small Bucky Badger pin. “The loyalty is still there,” he said.
During his 15 seasons in Madison, Badger Bob Johnson won 367 games and three national championships. And it was always a great day for hockey.
As it will be Thursday in Vegas for Wisconsin and North Dakota when they resume postseason action against each other for the first time in 12 years.
In the 2014 NCAA regional semifinals, North Dakota scored three goals in the third period, including two empty-netters, to eliminate the UW, 5-2, in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Badgers earned one of four No. 1 seeds by winning the Big Ten tournament over Ohio State, which ironically helped make UND’s argument to get into the tourney.
With its eyes on the Frozen Four, Wisconsin’s hopes revolved around nine seniors, eight of whom had played in more than 100 career games. But they came up short.
Prior to that 2014 meeting, there was even more heartbreak at the hands of North Dakota in 2008 when the Badgers were just one step away from the Frozen Four.
Wisconsin blew a two-goal lead in the third period and wound up with a 3-2 overtime loss to UND in the NCAA Midwest Regional championship game.
Making it worse, it was on home ice, at the Kohl Center. The pundits didn’t believe the Badgers belonged in the field. And Wisconsin proved them right.
North Dakota first-year head coach Dane Jackson was an assistant on those teams that beat Wisconsin in 2008 and 2014. Jackson is a former UND player.
College Hockey News asked him about the rivalry with Wisconsin and Jackson responded, “It’s kind of built into the DNA.”
Never have truer words been spoken.