|
Sauer leaves an impression
 Media Credit: Courtesy of Wisconsin sports information Wisconsin Badgers head coach Jeff Sauer talks with his team during practice. Sauer will step down as Badger head coach at the end of this season.
|
|
When Wisconsin men’s hockey coach Jeff Sauer announced three weeks ago that he would be stepping away from the Badger bench after this season, many followers of the sport were caught off guard.
After all, Sauer has been a fixture in Madison for the past 20 years. His 483 wins are the most by a Wisconsin hockey coach in school history. When he took the job before the 1982 season started, after spending the previous 11 seasons at the helm of Colorado College, he had the unenviable task of filling the shoes of the late legendary coach ‘Badger’ Bob Johnson – the man most responsible for putting Badger hockey on the map and the man that would later bring a pair of Stanley Cups to Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Who would have thought that 20 years later, Sauer’s name would be the one most familiar to the Badger faithful?
“Not me,” said the departing coach, who will remain at the university working in the administration. “When I first arrived in Madison some 20 years ago I knew what I was getting into and now when I look back I realize how special my time here has been to me.”
Sauer’s roots trace back to Colorado. He graduated from CC in 1965. Six years later, he was named the head hockey coach at his alma mater. That first season in Colorado Springs marked the beginning of what would turn into a 31-year career as a mentor to the sport that has become most of who he is.
When you dig into Sauer’s memory bank, it’s easy to see the man is more than willing to share his riches.
“When I look back at it I really remember the people,” he said. “Going into Mariucci Arena with John Mariucci or the old place up in North Dakota. The games are always special as well. I can remember one year when I was at Colorado College we beat Minnesota five times. That year (Herb Brooks) went on to win a national championship with the Gophers, but we beat them five times. That said a lot about our hockey team.”
Sauer has seen his share of national champions in his years in the game, but the two he remembers most are definitely his own.
“Those were two very special years,” he said.
The first came in unprecedented fashion. In Sauer’s first year at Wisconsin, the team finished 33-10-4 and went on to win the fourth national championship in school history, beating Harvard 6-2 in the title game. He would have to wait until 1990 to win his second, a 7-3 pounding of Colgate at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
Sauer had a glorious opportunity to win it all again in 2000. That year the Badgers won the WCHA with a 23-5 record but fell to Boston College in the NCAA tournament ending what could have been a perfect way to say goodbye to a stellar coaching career.
However, the coach insists going out on top was never a priority.
“I don’t know if I was ready to walk away from it a couple of years ago,” he said. “This year just seemed right. I’ve been here 20 years now and it’s the 50th anniversary of the WCHA. That and this year I have nine seniors on my hockey team that are very special people to me and I wanted to stay here and see them play for four years.”
Sauer’s mark in the sport has left impressions all over the college hockey community, including right here at SCSU where head coach Craig Dahl is beginning to leave an impression of his own.
“He has been very good for the sport of college hockey,” said Dahl, who will have the longest tenure of any WCHA coach after Sauer steps down. “I’ve always felt that he has been concerned about the game and that is what is really important.
“His understanding of the history of the league has been like a history book, watching the development of the league from a little regional thing into real national prominence. He’s been a wealth of information for us younger coaches because he really knows where the sport has come from to where it is now.”
The opposing players have their memories as well. Husky forward Mark Hartigan, who has been in the WCHA for three years now, says it was Sauer’s teams that he will remember most about the coach.
“He’s been able to take his team and win championships,” he said. “That year that they had (Steve) Reinprecht, (Dany) Heatley and (Graham) Melanson they were just awesome.”
That was the year the Badgers were upset by Boston College in the NCAAs. This year’s Wisconsin Badger hockey team certainly doesn’t have the talent that the 2000 squad did, but as the Huskies prepare to head to Madison for a two-game series this weekend, they know they can’t overlook Sauer’s team.
“We can’t worry about what they are thinking or what is going on with their coach,” said Hartigan, who is the leading vote getter for the Hobey Baker Award. “We need to worry about ourselves and play within our systems if we want to win.”
Which they didn’t do last Friday night in a 4-1 loss at Brown. Senior forward Nate DiCasmirro said the players held a late-night meeting in the hotel after that loss and responded by playing, what he called, one of their best games of the season Saturday when they beat Providence 5-2.
“As a team we discussed that last Saturday was the start of our season,” said DiCasmirro, who has also received some votes for the Hobey. “We can’t worry about what Wisconsin is going to do this weekend though, we know how they are going to come out. They are playing at home and with Sauer leaving they are playing with more urgency for him, and that’s good, but we have to worry about ourselves.”
Sauer is looking at this weekend’s series as another opportunity to prove that his hockey team is better than their 10-12-2 record shows.
“We know St. Cloud is coming in here needing two wins to stay in contention for the league title,” he said. “But our hockey team is not that bad and this will be a good time for us to justify that.”
Around the rink
- After sitting out Friday’s loss to Brown for a game-disqualification, Doug Meyer dressed Saturday night and skated on the Huskies top line with Hartigan and DiCasmirro. Matt Hendricks was moved to the third line and Peter Szabo skated on the second line with Ryan Malone and Joe Motzko.
- Dean Weasler will get the opportunity to play both games this weekend in the Husky net. Dahl said that Jake Moreland will get some more opportunities to play this year but that “Dean has earned the opportunity to start both games at Wisconsin.”
- Ryan LaMere will return to the lineup this weekend for the first time since separating his shoulder in an 11-3 win over Bemidji State Dec. 15.
- When the team arrived home Sunday afternoon from Rhode Island, Husky defenseman Jeff Finger found himself in an interesting situation. Finger was locked inside a bathroom at the airport for nearly a half hour. DiCasmirro said that it took some police and firefighters to pry the door open to let Finger out. “It was pretty funny, he’s not going to live that one down,” DiCasmirro said.
- The Ultimate Sports Bar and Grill will be showing both games on TV this weekend. The bar will be picking up the Fox Sports Net feed out of Madison.
Nick Clark can be reached at: [email protected]
|
|
|
|
Privacy Policy Network Advertising Article Syndication
|
|
