1989-90Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey season
National champion Badger Showdown, champion WCHA, champion WCHA tournament, champion NCAA tournament, champion
Conference	1stWCHA
Home ice	Dane County Coliseum
Record
Overall	36–9–1
Conference	19–8–1
Home	20–3–1
Road	10–6–0
Neutral	6–0–0
Coaches and captains
Head coach	Jeff Sauer
Assistant coaches	Mike Kemp Peter Johnson Bill Howard Ian Perrin
Captain	Steve Rohlik
Alternate captain(s)	Mark Osiecki John Byce Gary Shuchuk
Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey seasons «1988–89 1990–91 »

The1989–90Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey team represented theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison incollege ice hockey. In its eighth year under head coachJeff Sauer, the team compiled a 36–9–1 record.^[1] The Badgers won the1990 national championship, their fifth national title.

Wisconsin fielded an experienced team for the1989–90 season. Led byteam captainSteve Rohlik and fellow seniorsChris Tancill,Gary Shuchuk andJohn Byce, The Badgers got off to a quick start. After having to come from behind to win their first two games, Wisconsin put an exclamation point on their third win (8–2 overMichigan Tech). In a pattern that would follow throughout the season, the eight Badgers goals came from seven different players, illustrating the depth of their offense. Wisconsin suffered its first loss in early November at the hands ofMinnesota which began a cycle of split weekends againstWCHA teams.^[2]

In five consecutive weekends against conference opponents Wisconsin ended with a .500 record. They did this against both the good (North Dakota,Northern Michigan) and bad (Colorado College,Minnesota–Duluth) and lost the lead their fast start had provided them. During the stretch starting goaltenderDuane Derksen hadn't played particularly well and was replaced after surrendering 11 goals to Northern Michigan. Freshman backupJon Michelizzi, who had won his first two starts against weak, non-conference teams, backstopped the Badgers when they salvaged the weekend against the Wildcats but, after Michelizzi allowed 9 to dreadful Duluth the following weekend, Derksen was back between the pipes. Derksen remained the starter for the remainder of the season with Michelizzi only playing against weak teams or in cleanup duty.

When Wisconsin hit the winter break they had slipped back to the pack and were in a tie with Minnesota for the conference lead.^[3] The Badgers attempted to get back on track with their holiday tournament, defeatingNotre Dame and eventualHockey East championBoston College convincingly but once their conference schedule restarted they continued to split weekends. To make matters worse they lost toSt. Cloud State, a team that been inDivision III three years prior, between the weekend series and last back-to-back games for the first time all season.

After the second loss to Northern Michigan, Wisconsin started the rematch with a vengeance, scoring 5 times in the first period en route to a 10–1 victory. The shellacking by the Badgers kicked off a run of 9 straight victories for Wisconsin (though they were mostly against the dregs of the conference) and ended on the penultimate weekend of the regular season. After splitting their second weekend against Minnesota, Wisconsin sat just 2 points ahead of the Golden Gophers and 4 above North Dakota who they hosted in the final weekend. A tie in the first game eliminated the Fighting Sioux from contention, but with the Gophers winning their first game Wisconsin's lead was down to just one point. With both teams watching the scoreboard, Wisconsin won their game in overtime while Minnesota was soundly beaten 3–8. The win sealed only the secondMacNaughton Cup for the Badgers and first since1977.

Wisconsin opened the conference tournament against Michigan Tech and gout a tougher fight than they were expecting from the bottom-feeders. After Wisconsin won the first game MTU built a 3–0 lead in the rematch and just as it looked like the series was heading for a third game the Badgers rallied with three of their own in the final 24 minutes and potted the game-winner in overtime. While the Badgers may have been able to get away with taking the Huskies lightly, once the tournament shifted toSaint Paul they couldn't dismiss defending conference champion Northern Michigan as easily. After scoring the first goal Wisconsin had to watch the Wildcats get the next three. Wisconsin once again rallied to tie the game at 3-all and head into overtime with a championship berth in the balance. For the second consecutive game the Badgers netted an overtime goal, bring their extra-session record up to 5–0–1 for the season.

After two nail-biting games, Wisconsin gave their fans a break in the championship, scoring the first four goals and ultimately defeating Minnesota 7–1. Wisconsin's sixth conference championship (2ndBroadmoor Trophy) earned them the WCHA's automatic bid to theNCAA tournament, their third consecutive appearance.^[4]

Wisconsin received the 2nd western seed, earning themselves a bye into the quarterfinals and home ice for their series. After a week off the Badgers welcomedMaine toMadison with a 7–3 win in their first game. Wisconsin scored the first five goals of the game and ended the match before the Black Bears could get their skates under them. The rematch the following night followed a familiar pattern; after scoring first Wisconsin saw Maine score three consecutive power play goals and led 3–1 just past the midway point of the game. The Badgers scratched and clawed their way back to a tie in the third period and were very careful not to take anymore penalties against the dangerous Black Bears.Tom Sagissor scored the overtime goal in the fifth minute of overtime to send Maine packing and give Wisconsin a ticket to theFrozen Four.

InDetroit the Badgers faced down the top eastern seed, Boston College. In what was probably Derksen's best performance of the season, Wisconsin held BC to a single goal in the game, allowingChris Tancill's two power play goals to stand up and send the Badgers to the title game with a 2–1 win.

In the final, Wisconsin faced a surprisingColgate squad who had ridden the strong play of goaltenderDave Gagnon to 31 wins entering the championship. Wisconsin hoped their offense would provide them with the edge but the Badgers had a built-in advantage over the Red Raiders; Wisconsin routinely played games in front of large crowds. When the game started 15,000 spectators, more than half of whom wore Wisconsin colors, began cheering. Colgate, a team from a smallupstate New York school whose total enrollment could have fit inside Wisconsin's home arena more than twice over, got lost in the lights. The Raiders took a penalty almost immediately after puck drop andJohn Byce scored at the 90-second mark. When Colgate got the opportunity to tie the game with their own power play a short time later Wisconsin stole the puck in their own zone andRob Mendel sent the puck to a streaking Byce who skated in on Gagnon and slipped the puck between his pads for his second goal of the game.

Colgate, who was not built for high-scoring games, had to fight furiously to recover after the disastrous start. They were able to cut the lead in half before the five-minute mark but in their zeal to tie the game they took several bad penalties and the WCHA's best power play made them pay; Wisconsin scored twice more in the first on the man-advantage and built a seemingly insurmountable lead for the low-scoring Red Raiders. All the power play time harmed Colgate, in addition to goals, by keeping them away from the Wisconsin net and not allowing them to generate any kind of pressure on Derksen. Colgate could only manage 5 shots in each of the first two periods but was able to score twice. A fourth power play goal by Badgers in the second period all but ended the game and as the third progressed Wisconsin knew they were going to win the national title. Even after Colgate's third goal there was little hope for the underdogs andJeff Sauer was confident enough to give Michelizzi a turn in net once Byce finished off hishat-trick with an empty-net goal.

While Byce's three goal game in the championship was impressive it wasChris Tancill who received theTournament MOP. Wisconsin's dominating performance in the championship was typified by having 5 players find their way on theAll-Tournament Team; Tancill was joined byDuane Derksen,Rob Andringa,Mark Osiecki andJohn Byce. The Badgers had three players finish in the top 10 in scoring in the nation but onlyGary Shuchuk made theAll-American West Team.^[5] Shuchuk was also named theWCHA Most Valuable Player and named to theAll-WCHA First Team.^[6] while Derksen, Byce andSean Hill made the second team.

^[7]

No.	Name	Year	Position	Hometown	S/P/C	Games	Goals	Assists	Pts	PIM
16	Gary Shuchuk	Senior	C	Edmonton,AB		45	41	39	80	70
22	Chris Tancill	Senior	RW	Livonia,MI		45	39	32	71	44
11	John Byce	Senior	C/RW	Madison,WI		46	27	44	71	20
6	Sean Hill	Sophomore	D	Duluth,MN		42	14	39	53	78
12	Doug MacDonald	Sophomore	C	Assiniboia,SK		44	16	35	51	52
19	Tom Sagissor	Senior	LW	Hastings,MN		43	19	28	47	122
24	Mark Osiecki	Junior	D	Saint Paul,MN		46	5	38	43	78
9	Steve Rohlik	Senior	LW	Saint Paul,MN		46	17	23	40	52
2	Barry Richter	Freshman	RW/D	Madison,WI		42	13	23	36	26
21	Bob Andringa	Junior	D	Madison,WI		46	9	23	32	60
27	Dennis Snedden	Junior	LW	Eagle River,WI		45	10	17	27	50
20	Don Granato	Junior	LW	Downers Grove,IL		45	12	11	23	40
7	John Parker	Junior	C/RW	White Bear Lake,MN		35	11	9	20	22
25	Brett Kurtz	Junior	C	Joliet,IL		42	8	12	20	28
14	Joe Decker	Junior	RW	Bloomington,MN		36	4	10	14	14
17	Rob Mendel	Senior	D	Los Angeles,CA		44	1	13	14	30
23	Rodger Sykes	Junior	D	Waukegan,IL		38	3	5	8	18
15	Tray Tuomie	Junior	C/RW	Saint Paul,MN		20	2	6	8	0
10	Jon Helgeson	Sophomore	LW	Roseau,MN		18	2	2	4	12
8	Chris Nelson	Sophomore	D	Los Angeles,CA		37	1	3	4	38
29	Duane Derksen	Sophomore	G	Saint Boniface,MB		41	0	3	3	4
13	Jason Francisco	Freshman	RW	Duluth,MN		7	0	1	1	0
18	Noel Rahn	Freshman	C	Edina,MN		1	0	0	0	0
31	Jon Michelizzi	Freshman	G	Duluth,MN		9	0	0	0	0
4	Joe Harwell	Sophomore	D	Minneapolis,MN		10	0	0	0	2
26	Kurt Gonce	Sophomore	C	Creve Coeur,MO		0	-	-	-	-
	Bench					46	0	0	0	10
Total							254	416	670	872

^[2]

† incoming freshman

^[9]

• 1990 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
• List of NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament champions

• Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey seasons
• NCAA men's ice hockey Frozen Four seasons
• NCAA men's ice hockey championship seasons
• 1989–90 WCHA men's ice hockey season
• 1989–90 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey by team
• 1989 in sports in Wisconsin
• 1990 in sports in Wisconsin

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