It's too early in the season to say for sure that the Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey team has two personalities.

 It could just be that after an 0-6-1 start (all against ranked opponents), a 4-0-1 run is a sign UW is making progress, albeit against lesser competition (four of the games were against unranked teams).

 But the two segments have some distinctive fingerprints worth exploring.

 In the winless streak, the Badgers had a minus-13 goal differential (33-20), allowed 4.71 goals per game, were 6-for-50 (12.0) on the power play and killed off 52 of 60 opposing power plays (86.7).

 In the unbeaten streak, UW has a plus-13 goal differential (21-8), allowed 1.60 goals per game, converted 10 of 31 power plays (32.2) and killed off 32 of 35 opposing power plays (91.4).

 Coach Mike Eaves said his club has improved in a host of areas, but he'd like to see more production even strength and his players take fewer penalties.

 For some measure in these areas, I compared the Badgers to the other nine teams in the WCHA.

 UW has gotten 22 of its 41 goals via even strength (53.6) overall. The rest of the league: St. Cloud 28 of 42 (66.7), Anchorage 22 of 35 (62.9), Denver 23 of 38 (60.5), Mankato 21 of 35 (60.0), Colorado College 17 of 33 (51.5), Minnesota 17 of 34 (50.0), Michigan Tech 8 of 16 (50.0), Minnesota-Duluth 16 of 33 (48.5) and North Dakota 12 of 25 (48.0).

 UW has a -14 ratio of power plays for (81) and against (95). The rest of the league: Duluth +22 (86-64), North Dakota +17 (76-59), Tech +10 (70-60), Denver +9 (84-75), St. Cloud +9 (78-69), Minnesota +7 (72-65), Colorado College -5 (88-93), Mankato -11 (74-85) and Anchorage -22 (68-90).

 See. Things could be worse.

 In some cases, a lot worse.