The numbers suggest dominance at a fairly staggering level, but you could tell Mike Eaves didn't want to go there Friday night.

The Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey coach had just seen his club outshoot Michigan State by 41 and thoroughly control the tempo en route to a 3-1 victory in their College Hockey Showcase duel before 12,695 onlookers at the Kohl Center.

Every UW forward and defenseman had at least one shot on goal and the team posted a season-high 53. The only guy who didn't, senior goaltender Shane Connelly, still factored into the offense with his first career assist to go along with 11 saves.

The Badgers (6-7-2 overall) had the puck so often — seldom in the defensive zone — that had there been a clock on the time-of possession, the reading would have been embarrassingly one-sided.

"Did we dominate?" Eaves asked rhetorically. "We fired a lot of pucks, had time (of) possession in their zone and we didn't give up a lot. But I'm afraid to use that term."

He has his reasons.

One might be that despite the gaudy stats, UW was 0-for-9 on the power play and was clinging to a one-goal lead with 5 minutes left and the Spartans on the power play.

Another might be that the Badgers, now 6-1-1 in November, could have put this one away much earlier had they been able to finish some high-grade scoring opportunities.

Another might be that Eaves didn't want to send up any psychological flares with Michigan, a 6-3 winner over Minnesota in the other CHS game, coming to town tonight.

Besides, it's hard to say you dominated an opponent that looked as genuinely pathetic as the Spartans (4-8-2).

Now losers of seven straight — scoring six goals in the process — they took just 12 shots. Outside of a 5-on-3 power-play tap-in by center Tim Crowder in the third period, they had perhaps two other shots that could be classified as quality and were whipped in faceoffs 44-28.

"We have a goalie," State coach Rick Comley said.
And Jeff Lerg, who led the Spartans to the NCAA title in 2007, was awfully good on the way to 50 saves.

"I think he was about as good as you can play," Comley said.

But State, which started three freshman centers and three freshman defensemen, couldn't get out of its own way. It had six power plays, but took penalties to negate four of them.

"We have a long way to go," Comley said. "I don't know what to tell you."

UW got all its scoring from the same six-man unit — junior left winger John Mitchell, freshman center Matt Thurber and sophomore right winger Ben Grotting had the goals, while freshman defensemen Jake Gardiner and Eric Springer were a plus-3 — on a night when its 5-on-5 play overall was the best its been this season.

The Thurber line, created this week, was driven in part by the fact its namesake was a healthy scratch last Saturday during a 1-0 Western Collegiate Hockey Association victory at St. Cloud State.

Eaves said Thurber had lapsed into a sense of entitlement, thinking his spot in the lineup was a given.

"I thought Mr. Thurber jumped back into the lineup and really provided some really good energy," Eaves said.