ESPN College Sports

MADISON, Wis. -- It was supposed to be a final night of celebration for the 2006 hockey national championship. It turned into a night of crisis instead for Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves and his young Badgers club. Not only did Wisconsin lose 3-2 in overtime to North Dakota on Friday night in front of 14,336 at the Kohl Center, but it also lost three key players in the process.

Before the puck dropped, the largest home-opening crowd in program history watched as the sixth red and white title banner was unfurled from the rafters above the students in section 115 -- complete with a video montage of last season's highlights and a pyrotechnics display to punctuate the celebration.

That's where the good news ended and the injury parade began.

First line left wing Ross Carlson got tangled up with a Sioux player in the opening minute of the second period and didn't return after an apparent injury to his right knee.

Linemate Jack Skille, who scored a power play goal to tie the game at 2-2 early in the third, got tangled with hulking UND defenseman Joe Finley (all 6-foot-7, 252 pounds of him) and sustained an arm injury. The collision left Skille writhing in pain before he was helped off the ice while holding his right elbow.

Defenseman Kyle Klubertanz collided with North Dakota's Chris Porter in the third period and appeared to suffer a thigh injury, although the junior defenseman was able to finish the game after missing a shift.

With the loss of the team's five top scorers from last season, Carlson (11 goals, 12 assists, 23 points), Skille (13-8-21) and Klubertanz (4-17-21) were the top three returning scorers in the Badgers' lineup.

The injuries forced all three off the ice for the series finale, and that forced Eaves to completely juggle his lineup.

"The injuries are such that we need to give them several days to settle down and get some swelling out before they can tell us to what length they might be out," Eaves said.

In addition to dealing with the holes in his lineup, Friday's loss forced Eaves to make sure his players knew the party was over and last season's NCAA title had nothing to do with this season's team.

"We had a tough meeting [Saturday morning]," Eaves said. "Very open and honest, and the leadership took that message and they went out and did what they could do to lead by example and that just followed through the rest of the team.

"It was a critical time in this young season. We were not playing the way we wanted to, not playing to the identity that we wanted to play to. We were actually in the middle of a storm and we responded quite well and now we can build on that. Even though it's a young season, I think it was a very critical time."

The Badgers responded with a tough 1-0 win Saturday night over the Sioux in front of a sellout crowd of 15,237 at the Kohl Center to earn a series split.

The lone goal came at 8:03 of the third period when center Jake Dowell cleaned up a loose puck in front of the crease after UND goalie Philippe Lamoureux made an initial save on a shot by Ben Street.

"I wouldn't say they were a desperate team," UND assistant captain Erik Fabian said. "They were just really hungry tonight. We came out a little flat. Give them credit.

"[Friday] night we crashed the net really hard. And tonight we pretty much didn't do that. We let Elliott pretty much see every shot and when you let a goalie like that see the shots he's going to stop the puck."

No. 2 Wisconsin (2-1-1) was able to withstand several late chances by the fourth-ranked Sioux (3-1) -- including 1:39 of sixth-attacker time -- to hang on and post the victory.

"We had something to prove," Dowell said. "We lost and we felt embarrassed [Friday night] that we didn't finish the job. We did play desperate tonight and that's basically what that meeting was about.

"It was a real rude awakening," he added. "Coach really called out certain people. Sometimes it's hard to take some of those facts and watch it on film, but it obviously made some people better and guys really stepped up their game."

In a lineup that included seven wide-eyed freshmen, one player who continued to perform at a peak level was junior goaltender Brian Elliott, who recorded his second shutout of the season and the 13th of his record-setting UW career.

"We knew we were going to have to win a different way and we knew it was going to be a battle," Elliott said. "We kept ourselves in the game and got a nice goal by Jake at the end."

There was a collective gasp from the Kohl crowd when Elliott (2-1-1, 0.99, .962) was shaken up late in the second period with the Sioux on the power play. But after a brief visit with the Badgers' training staff, Elliott returned to his net and finished the game.

"He gives us a chance," Eaves said. "The goaltending that we have and the veteran defense that we have give us a chance to be competitive every game. Even with the type of young lineup that doesn't have a lot of firepower, we played the exact game that we needed to play in order to give ourselves a chance to win."

Lack of firepower is an understatement. Before the trio of walking wounded was forced out of the lineup, the returning Badger players accounted for only 43 percent of their goal scoring and 44 percent of their total points from last season.

Gone to professional hockey are: Adam Burish, now with the Chicago Blackhawks; Robbie Earl, Toronto Maple Leafs (AHL); Tom Gilbert, Edmonton Oilers (AHL), Joe Pavelski, San Jose Sharks (AHL) and Ryan MacMurchy, St. Louis Blues (AHL).

"I think these games that we've been involved in already are going to have to be the m.o.," Eaves said. "We're going to have to keep things tight and we're going to have to play very hard and take advantage of turnovers.

"It's so nice because we won a Saturday night and now we can come back Monday and we'll have energy based on that fact alone. It was a great building block game because we can step from this and grow."

There's another storm looming in two weeks when No. 1 Boston College -- the team UW beat 2-1 to capture last April's title just down the road in Milwaukee -- comes to town for a weekend series.

The availability of Carlson, Klubertanz and Skille -- and the further development of the Badgers' freshmen -- will go a long way in determining whether hockey's first month of play ends up being cause for more celebration or crisis management.

David Albright is the senior coordinator for college sports at ESPN.com. He can be reached at david.albright@espn3.com.