The fierce competition for ice time on the Wisconsin men's hockey team is a built-in incentive plan for each player to bring his best to every game and practice.

The fallout for substandard play is that someone will almost surely pass you by. That happened Tuesday when UW coach Mike Eaves changed the make-up of his No. 1 line during practice.

Freshman Craig Smith skated right wing on a line with senior left winger Andy Bohmbach and senior center and tri-captain Blake Geoffrion. Junior winger Patrick Johnson, who played the first six games on the Geoffrion line, was moved to the fifth line.

"A little message to Patrick, quite honestly,'' Eaves said. "There's a message there to everybody that you have to perform game in and game out. We have a deep team and if (quality play) is not going to happen, we have the ability to do stuff like this.''

Eaves said Johnson -- the only UW skater to see action in all six games who doesn't have a point -- didn't play well during a 6-1 win over New Hampshire Oct. 31.

"Not a performance that he would say was one of his best,'' Eaves said.

Smith missed the series sweep of New Hampshire -- which included a 4-1 victory Oct. 30 -- because he was serving a two-game suspension for a reckless major penalty he took against Minnesota State-Mankato Oct. 24.

Plugging Smith into that spot on the No. 1 line seems logical heading into a WCHA series with Minnesota at the Kohl Center Friday and Saturday. His size (6-foot, 190 pounds), tremendous speed and great shot make him an ideal option for Geoffrion, a left-handed pivot.

Smith had been skating with sophomore left winger Jordy Murray and sophomore center Derek Stepan, but those two hit it off nicely with senior right winger Michael Davies against New Hampshire. The Murray-Stepan-Davies line accounted for five goals and were a combined plus-eight in the series.

Eaves kept the Stepan unit together, as well as the one with senior center and tri-captain Ben Street between senior left winger John Mitchell and freshman right winger Derek Lee.

The fourth unit had junior Sean Dolan centering senior left winger Aaron Bendickson and senior right winger Ben Grotting.

Johnson, meanwhile, skated with sophomore center Matt Thurber and junior left winger Podge Turnbull.

"It's part of who we are as a team right now,'' Eaves said. "We have that (ability to make changes) within our mix to be able to do that and not miss a beat. Guys want to play. It's a good situation for a team.''

Eaves said he saw an immediate reaction from Johnson, who was the first player dressed and ready to go for practice Tuesday.

"Not a lot of smiles; all business,'' Eaves said. "He went out and had a good practice. That's the kind of response that we want, but in the meantime, you can't let that slip away. When is he going to get (his spot in the lineup) back? I don't know.''

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