I think it depends what you're looking for. If you look at a map, there is a student section at one end, and a family section at the other end. So if you're drinking, you might want to find out if they have rules similar to Target Field, where there is no alcohol allowed in the family section.
You can probably find students trying to sell their tickets for beer money. We asked the concierge at the hotel we stayed at last year where we could get tickets, and he said that there was a board where students sold tickets. He put a message on there, and had like 5 replies in the first 5 minutes. We got one of the students number, and walked over to her dorm, which was right by the Kohl Center. We met her in the lobby, and bought the ticket for like $15. So, if you know anyone attending UW, you might want to see if they're familiar with this board, or know of anyone wanting to sell tickets. If it's anything like last year, if you don't want to sit in the student section, there are plenty of empty seats around the rink.
Having never been to a game in Wisconsin before, I got the feeling from watching the games on TV that the place was always packed, and a little crazy. Not the case. The place was about 3/4 full on the first level, and there were people scattered up top. But from what I've heard, you don't want to sit up top, because you lose some vision of the ice up there.
Just some thoughts. Hope that helps a little bit.