In their attempt to bounce back after two straight losses, No. 14 Wisconsin (4-5-0) fell to No. 13 Ohio State (2-3-0) 4-2 on Thursday night in Columbus
The Buckeyes’ Gustaf Westlund quickly scored a goal in the first period, giving his team an early lead that would only grow.
Minutes later, Ohio State struck again with a goal by Travis Treloar, giving them a 2-0 lead over Wisconsin.
The momentum would not diminish for Ohio State, however — Quinn Preston knocked a third goal in for OSU, and after two penalties against Wisconsin, Grant Gabriele found the net as well on a five-on-three power play.
The period would end with the Buckeyes leading 4-0.
The second period brought a new wave of hope for the Badgers, which began with pulling starting goalie Robbie Beydoun and replacing him with freshman Cameron Rowe.
Deep into the period, Wisconsin senior Jason Dhoogh found the back of the net for the first time this season –– assisted by Mathieu De St. Phalle –– to make it a 1-4 game.
Just a minute later, Cole Caufield would put one in for the Badgers, assisted by Linus Weissbach, and tighten the gap to just a two-goal game.
Neither the Badgers nor Buckeyes would score the rest of the game, and Ohio State escaped with the 4-2 win and their second win of the season.
The lineup for this game was a lot different for the Badgers, as they are missing a significant number of forwards due to COVID-19 protocols and the U.S. National Junior Team Camp. This resulted in newer faces on the ice, as well as position changes for regular starters, including Josh Ess — the defensive player made his collegiate debut at forward tonight.
“I found out [I was playing forward] last week and I’ve been practicing and trying to learn as much on film as I can,” Ess said. “But I don’t think it matters who you’re playing with, it’s just having trust in the guy next to you.”
Wisconsin head coach Paul Granato was pleased overall with his team’s performance, minus the final ten minutes of the first period.
“We had a good first period for the first ten minutes — we were at their end, we created some really good chances, we were skating. Then we got a little sleepy around our net and they went in our net,” Granato said. “The next 40 [minutes], we got ourselves back in the game and we had our chances to pull us in one. We gotta carry the momentum we created in the last two periods into tomorrow.”
Wisconsin will rematch the Buckeyes Friday at 4:30 p.m. CST.
