The No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers (12-2-2, 8-2-0 Big 10) took a road trip to South Bend and swept the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (4-11-1, 0-8-0 Big 10) on Dec. 5 and 6.
Second period comeback
Wisconsin crushed Notre Dame 7-4 on Friday. Junior forward Quinn Finley and junior defenseman Joe Palodichuk had themselves a five and four point night, respectively.
After a successful weekend against Michigan State, sophomore goaltender Eli Pulver was given the start in Indiana.
Two minutes into the game, the Notre Dame offense worked the Wisconsin defense and snuck one in over Pulver’s stick.
Period one progressed slowly as the Badgers dominated puck possession, but with 41 seconds to go, the Fighting Irish wristed in the second goal of the game from outside the left circle. Pulver couldn’t react in time against Notre Dame’s quick passes.
Trailing 2-0, head coach Mike Hastings sat Pulver to start the second period and sent in freshman Daniel Hauser.
Fired up by the lack of action on the scoreboard, Finley broke through Notre Dame defense and tore down the ice on a breakaway. Faking out the opposing sophomore goaltender Nicholas Kempf, Finley backhanded in Wisconsin’s first goal of the game.
At the 3:43 mark in the second, freshman forward Blake Montgomery stole the puck in the defensive zone and passed it up the ice to senior forward Christian Fitzgerald. Followed by three Fighting Irish, Fitzgerald took Montgomery’s pass and backhanded the puck in over Kempf.
A delayed penalty was called on senior forward Jack Horbach, where Notre Dame pulled their goalie for 14 seconds. Converting on the man advantage, Notre Dame took the 3-2 lead with a slapshot.
Palodichuk tied the game at 3 with 11:26 remaining in the second period, hitting Kempf over his glove-side.
Finley sat two minutes for a roughing call and a Fighting Irish sat two for embellishment four minutes later. An interference call on Notre Dame put the Badgers on the man advantage. The Badgers couldn’t convert on the embellishment, but a Notre Dame tripping call started 5-on-3 play.
With seconds to go in the second, Palodichuk notched his second goal of the game off a similar shot to his previous. Ripping one in through traffic, Wisconsin took the 4-3 lead.
Notre Dame tied it up early in the third, beating Hauser stick-side with four Badgers in the defensive zone.
Retaliating quickly, sophomore forward Ryan Botterill put Wisconsin in the 5-4 lead at 2:26 in the third period. Palodichuk fought to keep the puck in the zone, giving Botterill a chance to tuck one in.
Notre Dame dominated the Badger’s defensive zone for three minutes, getting seven shots in against Hauser and pulled their goaltender for an extra skater. Finley took the empty net opportunity to get his second of the game and put Wisconsin up 6-4.
Following another empty net attempt, senior forward Simon Tassy scored the last goal of the game, ending an aggressive back-and-forth Big Ten battle with a final score of 7-4.
Making a statement
On Saturday, Wisconsin overpowered the Notre Dame defense 9-2. Hauser secured the start for game two, stopping three Notre Dame shots early in the game.
Energized from game one, Finley grabbed his third goal of the series at 3:37 in the first period. With assists from freshman forward Oliver Tulk and sophomore forward Gavin Morrissey, Finley kicked off an early lead for Wisconsin.
Freshman forward Grady Deering followed Finley’s early start and put the Badgers up 2-0, notching his second goal and fifth point of the season.
Tassy sat two minutes for tripping shortly after, and Hauser made four saves within the two-minute minor.
At 10:38, senior defenseman Ben Dexheimer worked the puck between the two circles and wristed in Wisconsin’s third goal of the game over Kempf’s glove-side.
A minute of cycling the puck later, Montgomery notched his first goal of the series off a pass from freshman defenseman Luke Osburn. With a successfully distracted goaltender, Montgomery had a wide open net to take a shot from the right circle to put the Badgers up 4-0.
Kempf was pulled and senior goaltender Jack Williams was put between the pipes at 11:33.
With 6:25 to go in the first period, Notre Dame forward Brennan Ali was assessed a five-minute major for hitting from behind and disqualified. Junior defenseman Zach Schulz was stretchered off the ice with an assumed left leg injury following his check into the boards.
An update later that night said Schulz was being further evaluated in South Bend before returning to Madison. Schulz will undergo surgery after being evaluated for a fractured fibula and ankle damage and will be out for an undetermined amount of time.
Following a formal review from the Big Ten’s supplemental discipline process, Ali was issued a one-game suspension in addition to the game disqualification penalty. Ali will miss both games against Western Michigan in January, a statement from the Big Ten said.
Wisconsin was unable to convert on the five-minute man advantage and went into period two up four goals.
Seconds into the second period, Fitzgerald sat two minutes for high sticking and Notre Dame scored their first of the game on the power play on Hauser’s stick-side.
The revenge goal came from senior defenseman Aiden Dubinsky at 3:43 as a slapshot. Finley worked the puck from behind the net and set Dubinsky up in the right circle to bring the game to 5-1.
Soon after, Palodichuk sat two minutes for embellishment following Notre Dame’s roughing call. Neither team scored during the rest of the back-and-forth period, with the Badgers going on the man advantage twice, failing to convert.
The third period was slow before sophomore forward Adam Pietila widened the gap to 6-1. Deering left the puck in front of the net for Pietila to shoot in.
Senior forward Tyson Dyck took the puck up the ice and snuck in the Badger’s seventh of the game. 40 seconds later Notre Dame got their second of the game.
Freshman forward Finn Brink grabbed his second goal of the season in his eighth game, skating in from behind the net and shooting the puck past a sprawling Williams.
Wisconsin’s ninth and final goal came from Tassy up and over three Fighting Irish skaters and their goaltender splayed out on the ice in and in front of the net. Williams was pulled at 15:56 and graduate student Luke Pearson finished out the game as Notre Dame’s goalie.
The game got chippy with two minutes to go as Dexheimer was disqualified for fighting, Pietila was assessed two-minutes for slashing and Brink was assessed a 10-minute misconduct. A Notre Dame skater was assessed a five minute major and disqualified for fighting with Dexheimer, and another was assessed a 10-minute misconduct.
Dexheimer will sit out the next game for his disqualification as his penalty is reviewed for a possibly longer suspension. Hastings said he would challenge the suspension with Big Ten administrators because Dexheimer didn’t drop his gloves or throw a punch.
Following a formal review with the NCAA and Big Ten, the disqualification penalty was successfully appealed and Dexheimer will be able to play in the upcoming game instead of facing suspension.
The Badgers go on a short break until Dec. 28 where they’ll face Lake Superior State at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee for the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off.
