No. 13 Wisconsin men’s hockey (17-9-2, 10-8-0 Big Ten) swept Notre Dame (5-20-3, 1-15-0 Big Ten) in an 11-goal weekend at home, ending their six-game losing streak. Junior forward Quinn Finley scored an electric winning goal in overtime on Friday to snap his goal drought, and senior forward Christian Fitzgerald was the difference Saturday, notching his twelfth goal of the season in a 5-4 win.
Freshman shine
After a rough weekend at Minnesota, freshman goaltender Daniel Hauser went between the pipes for Wisconsin, coming onto the ice with palpable energy. Nicholas Kempf started for Notre Dame on the other end.
Three minutes into the game, the Badgers went on the power play. Just a second before the conclusion of the man-advantage, Badgers freshman defenseman Luke Osburn sniped in the first goal of the game outside the right circle, with assists from freshman forwards Oliver Tulk and Blake Montgomery.
Just 20 seconds later, freshman forward Grady Deering skated into the left circle and grabbed sophomore forward Ryan Botterill’s pass to make the game 2-0.
Notre Dame took a few shots before Tulk was called for hooking at 12:52. The Fighting Irish capitalized 27 seconds later, as Evan Werner put one past Hauser to make the game 2-1.
Two minutes later, the Badgers went back on the power play with 10:25 to go in the first period. With a helpful jump from senior forward Simon Tassy in front of the net, sophomore forward Gavin Morrissey wristed one in from the left circle to regain the two-goal lead.
Seconds later, Notre Dame won a messy puck battle in front of Wisconsin’s defensive zone. Irish forward Danny Nelson sent a one-timer sailing through Hauser’s glove-side to continue the offensive barrage and cut the Badgers’ lead to 3-2.
Fired up from the close game, Deering notched his second goal of the game with 7:27 remaining in the first. Botteril came out from behind Kempf’s net and passed it to a waiting Deering to widen the Badgers’ lead 4-2.
After Hauser made three saves, Fitzgerald sat two minutes in the box for interference with 1:06 to go. Notre Dame started the second period on the power play, but Wisconsin’s penalty kill kept their two-goal lead.
A slow start to the second period ended when Tulk was assessed a slashing penalty at 16:04, and Notre Dame’s Nelson was assessed unsportsmanlike conduct, leading to four-on-four play.
Hauser held his own in the net before Osburn ripped one in with 9:37 to go in the second. Taking the shot from his knee off a pass from Tulk, Osburn gave the Badgers a 5-2 lead.
Finley had a few shots on Kempf in the dwindling minutes, but Notre Dame ultimately scored with 1:44 to go. Notre Dame’s Cole Brown and Sutter Muzzatti beat the Badgers on a two-on-three with a one-timer to make the game 5-3.
Osburn went back into the box with 24 seconds to go, starting Notre Dame on a power play going into the third period.
Wisconsin’s penalty kill was tested as they killed Osburn’s interference going into the third period and Tulk’s goaltender interference with 15:37 remaining.
Werner, who beat Hauser with a stick side slapshot brought the Irish within one with 13:50 to go, making for a tense Kohl Center.
Wisconsin head coach Mike Hastings pulled Hauser for a delayed penalty at 11:26, but the Badgers couldn’t score on their man-advantage after three shots on Kempf.
Notre Dame then scored on their second attempt of pulling Kempf. With an extra attacker, the Irish tied the game with 1:09 remaining as Werner completed a hat trick to send the game into overtime.
Three-on-three play started slow, with Hauser making two saves and Kempf grabbing one. But with 3:43 to go in overtime, Finley snapped his goal drought as he faced Kempf alone and beat him stick side. The goal was a sigh of relief for Wisconsin, who was at risk of losing their seventh straight game.
Finley was assessed a 10-minute misconduct when he celebrated his comeback by tossing his stick into the stands as the Badgers swarmed the ice.
Finley’s back
Sophomore goaltender Eli Pulver secured the start for the Badgers on Saturday, matching up against Notre Dame’s Kempf.
Less than two minutes into the game, senior defenseman Ben Dexheimer snuck the puck through Kempf’s pads to give the Badgers an early 1-0 lead.
Notre Dame answered at 13:27, with Michael Mastrodomenico tying the game 1-1.
A short lull didn’t stop Finley from scoring his second goal of the series. Keeping the puck in the neutral zone, Finley skated to the side of two defenders and wristed the puck past Kempf’s ear before he could glove it.
Hungry for a win of their own, Notre Dame’s Werner continued his dominant weekend, tearing through a messy Wisconsin defense to score his fourth goal of the series, tying the game 2-2 with 6:32 remaining in the period.
With three minutes to go in the first, freshman forward Vasily Zelenov laid out Notre Dame’s Paul Fischer in the neutral zone. The officials reviewed for a major penalty but found no penalty on the play.
The game moved faster as time dwindled down, and with 23 seconds left in the first, Tassy redirected junior defenseman Joe Palodichuk’s shot from outside Kempf’s crease to take the 3-2 lead for Wisconsin.
“I thought that goal was emblematic of a little bit of our push [Saturday] compared to recently, where at times we’ve gone away and tonight we didn’t,” Hastings said postgame.
Just over 90 seconds into the second period, sophomore forward Adam Pietila’s goal was challenged for offsides and called off. The Badgers had a failed power play 40 seconds later that ended with Notre Dame possession.
Palodichuk sat in the box two minutes for tripping with 15:41 to go with another successful kill from Wisconsin.
Kempf made a series of good saves before Notre Dame took control with 11:38 remaining, tying the game 3-3 after Pulver’s outstretched right leg wasn’t enough to stop a goal from Nelson.
Notre Dame took the lead minutes later, as Jayden Davis launched a shot that flew over a stressed Pulver’s glove with 9:41 to go in the second. The goal prompted Hastings to pull Pulver and put Hauser in to finish the game.
Wisconsin, desperate to claw back, won three faceoffs before Botterill wristed a soft one in after a pass from Osburn to tie the game 4-4 with 6:25 left in the second period.
The period ended with little fanfare, and the start of the third was much of the same. Hauser made five saves as the clock ticked on.
Something clicked with 10:08 to go as Fitzgerald beat Kempf with a wrist shot from the left circle, giving Wisconsin a 5-4 lead on what ended up being the game-winning goal.
The Badgers had some chances before Wisconsin called a timeout with 2:48 left in the game. Kempf was pulled and the Irish took their own timeout with 1:39 remaining.
Hauser made the final save two seconds before the final buzzer, finishing the game with 13 saves in 29 minutes and 40 seconds of play.
“We bent tonight,” Hastings said postgame. “But he didn’t allow us to break.”
Notre Dame tested Wisconsin over the weekend, coming back in both games and making the Badgers win the hard way. Wisconsin, behind Hauser’s strong performance and Finley’s return to the scoresheet, now has hope heading into the final stretch of their season.
“We’re going in a good direction offensively,” Hastings said postgame. “Nowe we’ve got to make sure we back and start from our end all the way to the other end and making sure we’re tightening things up defensively.”
Wisconsin heads on the road next to face Ohio State at 5:30 p.m. Friday in Columbus.
