(UW ATHLETICS) – NOTRE DAME, Indiana – Nine different players scored to lead the Wisconsin men’s hockey team to a 9-2 victory at Notre Dame on Saturday at Compton Family Ice Arena.
The Badgers (12-2-2, 8-2-0 Big Ten, 22 points) close out the fall semester schedule with their most goals in a conference game since 2006. They also finish up the first half in first place in the Big Ten by two points over top-ranked Michigan.
The onslaught began early with a Quinn Finley snipe just 3:37 into the game. That jump-started a four-goal first 12 minutes for Wisconsin. Grady Deering, Ben Dexheimer and Blake Montgomery tallied the other three to give UW a 4-0 lead at the first intermission.
Notre Dame (4-11-1, 0-8-0 Big Ten), who owns the nation’s leading power play, got on the board in the first minute of the second period with a power-play tally by Dany Nelson. UW answered right back with a Jack Horbach goal just 10 seconds later, but a Notre Dame challenge of offsides wiped the response.
Instead, Aiden Dubinsky provided the Badger riposte, scoring at 3:43 to give UW back its four-goal lead.
The game stayed 5-1 until just before the midpoint of the third period when Adam Pietila tallied his third of the season.
Tyson Dyck created his own breakaway by knocking the puck out of the air at the Badger blue line and finished for the second time this season to make it a 7-1 game.
After Sutter Muzzatti scored for Notre Dame, Finn Brink and Simon Tassy added to the UW total for the fifth goal in seven minutes of game time between the two teams. Brink and Tassy’s markers gave UW its second four-goal period of the game, third of the weekend and fourth in four games. The Badger goals also closed out the scoring and made it the 9-2 final score.
NOTES TO KNOW
– UW’s nine goals are the most for the Badgers since an 11-5 victory at Merrimack on Oct. 12, 2019.
– The nine goals mark the highest conference goal total since UW won 9-1 at Colorado College during WCHA action on Jan. 14, 2006.
– Fifteen different Badgers collected points in the contest and eight different skaters posted multi-point efforts.
– UW’s 12-2-2 ledger marks its best 16-game start since 2005-06 when the Badgers opened 13-1-2.
– UW improved to 7-1-0 on the road for the season
– Junior forward Quinn Finley posted his second-straight multi-point game and finished with three goals and five points on the weekend.
– Sophomore forward Gavin Morrissey finished the weekend with five assists, including three on Saturday.
– Junior defenseman Joe Palodichuk (2g, 2a) and senior forward Tyson Dyck (1g, 3a) each had four-point weekends.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
COLUMBUS, Ohio. — The No. 1 Wisconsin women’s hockey team swept the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes this Saturday, earning a 6-1 win at OSU Ice Rink in Columbus.
Six Badger goals, including three in the second period, and 35 saves by Ava McNaughton led the Badgers to their first sweep of OSU in Columbus since 2019. Kelly Gorbatenko, Caroline Harvey, Maggie Scannell, Cassie Hall and Hannah Halverson all tallied goals for the Badgers.
The Badgers capitalized early after junior Hall scored just five minutes into the game. But a Buckeye challenge made the score 0-0 again.
The Badgers went on the power play, where Simms scored a lethal center shot, officially putting the Badgers on the board with three minutes to go in the first period
McNaughton denied 16 shots in the first and the period ended 1-0 for Wisconsin.
The Badgers took a 2-0 lead after Harvey opened up the second period with a four-on-four breakaway goal, her second of that kind in the series. Less than a minute later, sophomore Scannell scored the Badgers’ third goal, redirecting a Laila Edwards shot.
Wisconsin stayed hot in the second period after junior Kelly Gorbatenko made the score 4-0, one-timing in a pass from Lacey Eden.
Gorbatenko struck again in the third period, cleaning up a rebounded shot for the Badgers’ fifth goal of the game.
In the final minutes of the game, a Buckeye was able to find herself face-to-face with McNaughton on a breakaway and made it 5-1.
With four seconds remaining of play, sophomore Hannah Halverson put an exclamation point on the game, crashing in towards the net to capitalize on a Badgers power play to make the final score 6-1.
Ava McNaughton finished the game with 35 saves – a season high. It is the most saves the junior has ever made in a one-goal-allowed performance. For the series McNaughton saved 60-of-62 shots against her.
Notes of the Game
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The last time the Badgers swept the Buckeyes in Columbus was October 10 and 11 of 2019.
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The last 13 matchups for the Badgers and Buckeyes have been No. 1 vs No. 2. Wisconsin now leads those matchups 7-5-1.
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