What started off as a dud could not have finished with a louder bang, as the Wisconsin men’s hockey team (11-7-7 WCHA, 14-10-7 overall) took down Penn State (12-14) 5-0 in the first meeting between the two teams.
Both the Badgers and the Nittany Lions came out of the gate flat, with each squad recording just six shots on goal in a period that was marked by sloppy play.
For a moment it appeared as though Wisconsin had taken a lead after sophomore forward Brendan Woods knocked the puck into the Nittany Lion net, but the goal was immediately waved off as the whistle had already been blown.
After the first period, head coach Mike Eaves didn’t lay into his team, but instead opted to calm his players down and get them to focus on the last 40 minutes.
“It was more just a reassurance that we are going to be ok,” he said. “In the second and third, you could see that the pace and the tempo took over.”
The game took on a completely different tone in the second and third periods with the Badgers piling on shots and scoring opportunities, pulling away from Penn State.
Senior defenseman John Ramage put the Badgers on the board first after he ripped a one-time shot past Penn State sophomore goalie PJ Musico. They would add to that lead later in the period on the power play after junior forward Michael Mersch beat Musico to record his 17th goal of the season and extend the Wisconsin lead to two.
Freshman forward Nic Kerdiles opened the scoring in the third with an even-strength goal before junior forward Tyler Barnes pushed the lead to 4-0.
Barnes was coming out of the penalty box when junior forward Keegan Meuer found him wide open with a pass to set him up on a breakaway for the score.
Sophomore forward Brendan Woods closed out the scoring, converting on the team’s seventh power play opportunity of the night with less than five minutes left in the game.
Sophomore goaltender Joel Rumpel made 22 saves for his seventh career shutout and fourth of this season, which is tied for second most in the nation.
The Badgers put up 22 shots in the second period alone, and would follow that up with 23 more in the third to put together a season-high 51 shots on goal.
“You always want more for yourself and the team,” Ramage said on his team’s turnaround after the first period. “That’s what we came out and did in the second and third period—we showed what we are capable of.”
Barnes, who had recorded just one point in his previous six games, had a goal and three assists to give him a season-high four-point game. The Eagan, Minn., native has had an up and down season, but this may be the type of game he needs to get back to being a consistent scorer.
“I’ve had opportunities this season and haven’t been able to close on them and that’s when I would be nervous, if I wasn’t getting opportunities,” he said. “I knew to just keep working hard and bear down and eventually they would start coming.”
“Hopefully it’s a confidence thing… a momentum thing for him,” Eaves said of Barnes. “I think more than anything, if you can have that feeling of confidence from the inside out and have that momentum going, that could be really valuable for him.”
While the win does not help Wisconsin in the WCHA, it does give them a boost in the Pairwise rankings, which are used to help determine what teams make the NCAA tournament. The Badgers jumped from a tie for 23rd into a tie for 17th with five regular season games remaining.
“Every team looks at the standings, every team wants to know where they are at,” Ramage said. “At the same time we’re trying to control what we can control and that with the wins. If this team is rolling and hot going into the playoffs I like our chances.”
The two teams will face off again Monday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Kohl Center.
