The regular season came to a close for the Badgers in what became an all too familiar trend this year—with a loss. Wisconsin (0-7-1 Big Ten, 3-11-3 overall) dropped its final game 2-0 at No. 16 Northwestern (4-1-3, 9-3-5).
The Badgers were coming off a pair of encouraging games in which they took two ranked teams into double overtime, including Saturday’s tie against No. 2 Indiana.
Unable to build on the momentum of picking up its first point in Big Ten play, Wisconsin fell behind early on an 11th minute goal from junior forward Joey Calistri.
Despite outshooting the Wildcats 6-2 in the first half, the Badgers were unable to find the back of the net and found themselves trailing 1-0 through 45 minutes.
Just five minutes into the second half, Calistri added to the Wildcat lead with his second goal of the night, and sixth of the year, tapping in a cross past freshman Badger goalkeeper Adrian Remeniuk.
Any hope of a late comeback vanished in the final five minutes, as sophomore defender Matej Radonic was given a red card, forcing Wisconsin to play a man down for the remainder of the match.
Continuing their strong play over the season’s second half, the Badgers seemingly controlled the pace of play against Northwestern, holding an 11-5 advantage in shots. Senior goalkeeper Tyler Miller was strong in net for the Wildcats though, saving all six shots on net.
"Compliment to Northwestern and their coaching staff. They've got a fine group and they're a good team," said UW head coach John Trask. "They've got an older and more mature team and it showed. They countered us early in the game on a mistake and made us pay for it, then turned around and got us again at the beginning of the second half."
Senior midfielder Jacob Brindle, playing in his final regular season game, followed up his game-tying goal against Indiana with a game-high two shots on goal, but was unable to get one in as the Badgers were shut out for the fourth time this season.
He was one of eight Wisconsin players in total who registered a shot on the night, with junior midfielder Anders Kristensen also recording two.
The Badgers finished the regular season last in the Big Ten with just one point. They’ll still have at least one more match, coming up in the Big Ten tournament Saturday. No. 9-seed Wisconsin will face No. 8-seed Rutgers at 1 p.m. in College Park, Maryland.
