A horrendous regular season finally came to an end this weekend for Wisconsin, one that could bring about some major changes in the offseason.
Friday night, a sluggish start, captivating finish and 20-man shootout was the recipe for an overtime thriller between Wisconsin (2-15-3 Big Ten, 4-25-5 overall) and Ohio State (8-11-1 Big Ten, 13-18-3 overall) at the Kohl Center. Despite a late rally by the Badgers to even the score and force overtime, the Buckeyes won the game via a shootout.
“First period was… glad we survived it 0-0. We looked better in the second and played our best hockey in the third,” said head coach Mike Eaves.
Early in the game, both teams struggled to control the puck in the offense zone. The Buckeyes nearly scored first on a breakaway that was stopped by senior Brad Navin’s hooking penalty with 7:30 left in the period. The Badgers killed the power play unscathed and the game entered the first intermission tied 0-0.
A mirror image of the first period, Ohio State opened the second period with a strong forecheck to maintain its offensive attitude. Finally, with 6:34 left in the period, the Buckeyes struck first on a shift when Sam Jardine fed a cutting Tyler Lundey for the first goal of the game.
After the game, Eaves was asked whether he considered taking a timeout leading up to Ohio State’s first goal.
“I’m not going to bail those kids out. It was their own fault they were down there and this was a learning point,” Eaves said. “It was the middle of the game. It was a tight game and it was on their shoulders and they didn’t get the job done.”
Fortunately for the Badgers, they were only trailing by one goal heading into the last period. Whatever Eaves said to his guys in the locker room must have reached the players. From the drop of the puck, the Badgers began skating more aggressively which culminated in a power play two minutes into the period. Navin capitalized on the man advantage, netting home a rebound goal to knot the score at one with 16:44 left in regulation.
Four minutes later, the Buckeyes jumped back out on front via a wrist shot off the stick of Matt Weis. With time winding down, the Badgers needed to create some scoring opportunities. Navin and Joseph LaBate offered just that as LaBate centered the puck from behind the net to Navin who beat OSU goalie Christian Navin far side with 3:57 left in the game. Just like that, the game was evened at two goals apiece as both teams prepped for overtime.
“A blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then. So you’ll take them when you can get them,” Navin said after the game.
Two minutes into overtime, the Badgers nearly won the game when LaBate skated into the clear on a breakaway only to have his backhanded try denied by the outstretched arms of Frey. The game was destined for a shootout.
The Badgers’ first skater, Morgan Zulinick, finessed a backhander past Frey. Ohio State countered Zulinick’s goal with a goal of its own courtesy of Nick Schilkey.
After each team’s next two skaters came up empty, Wisconsin’s Navin elevated the puck top shelf to beat Frey and put the Badgers in a good position to earn the victory. However, Ohio State’s last hope, Christian Lampa, scored near side to keep the shootout alive.
Seven skaters later, Wisconsin’s Tim Davison was denied by Frey. Smelling victory, Ohio State’s Clark Christofoli rocketed the puck top shelf to beat Wisconsin goalie Landon Peterson and give the Buckeyes the 4-3 shootout win.
Frustrated with the team’s start, Eaves noted that “We looked distracted. We didn’t look like we were ready to play when the puck was dropped and it took us a while to get going.”
Echoing Eaves’ thoughts, Navin said, “We have guys that didn’t show up until halfway through the game and that really hurt us.”
In the final regular season game, the UW men’s hockey team set plenty of records, none of which anyone will look back on with pride.
The Badgers were shut out for a record eighth time this season Saturday night, losing by a margin of 2-0.
Wisconsin ends its season with 25 losses, the most since the beginning of the program’s modern era in 1963.
“There’s not one young man in that locker room that didn’t want to play well tonight,” Eaves said of his team’s performance. “But it just didn’t happen.”
Things went from bad to worse for Wisconsin midway through the first period when sophomore forward Jedd Soleway hobbled to the bench with an apparent injury. As the players on the bench waited for Soleway, freshman forward Cameron Hughes slammed into the bench’s opened door and didn’t return.
The Hughes injury further depleted the Badgers, who started their third game in a row without sophomore forward Grant Besse, UW’s top point scorer. With two of its top-five forwards out, Wisconsin struggled to generate offense, managing only 17 shots to OSU’s 42.
The Buckeyes’ first goal came almost nine minutes into the second period when freshman defenseman Jack Dougherty blocked a shot that bounced back to sophomore forward David Gust.
With Rumpel sprawling across the crease, Gust rocketed a pass to Lundey, who knocked the puck into the net.
The Badgers lost another forward when senior Matt Paape was ejected for checking from behind with less than five minutes left in the second period. UW killed off the major penalty, but couldn’t sustain any zone pressure going into the third frame.
OSU put the nail in the Badgers’ coffin when a 3-on-2 rush turned into a goal from freshman forward Matthew Weis. Down 2-0, the Badgers got a power play opportunity with five minutes left in the third, but they were unable to capitalize.
Wisconsin pulled Rumpel with a minute left in the game, but none of the Badgers’ onslaught of shots made it past Buckeyes goaltender Matt Tomkins, who earned his fifth win of the season.
“You learn a lot,” Rumpel said. “With the struggles we've had, you find out what people really are. You learn a lot more from losing games than winning. What we've learned is that we battle, we've never given up. We're trying to get better every day.”
Despite the end to its nightmarish regular season, Wisconsin is still confident it can put together a postseason run.
“Going into playoffs, it's a totally new season,” said junior defenseman Eddie Wittchow. “We have a lot of guys on this roster who know how to win conference championships. We've done it the last two years, so I think with that experience, along with the youth on our team that are now in full force, ready to play, I think we can make noise going forward.”
The sixth-seeded Badgers will face third-seeded Michigan Thursday in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament in Detroit, Mich.
