The Badgers went into their third overtime of the regular season on Friday night.
Graduate student Ryland Mosely started the night for the Badgers, putting them on the board amid a five-minute power play. Mosley scored 3:35 into the game, tipping it past OSU goaltender Logan Terness, assisted by sophomore forward Quinn Finley and freshman forward Gavin Morrissey.
OSU’s Wisconsinite Max Montes responded, following an assist from Patrick Guzzo and Joe Dunlap, tying the game in the first period with 12.9 seconds remaining, beating Wisconsin goaltender Tommy Scarfone.
The second period remained scoreless and clean with no team having power play opportunities.
Despite Wisconsin outshooting the Buckeyes 13-3 in the third period, they were unable to capitalize on those opportunities.
Ohio State’s Montes scored the game-winning goal with 17 seconds left in overtime.
The Badgers stayed dominant on the circle, winning 32 of the 54 face-offs and outshot OSU 38-23, but were unable to come away with the win.
On Saturday, the Buckeyes took control early in the game as Riley Thompson scored 21 seconds into the first period, beating sophomore goaltender William Grame. Similarly to their series against Lindenwood, the Badgers alternated goalies, playing senior Scarfone on Friday and sophomore Gramme on Saturday.
"The first [goal], I don't think we let enough time go by for somebody to get their popcorn and get to their seat,” head coach Mike Hastings said. “In our building, you want to take advantage of the people that are kind enough to come out and spend their money and we made them watch us play from behind. We get beat out of the corner to the net and it's one-nothing. So again, learning experiences like that are very painful.”
The Buckeyes added an insurance goal with one minute and one second into the third period, bringing the Buckeyes up 2-0 when Montes scored his third goal of the series.
Entering just under 10 minutes left of play, defender Joe Palodichuk passed from below the red line to defensive partner Ben Dexheimer at the blue line. Dexheimer took a shot Mosley tipped going through the goaltender’s pad. Finley finished off the play, sending the puck into the back of the net.
The Badgers outshot the Buckeyes again on night two, 29-20, but couldn’t find an equalizer.
"We are very happy with the chances we are getting; we just need to capitalize on these opportunities and put the puck in the back of the net,” Finley said during a postgame press conference.
Although the Buckeyes gifted the Badgers two power play opportunities, they were unable to convert them. But Wisconsin proved efficient, defending the one and only penalty kill.
“We’re gonna have to go to work and do it day by day, brick by brick if we wanna push that rock up the hill right now. We gotta do it together,” Hastings said.
The Badgers are now 1-3 this season after dropping a game to Lindenwood the week prior and the series to Ohio State.
"This was obviously not the start we wanted, but we believe in ourselves and each other to figure this out and get it going in the right direction," captain Owen Lindmark said.
Coming off these losses, the Badgers will face the undefeated and reigning NCAA championships University of Denver this weekend. The two teams have not seen one another since 2019. The Badgers have a program record of 76-64-13 against Denver that dates back to their first meeting in 1968 but have won only one game in their last 10 matchups.
“It’s time to rally behind each other, the only way we are going to get through it is together as a team; going to work on Monday, figuring out the details that we need to improve on and getting ready to go against Denver,” Lindmark said.
The Badgers will travel to Magness Arena at the University of Denver this weekend. Puck drops at 8 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday.
