The No. 9 University of Wisconsin-Madison men’s hockey team will host their first home game of the season, a home-opener at the Kohl Center, on Friday against an unranked Lindenwood.
After an overtime win against No. 15 Omaha in an exhibition game on the road, the Badgers look to start the 2024-25 regular season on a win. Omaha put up a hard-fought battle that forced the Badgers to come back from an 0-2 deficit in the third period. Junior Tyson Dyck and senior Daniel Laatsch scored twice to match Omaha’s two unanswered goals in the second period, and sophomore Quinn Finley found the opportunity to win it just over three minutes into overtime.
Lindenwood comes into the weekend following a two-game series win over the unranked University of Nevada Las Vegas. The Lions scored 11 goals in the series over Nevada’s four. Sophomore Jack Southgate had a leading three goals over the series with two goals on Saturday and one goal on Sunday.
The Badgers have only faced Lindenwood twice in program history in a home series in January earlier this year resulting in a 1-0-1 match-up record. Finley scored a hat trick in the first game of that series on Jan. 12.
Looking toward this weekend, the Badgers went 0/4 on power plays against Omaha and 3/4 on the penalty kill. They also played all three goalies, switching them out every period with senior Tommy Scarfone in the first, sophomore William Gramme in the second and freshman Anton Castro in the third and overtime position in the net.
The Badgers’ goaltending situation will look different coming into this weekend, but a polished power play and penalty kill against Lindenwood might be the confidence boost they need to start the season strong at home.
The series begins at 7 p.m. on Friday and 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Kohl Center.
