The Wisconsin Badgers men’s hockey team (11-18-3) lost both series games to the No. 7 Ohio State Buckeyes (20-8-2) in Columbus last weekend.
Junior Jack Horbach scored his second goal of the season and the only goal for the Badgers in Friday night’s 1-4 loss. Wisconsin started the night with the first goal, giving up two in the second period and two in the third.
Sophomore Quinn Finley put Ohio State on the power play after he received a five-minute major penalty in the second period for charging the goaltender and a 10-minute game misconduct. Then, Finley was ejected from the game just five minutes into the second period.
The Badgers couldn’t hold on to their lead and lost 2-4 on Saturday. Graduate student Ryland Mosley scored first for Wisconsin to tie the game in the second period, and freshman Ryan Botterill scored just a little over a minute afterwards to give the Badgers the lead. Ohio State then scored three unanswered goals with one in the second period and two in the third.
Overall, Wisconsin had two power plays and two penalty kills in each game over the weekend, with no goals scored in any.
Wisconsin freshman Anton Castro played his first game of the season on Friday for 42 minutes before being pulled due to three goals against. Senior Tommy Scarfone replaced Castro and played the full game on Saturday.
This weekend Wisconsin faces Notre Dame (9-20-1) to finish out their regular season play. Wisconsin split the last series they played against Notre Dame, but leads in wins historically.
Wisconsin averages 33.8 shots per game, while Notre Dame averages 29.3. An aggressive Badgers offense may be all the Badgers need to compete against a struggling Fighting Irish team.
Wisconsin’s faults show in their .085 shot percentage where they let their opponents score on .113% of shots. Notre Dame scores on .091% of shots, which could grant them enough of an average to beat the Badgers’ defense, even if Wisconsin can average more shots on goal.
Notre Dame has allowed 91 power plays on the season and their opponents average a .220 penalty kill percentage. Wisconsin could take advantage of that with their .220 power play conversion. Notre Dame averages a .227 power play conversion, but Wisconsin’s strong penalty kill and clean game, on average, could be enough to win this series.
Interestingly, Notre Dame struggles in their defensive zone, even when they’re on the man-advantage. Their opponents average a .192 shot percentage while Notre Dame is on the power play, which Wisconsin should take advantage of.
Wisconsin is currently the Big Ten Tournament No. 6 seed but could jump to the No. 5 seed if the Badgers sweep Notre Dame. Additionally, league-ranked No. 18 Penn State would need to be swept by No. 1 Michigan State this weekend and No. 5 Minnesota the next.
The Big Ten Tournament starts on Friday, March 7 in the quarterfinals best-of-three series, with the No. 6 seed playing the No. 3 seed. If Wisconsin jumps to the No. 5 seed, they would play the No. 4 seed.
After this weekend, Badgers fans have the opportunity to see Wisconsin play one more time before the Big Ten Tournament playoffs with an exhibition game on March 2 against USA Hockey’s U.S. Under-18 Team.
Games will start at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Kohl Center.
