MADISON, Wis. — Checking almost every scoring box tonight with a power-play goal, an empty-netter, a short-handed goal and a hat trick, No. 14 Wisconsin (4-2-0, 4-2-0-0-1-0 Big Ten) took put up seven goals to complete a sweep over No. 15 Penn State (0-4-0, 0-4-0-0-0-0 Big Ten) in a 7-3 win on Tuesday at LaBahn Arena.
Senior
Linus Weissbach kicked off the scoring frenzy netting his second of the weekend just seven minutes into the game, followed by junior
Dominick Mersch's rebound finish off senior Jason Dooghe's shot two minutes later. The goal was Mersch's first of the season and first since Jan. 27, 2019, a span of 49 games.
With three minutes to go in the Badger-dominated first, sophomore
Cole Caufield sniped his second power-play goal of the weekend for his first of the night and a 3-0 Badgers' lead.
After a Penn State goal 4:21 into the second, the Badgers battled before going down a man.
Skating on a breakaway sent off by a pass from junior
Jack Gorniak, senior
Tarek Baker finished past Nittany Lions netminder Liam Souliere to earn his second career short-handed goal and his first goal of the season.
Freshman
Sam Stange took his turn for his third goal of the series just 26 seconds into the third, before Caufield notched his second of the game 53 seconds later.
Penn State retaliated with back-to-back goals of their own. They scored 8:49 minutes into the third and a minute later notched a power-play goal to recreate the 6-3 scoreboard from Monday.
Caufield decided to up the ante though and took advantage of Penn State's empty net to tally his first hat trick of the season and close out the scoring at 17:57.
The Badgers fought hard for their win tonight as senior netminder
Robbie Beydoun turned away 35 shots. His Nittany Lion counterpart Liam Souliere made 20 saves.
Notes to know:
- Cole Caufield notched his first hat-trick of the season and the second of his career for a four-goal weekend. He notched his first hat trick last season at Notre Dame Jan. 24, 2020.
- Points galore: Linus Weissbach and Anthony Kehrer each tallied a 4-point weekend while Sam Stange took away his third goal of the weekend for three points along with Tarek Baker.
- Wisconsin's power play improved 6-20 (30.0 percent), scoring a power-play marker for the sixth consecutive game.
- The Badgers' second sweep of the 2020-21 campaign matches last season's total.
Up next: UW plays host to Arizona State for one last home series in 2020 next weekend. The puck drops at 7 p.m. Saturday night and 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Catch the games on Fox Sports Wisconsin or BTN+ and listen on 1310 WIBA.
