MADISON, Wis. – Power-play goals from Simon Tassy and Kyle Kukkonen and a short-handed tally from Jack Horbach helped the No. 17/16 Wisconsin men's hockey team to a 5-3 victory over the Alaska Nanooks on Friday night at the Kohl Center.
Wisconsin (3-0-2) opened the scoring 6:45 into the first period after Tassy deflected a shot into the back of the net on the power play. At 14:10 into the frame, Kukkonen doubled Wisconsin's lead with another power-play goal. UW netted its third three-goal period of the season after Joe Palodichuk lit the lamp at 19:53 into the frame.
Alaska (2-5-0) struck twice in the second, once 3:20 into the frame and again at 8:29, to make it a 3-2 game. Horbach scored a short-handed goal 10:18 into the final period to help the Badgers regain their two-goal lead, but the Nanooks scored again 15:08 into the third with an extra attacker to close the gap to one goal. To seal a Badgers victory, Ryan Botterill lit the lamp at 19:14 to make the final score, 5-3.
How it Happened
Wisconsin got on the board first, 6:45 into the first period, after senior forward Tassy scored his second goal in two games on the power-play.
At 14:10 into the first, senior forward Kukkonen made it a 2-0 game on the power play with his first goal of the year.
To round out a three-goal period, with 7.6 seconds remaining in the frame at 19:53, Palodichuk tallied his first goal of the year on a fluke shot that deflected off two Alaska players.
Alaska had the only two goals of the second period, with Rylen Roersma lighting the lamp at 3:20 into the frame and Chase Dafoe scoring at 8:29.
To restore Wisconsin's two-goal lead, senior forward Horbach scored shorthanded for his first of the year at 10:18.
The Nanooks made it a 4-3 game, 15:08 into the third period, when Alexander Malinowski scored a goal with an extra attacker on the ice after UAF pulled its goaltender.
With 46 seconds left in the contest, UW sophomore forward Botterill hit the empty net to give the Badgers a 5-3 victory.
Wisconsin went 2-for-6 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. UW finished the contest with a 46-18 advantage in shots on goal.
Notes to know
- This marks the seventh time Wisconsin has remained unbeaten through five games of a season in the modern era (since 1963)
-
Simon Tassy is on a four-game point streak (3 goals, 4 assists)
- Freshman forward
Bruno Idžan tallied his first collegiate point
- Three Badgers scored their first goals of the season (Kukkonen, Palodichuk, Horbach)
- UW scored its first short-handed goal since Horbach scored a short-handed goal against Notre Dame on Feb. 21, 2025.
- This mark's Wisconsin's third three-goal period of the year, also scoring three goals in the first and third periods at Lindenwood on Oct. 4
Straight from the rink
Head Coach Mike Hastings
On Jack Horbach's performance tonight
"I thought
Jack Horbach was good from start to finish. Played on the edge, but didn't play over the edge. He was great on our bench. Just a lot of things you want an upperclassman to do. And I think the hockey gods were good to him and he found a way to get that done on that short-handed goal, which kind of calmed things down for us."
On being aggressive on the power play
"I thought
Ben Dexheimer really distributed well, to see Simon [Tassy] on that back door the way that he did. Our guys did a good job of working on what they wanted to work on [this week], and trying to have our power play be more threatening, and tonight it helped."
Senior forward Jack Horbach
On his short-handed goal
"We played really good defense and got lucky a bit. Morrissey had a really good play on the wall, so I tried to get a stick on it. I took what they gave me and tried to put a quick one on the net to surprise them a little bit and it worked out."
Senior forward Kyle Kukkonen
On the team's power play efforts
"We preach moving the puck fast, handling it well, and delivering pucks with a shoot-first mentality. There were a lot of shots and shot attempts and we look forward to building on it tomorrow. We did a good job delivering pucks and attacking instead of sitting back."
Up Next: The Badgers continue their series against Alaska on Saturday, Oct. 25. Puck drop is set for 6 p.m., and the game will stream on B1G+. Audio play-by-play can be found on 1070 The Game as well as on the Badgers app and the Varsity Network app. You can also follow along on X/Twitter and Instagram at @BadgerMHockey.
Buy tickets here.
