MADISON, Wis. – Led by a four-goal first period and six different goal scorers, the Wisconsin men's hockey team charged past the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 7-3, on Friday night in front of an electric crowd of 12,463 at the Kohl Center.
Wisconsin's (12-18-3, 7-15-1 Big Ten - 27 points) Ryland Mosley opened the scoring 8:05 into the first period. Jack Horbach, Owen Mehlenbacher and Zach Schulz also found the back of the net over the course of a two minutes and 25 seconds to send the Badgers into the second period with a four-goal lead. Notre Dame (9-21-1, 3-17-1 Big Ten - 11 points) struck twice early in the middle frame to cut the deficit and half, but Simon Tassy and Adam Pietila scored two goals in the course of 30 seconds at 11:44 and 12:14 of the second period, respectively, to regain UW's four-goal advantage. Both teams scored again in the third period on the power play with Mosley recording his second goal of the night to give Wisconsin a 7-3 victory.
How it Happened
The Badgers opened the scoring 8:05 into the first period. From neutral ice, freshman defenseman Weston Knox passed up to sophomore forward Finley at the left side of the Notre Dame blue line. Finley rushed up to the net before sending a backward pass to graduate student forward Mosley in front of the blue paint who looped home his 15th goal of the season.
Junior forward Horbach extended Wisconsin's lead with a short-handed goal at 12:05 into the period. From the slot in UW's zone, graduate student forward
Owen Lindmark intercepted an ND player's pass and sent the puck up to Horbach in neutral ice. Horbach then rushed up the ice and ripped his third goal of the season and second shorthanded goal of his career.
Ninty seconds later at 13:35, sophomore forward Mehlenbacher made it a 3-0 game. From behind the Wisconsin net, Knox skated to the neutral zone and passed to his right to find freshman defenseman
Logan Hensler. Hensler then rushed up and around the ND goal and passed to Mehlenbacher in front of the net, who fired home his third goal of the year.
The Badgers scored their fourth goal of the evening 14:30 into the first period. From near the middle of the blue line, Finley took a shot, which hit Mosley in front of the net and ricocheted into mid-air. Mosley batted the puck onto the ice and slid it around the left side of the boards to Finley at the circle, who then passed up to sophomore defenseman
Zach Schulz at the blue line. Schulz then skated to the slot and sent a wrist shot to the back of the net to record his second goal of the season.
Notre Dame got on the board first 27 seconds into the second period on a shot from Cole Knuble and cut the deficit in half 2:50 into the second period on a power-play goal from Danny Nelson.
But at 11:44 of the second period, freshman forward Pietila regained the Badgers' three-goal lead with his first career tally. On a 2-on-1 rush, Mosley slid a pass across the zone to Pietila, who took a wrist shot to light the lamp shortly after coming out of the penalty box.
Thirty seconds later at 12:14 remaining in the frame, junior forward Tassy made it 6-2, Wisconsin.
ND's Justin Janicke scored the Irish's second power-play goal of the night 3:42 into the third period.
To wrap up a high-scoring evening, Mosley tallied his second goal of the night 13:19 into the third period on the power play.
Wisconsin went 1-for-4 on the power play and 5-for-7 on the penalty kill. UW finished the contest with a 31-25 advantage in shots on goal.
Notes to know:
-
Adam Pietila scored his first NCAA goal in his 27th game with Wisconsin
- Wisconsin scored its third short-handed goal of the season
-
Weston Knox and
Owen Mehlenbacher recorded their career first multi-point game
-
Quinn Finley is back on the score sheet for the first time in six games with a three-assist night
-
Ryland Mosley (2g, 2a) recorded the third four-point night of his career and the third of the season
Straight from the rink
Head Coach Mike Hastings
On leading early and responding
"We had peaks and valleys. We had a really good first period, then came out [for the second] and we got punched right in the nose. The thing that I liked is when we went to 4-2, we got to 5-2, 6-2. That's a maturation process for us because we haven't been in this situation very often. I liked the way we reacted to some adversity in the second."
On growing from last weekend
"Last Saturday after the game at Ohio State, my understanding is the guys got together a little bit and just talked. They challenged each other on the idea of going in and making some more plays. We talked about it this week and we went through some things collectively as a group."
Graduate student forward Ryland Mosley
On moving forward
"We want to play our best hockey at the end of the year and going into playoffs. We have to come out tomorrow night and do the same thing, stay out of the box and play a five-on-five game."
Freshman forward Adam Pietila
On scoring his first career goal
"It was like a weight off my shoulders. Obviously, keep working and it'll come to you, but it took a little longer than I thought. It feels good – I finally got there."
Up Next: The Badgers continue their series against Notre Dame by playing in their final regular season home game of the season on Saturday, Feb. 22. The contest begins at 7:30 p.m. and airs on the Big Ten Network. Audio play-by-play can be found on 1310 WIBA as well as on the Badgers app and the Varsity Network app. You can also follow along on X/Twitter and Instagram at @BadgerMHockey.
Saturday's game serves as Senior Night, and the Badgers will recognize four skaters who will finish their eligibility this season: defenseman
Daniel Laatsch, goaltender
Tommy Scarfone and forwards
Ryland Mosley and
Cody Laskosky. Sixth-year Owen Lindmak and fifth-year
Anthony Kehrer will also play in their last regular-season home games.
Additionally, the first 200 students in line at the Kohl Center will receive free Toppers Pizza.
