Box Score
MADISON, Wis. – Despite scoring four unanswered goals, including two in the final minute of the contest, the Wisconsin men's hockey team fell, 6-5, to the U.S. Under-18 Team in an exhibition game on Sunday evening at the Kohl Center.
How it Happened
Team USA scored the first two goals of the contest at 7:21 and 13:18 into the first period.
At 14:39 of the first, sophomore forward Owen Mehlenbacher found the back of the net with helpers from sophomore forward Sawyer Scholl and freshman defenseman Logan Hensler.
With 47 seconds left in the opening frame, Jack Murtagh made it 3-1, U.S. Under-18 Team.
The Under-18s scored three more times in the opening 10 minutes of the second period to take a 6-1 lead halfway through the contest.
But freshman forward
Adam Pietila started Wisconsin's comeback 10:31 into the second after he scored on a breakaway with assists from Hensler and sophomore defenseman
Joe Palodichuk.
Graduate student forward
Owen Lindmark scored at 10:01 into the third period to kick off the Badgers' three-goal third period.
With 41 seconds remaining in the game, Hensler found the back of the net on the power play after UW pulled its goaltender to gain a six-on-four advantage.
Seventeen seconds later at 19:36, Palodichuk lit the lamp to make it 6-5, Team USA.
The Badgers continued to push in the final 24 seconds of the game but were unable to convert on any scoring chances to complete the comeback and send the game to overtime as the Under-18 won, 6-5.
All three goaltenders – sophomore
William Gramme, freshman
Anton Castro and senior
Tommy Scarfone – saw action in tonight's game.
Wisconsin went 1-for-2 on the power play and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill. UW finished the contest with a 46-23 advantage in shots on goal.
Straight from the rink
Head Coach Mike Hastings
On tonight's game
"We're better, the best version of ourselves, when we are playing in front. To start off and get down the way that we did, dug ourselves a hole. We had some different guys step up, not the usual suspects. It was a nice push at the end, but at the end of the day, it's not enough."
On looking toward Friday
"Today wasn't do or die. We wanted to utilize some things from tonight's game for us to be the best version that we can for the University of Wisconsin on Friday, that's still there. Will we take some things out of this? Yes.
Adam Pietila is going in a good direction, we're keeping him out of the box, which is a positive and he's starting to play with a bit more confidence."
Up Next: The Badgers begin postseason play by traveling to Columbus, Ohio, to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes in the best-of-three quarterfinal round of the 2025 Big Ten Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. The games will take place on Friday through Sunday, March 7-9, at Nationwide Arena, home of the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets. All contests begin at 6 p.m. CT and stream on B1G+. 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.
