After the Wisconsin men’s hockey team hung with Michigan for much of Friday night’s 7-4 loss, the Wolverines needed only two minutes to put the game away in Saturday night’s rematch.

Michigan (15-7-0, 7-1-0 Big Ten) appeared in complete control of the game from start to finish. The Wolverines dominated puck possession and enjoyed a 44-17 shots on goal advantage en route to cruising to a 6-0 shutout over the Badgers (2-15-3, 0-5-1-1).

Following the loss, Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said that after the first period, he and the rest of the coaching staff felt a need to start benching players in order to hold them accountable for unacceptable mistakes.

“If guys weren’t doing what they needed to do, they sat on the bench with the coaches and they missed ice time,” Eaves said. “Enough is enough.”

After a slow start in game one of the two-game series, the Wolverines wasted no time getting out in front of the Badgers Saturday night. Michigan scored two goals in the first 2:03 of the game and never looked back.

Following the pair of Michigan goals, Eaves decided he had seen enough from goaltender Joel Rumpel and pulled him from the game, inserting backup Landon Peterson in his place. According to Rumpel, it was a justified decision.

“I wasn’t playing that well,” Rumpel said. “I made a couple mistakes early and you can’t have that against a team like this.”

However, the Badgers did not get the response Eaves was looking for following the goaltender change, as Peterson gave up two more goals in the first period. After the first 20 minutes, Michigan was already ahead by four goals with the game essentially in hand.

Unimpressed with Peterson’s performance in relief of Rumpel, Eaves reinserted Rumpel to the start second period, who improved in his second stint on the game. Rumpel allowed a goal two minutes into the third period, but shutout the Wolverines the rest of the way not counting an empty net goal at the end to bring Michigan’s final goal tally to six.

“Whether or not Rumpel was going to go back in depended on how Peterson played and how he looked,” Eaves said of his decision to put Rumpel back in. “If [Peterson] looked sharp, we might have left him in there, but he struggled and the decision was made easy.”

Despite the loss, Wisconsin forward Joseph LaBate said after the game that they are staying resilient and hopeful to bounce back next weekend when they host the Minnesota Gophers.

“No one’s given up in the locker room,” LaBate said. “We’re looking forward to Minnesota.”