Aggressive checking, multiple fights and high scores were the trademarks of the Wisconsin men’s hockey games this weekend at the Kohl Center, from the drop of the first puck on Friday until the final horn Saturday night.
Wisconsin (4-4-0, 3-3-0) and Nebraska-Omaha (4-4-0, 3-1-0) clashed for only the eighth and ninth times in history, but there looked to be no love lost between the two teams who split the series, the Mavericks taking game one 5-4 and the Badgers winning game two 6-3.
Wisconsin got off to fast starts both nights, but Saturday the Badgers were able to hang on to their 3-0 lead in the first period. The first goal game came on Wisconsin’s second shorthanded goal of the season. Tyler Barnes was able to hold UNO goalie John Faulkner long enough on a 2-on-1 break for Mark Zengerle to convert Barnes’ last-second pass into a goal before Faulkner could recover.
Matt Paape scored the first goal of his collegiate career just more than six minutes after a series of rebound attempts that Faulkner was unable to control, and 25 seconds after that, Zengerle scored his second goal of the game off another last second pass, this time from Justin Schultz, to make it 3-0.
The Mavericks were able to find their way onto the scoreboard in the final three minutes of the period. UNO’s leading goal scorer, Terry Broadhurst, found the back of the net to make the score 3-1.
The Badgers were able to answer in the final 15 seconds of the period on a power play goal by Frankie SImonelli, his first of the season, to give Wisconsin a three-goal lead.
Wisconsin managed to outshoot Nebraska-Omaha in the first period 14-10, but the Mavericks would put incessant pressure on Badger goalie Joel Rumpel the rest of the game. UNO would outshoot UW 15-4 in the second period and 17-6 in the third.
“I think a lot of it is trying to get quality chances,” Zengerle said. “A lot of the shots they got today are shots we are going to give them by just keeping them on the outside and letting whatever goalie is in net see it.”
Despite the large disparity in shots, Wisconsin managed to keep pace with Nebraska-Omaha, each team scoring two goals the remainder of the game.
UW’s Ryan Little was able to knock in a rebound 3:03 into the second period and UNO added two power play goals in the third period, one by Alex Hudson, the other on a 6-on-4 advantage after the Mavericks temporarily pulled Faulkner from the goal with 5:05 remaining. The Badgers refused to yield again in the final five minutes and added an empty net goal with 1:38 to play to seal the game at 6-3.
“The mindset going into tonight’s game was that we definitely wanted to jump out and have the same start as we did last night, which we did,” Simonelli said. “We sharpened up our penalty kill a little bit and cracked down on the details and had more success tonight.”
In the words of Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves, the two games were eerily similar. Game one had an even faster start with the Badgers’ Derek Lee scoring an opening-minute goal to put Wisconsin up 1-0, and just more than three minutes later, Barnes was able to find the net off a fantastic spinning pass from the left circle by Zengerle to make it 2-0.
Less than 30 seconds later, aggression hit its peak for the series when UNO’s Zahn Raubenthheimer put a devastating back check on Wisconsin’s Ryan Little, leading to his ejection from the game and several punches thrown between the teams near center ice.
The Badgers were awarded a power play after a lengthy delay to determine the outcome of the play, and the Badgers cashed in, increasing their lead to 3-0 less than six minutes into the game.
From that point forward, the game was all Nebraska-Omaha. The Mavericks would outscore the Badgers 5-1 over the final two periods, three goals in the third period alone. Four of UNO’s five goals were of the power play variety, the last of which came with 21 seconds to play, capping off a furious comeback to give UNO its first lead of the game and the win 5-4.
After the game, Eaves pointed out that an upper-body injury to junior Derek Lee was a huge loss for Wisconsin to overcome on the fly.
“The lead was early, it was 3-0, then 3-1,” Eaves said. “I think the turning point was when we lost Derek Lee; we lose a junior, center iceman. It was on a power play and penalty killing. In the second period we are trying to find the right mix and who can play with who, and it took us out of our rhythm a little bit.”
