Wisconsin Men’s Hockey Team has gone through a rough patch as of late.
After a disappointing series against Penn State University and Michigan State University, the Badgers were determined to obtain a decisive win against No. 1 Notre Dame at the United Center Sunday. Notre Dame had come away victorious in the three previous meetings between the two Big Ten opponents this season.
In the first period, UW Defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk opened the game with his second goal of the season. From then on, the game was all Wisconsin.
Trent Frederic scored a short-handed goal, followed by a Seamus Malone power-play one-timer goal to extend Wisconsin’s lead to 3-0 at the end of the second period.
Finally, Linus Weissbach and Sean Dhooghe contributed two goals late in the third period to cap off a sweet 5-0 win against Notre Dame.
Goaltender Jack Berry was solid at net stopping forty shots (a career high).
According to head coach Tony Granato, Berry played a key role in the win.
“Goalie was great, it starts in the net. I thought right out of the gate, this was solid for us, gave us a lot of confidence. We were able to solve their goalie a bit tonight, which has been a challenge all year for us,” Granato said.
Granato looked back at the season series against Notre Dame and noted this win did not differ all that much from the last three games against the Fighting Irish. But it came down to a few key plays the Badgers were able to capitalize on.
With only eight games left in the season, the Badgers need to step up their game to have any hope for a berth in the NCAA tournament. Though Wisconsin decisively beat top ranked Notre Dame the Badgers placed 18th in the rankings as of Jan. 23.
Wisconsin will try to keep their playoff hopes alive when they play against No. 14 Penn State this Friday at 8 p.m. at the Kohl Center.
