The University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team earned a split with the Penn State Nittany Lions last weekend at Penn State and snapped a long and unsightly streak in the process.

The Badgers’ (13-21-0, 6-18-0 Big Ten) win over Penn State (20-13-1, 10-13-1 Big Ten) on Saturday was their first road victory over a Big Ten opponent since Oct. 29, 2021 versus Michigan — snapping a streak of 22 games since without a win.

Here’s how the series in University Park went.

Game 1

In game one, the Nittany Lions got things started just 14 seconds into the game when Danny Dzhaniyev scored on UW goaltender Jared Moe. Six minutes later, it was Ture Linden who doubled the Nittany Lions’ lead. The power play goal made it 2-0, and it was Linden’s second point of the game. Linden would score again with 3:24 left in the first period to cap off a three-point period.

The second period wasn’t much better — UW would give up three more goals. Tyler Gratton, Connor McMenamin and Simon Mack combined to put Penn State up 6-0 at the end of 40 minutes.

The Badgers’ lone goal came on the power play with 10:31 to play in the game with Brock Caufield’s team-leading 11th.

Jared Moe made 34 saves for UW despite giving up all six goals.

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Game 2

After Moe’s rough outing the night before, the Badgers turned on Saturday to Kyle McClellan, who prevailed.

Penn State tossed 45 shots on goal, had five power plays — two major power plays — and still just beat McClellan once in the second period.

But it was the Badgers who drew first blood. The Badgers’ second power play goal of the weeknd was a pretty passing play capped by sophomore Corson Ceulemans.

The second period is when things got dicey for the Badgers. Midway through period Penn State tied the game at one. Then the Badgers got into some major trouble.

First, Jack Horbach took a cross-checking major towards the end of the middle frame, and the Badgers killed off the subsequent three minute power play after Gratton evened things up for two of the five minutes.

The penalty bled into the third period, and the Badgers parlayed that successful penalty kill into the go-ahead goal. With 13:41 remaining in the game, Mathieu De St. Phalle scored after a nice steal by Zach Urdahl in the offensive zone. After that, the Badgers had to hold on for dear life.

After another major penalty by Wisconsin, this one on Mike Vorlicky that got him ejected, Penn State thought they had tied the game, but the goal was called back. The Badgers survived mostly thanks to a herculean effort by McClellan. He made 47 saves, including 22 in the 3rd period.

The 2-1 victory gave Wisconsin a win over every team in the Big Ten and sent Penn State onto the road for the opening round of the Big Ten tournament.

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Stars of the Weekend

Kyle McClellan — The junior goaltender made 47 saves in game two on 48 shots to lead the Badgers to a win on Saturday.

Mathieu De St. Phalle — The junior forward scored the game winning goal on Saturday in the third period off a beautiful toe drag move. He added an assist as well.

Corson Ceulemans — The sophomore scored UW’s first goal in game two and had an assist on their only goal in game one for a two-point weekend.

Up Next

The Badgers hit the road next week, heading to Michigan for the first round of the Big Ten tournament in a best-of-three series.