By JOHN FINERAN
For the second straight weekend on the road, Notre Dame’s beleaguered hockey team was its own worst enemy in the first period. Friday night before 12,463 watching at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis., coach Jeff Jackson’s Fighting Irish gave up four unanswered goals in the first period and the Wisconsin Badgers skated away to a 7-3 victory.
It was the fifth straight loss for Notre Dame, which last weekend trailed 3-0 after the first period in an eventual 5-3 Friday loss at Penn State.
Ryland Mosley, a fifth-year transfer right wing, scored two goals and added a pair of assists to lead coach Mike Hastings’ Badgers, who broke a six-game losing streak in improving to 12-18-3 overall and 7-15-1 Big Ten for 27 points, one behind fifth-place Penn State. Mosley’s sophomore linemate, left wing Quinn Finley, added three assists and nine other Badgers got into the scoring column to aid senior goaltender Tommy Scarfone, who finished with 22 saves.
Retiring after his 20th season at Notre Dame, Jackson is hoping his team, mired in the Big Ten cellar, can make a playoff run after next weekend’s home series against No. 1 Michigan State. So he shook up his forward lines for the Badgers. He moved leading scorer Cole Knuble up to right wing on a line with fellow sophomores, center Danny Nelson and left wing Brennan Ali. Graduate forward Ian Murphy replaced Knuble between graduate right wing Blake Biondi and senior left wing Justin Janicke.
Nelson and Janicke each scored a power-play goal for the Irish, their 12th of the season tying them with Biondi for the team lead, and Nelson added two assists for a three-point night. Knuble scored his 10th goal of the season and had a two-point night as did Janicke, the team captain. But it was not enough to keep the Irish from falling to 9-21-1 overall and 3-17-1 Big Ten for 11 points.
Jackson also gave junior goaltender Owen Say his third straight start after he played well enough last weekend in 5-3 and 3-2 losses at Penn State. But Say lasted just 13:35 of the first period, surrendering three goals and making eight saves before being replaced by freshman Nicholas Kempf, who surrendered four goals while stopping 16 other Wisconsin shots on net.
Mosley opened the scoring at 8:10 and the Badgers made it 2-0 at 12:05 when Jack Horbach scored on a shorthanded breakaway after teammate Owen Lindmark stole an errant pass by Irish defenseman Paul Fischer.
When Owen Mehlenbacher made it 3-0 at 13:35, the visibly upset Jackson used the team’s one timeout to replace Say with Kempf, who was in the net for 55 seconds when Zach Schulz made it 4-0 Wisconsin at 14:30. Notre Dame, outshot 15-6 in the first period, had just two shots on goal in the final 7:08 and none in the final 4:17.
Whatever was said in the Notre Dame locker room inspired the Irish, who cut the lead in half with a pair of goals in the first 2:50 of the second period. Fischer atoned for his mistake to set up Danny Nelson on a 3-on-2 Irish break into Wisconsin defensive zone, and Nelson passed the puck to Knuble, whose backhander beat Scarfone 27 seconds into the period.
Then with Wisconsin’s Kyle Kukkonen off for hooking, Biondi and Janicke set up Nelson at 2:50 to bring the Irish back within two at 4-2. The Irish later got another power-play opportunity at 9:14 when Adam Pietila was sent off for boarding. Scarfone stopped shots by Janicke, Nelson and Kumlin to kill off the penalty at 11:14.
One minute later, the Irish suddenly found themselves down 6-2 after Pietila finished off a 2-on-1 break with Mosley at 11:44 and Simon Tassy took a feed from Mehlenbacher to beat Kempf at 12:14.
Trailing 6-2 entering the third period, the Irish then found themselves down two men early when defenseman Michael Mastrodomenico went to the penalty box for elbowing at the 20-second mark and was joined by Nelson, who retaliated to a late hit by a Wisconsin player after the whistle. Kempf made two saves as the Irish killed off the penalties five seconds after Wisconsin’s Tyson Dyck went off for hooking at 2:15.
Dyck’s penalty gave the Irish another power-play opportunity, and Janicke scooped a falling pass from Nelson out of the air near the Badger net and directed it past Scarfone at 3:42 to make it 6-3.
But the Irish could get no closer and Mosley closed out the scoring at 13:19 on a power play with Ali off for goaltender interference after he ran into Scarfone behind the net.
The series concludes Saturday night at 8:30 EST.
WISCONSIN 6, NOTRE DAME 2
At Kohl Center, Madison, Wis.
Notre Dame              0          2          1—3
Wisconsin         4          2          1—7
First Period—Scoring: 1. Wisconsin, Ryland Mosley 15 (Quinn Finley, Weston Knox) EV 8:10; 2. Wisconsin, Jack Horbach 3 (Owen Lindmark) SH 12:05; 3. Wisconsin, Owen Mehlenbacher 3 (Logan Hensler, Weston Knox) EV 13:35; 4. Wisconsin, Zach Schulz 2 (Quinn Finley, Ryland Mosley) EV 14:30. Penalties: Notre Dame 1-2, Wisconsin 1-2.
Second Period—Scoring: 5. Notre Dame, Cole Knuble 10 (Danny Nelson, Paul Fischer) EV 0:27; 6. Notre Dame, Danny Nelson 12 (Blake Biondi, Justin Janicke) PP 2:50; 7. Wisconsin, Adam Pietila 1 (Ryland Mosley) EV 11:44; 8. Wisconsin, Simon Tassy (Owen Mehlenbacher) EV 12:14. Penalties: Notre Dame 0-0 (1-2), Wisconsin 2-4 (3-6).
Third Period—Scoring: 9. Notre Dame, Justin Janicke 12 (Danny Nelson, Cole Knuble) PP 3:42; 10. Wisconsin, Ryland Mosley 16 (Quinn Finley, Gavin Morrissey) PP 13:19. Penalties: Notre Dame 3-6 (4-8), Wisconsin 4-8 (7-14).
Shots on goal: Notre Dame 25 (6-11-8), Wisconsin 31 (15-11-5).
Goalie saves: Notre Dame (24), Owen Say 8 (8-0-0) and Nicholas Kempf 16 (3-9-4); Wisconsin, Tommy Scarfone 22 (6-9-7).
Power-play opportunities: Notre Dame 2 of 7, Wisconsin 1 of 4.
Faceoffs won: Notre Dame 29 (11-8-10), Wisconsin 31 (9-13-9).
Blocked shots: Notre Dame 11 (2-4-5), Wisconsin 16 (4-5-7).
Referees: Andrew Bruggeman and David Marcotte. Linesmen: Jonathan Sladek and Chad Roethlisberger. Attendance: 12,463 (15,539).
Records: Notre Dame 9-21-1 overall, 3-17-1 Big Ten for 11 points; Wisconsin 12-18-3 overall, 7-15-1 Big Ten for 27 points.