Badgers settle for series split at No. 15 Notre Dame
Dhooghe scores team-leading 10th goal in loss
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The Wisconsin men’s hockey team settled for a series split against No. 15 Notre Dame, falling, 5-2, to the Fighting Irish Saturday night at Compton Family Ice Arena.
The Badgers (10-15-5, 6-9-5-2 B1G) opened the scoring early in the first period after senior forward Matthew Freytag tapped in a shot from junior Max Zimmer on the second try, but the Fighting Irish (16-11-3, 9-9-2-2 B1G) notched five consecutive goals, including three in the second period, to take a commanding 5-1 lead.
Special teams played a large part in Notre Dame’s run, as the Fighting Irish tied the game, then took the lead on the power play. They added a third power-play goal with just under five minutes left in the third period to make it a 5-1 contest. UW went 0-for-3 with the man advantage, while Notre Dame went 3-for-6.
Sophomore winger Sean Dhooghe scored to cut Notre Dame’s lead to 5-2 late in the third period, but the Badgers could not rally past the Fighting Irish in the waning moments of regulation.
Freshman goaltender Daniel Lebedeff made 18 saves starting in goal for the Badgers, and junior Jack Berry stopped eight shots in the relief effort.
Notes to Know
- With the loss, the Badgers remain in seventh place in the Big Ten standings with 25 points. Wisconsin has four more regular-season games to play before the Big Ten tournament.
- Sophomore forward Sean Dhooghe tallied his team-leading 10th goal of the season in the loss. Before Saturday, Dhooghe went 11 games without a goal, dating back to Dec. 8 against Michigan State.
Up Next: Wisconsin rounds out its road stretch next weekend with a trip to University Park, Pennsylvania, to take on No. 17 Penn State. Friday’s game is set for a 5:30 p.m. start on BTN, while Saturday’s contest begins at 6 p.m. (CT).
Straight from the Rink
Head Coach Tony Granato
On the loss:
“We didn’t capitalize on our power play. They played big on their power play. We made a couple mistakes defensively, probably because we were tired. We spent a lot of energy last night. Tonight, they were great on the power play, and we weren’t as good as we were last night on those special teams. That’s really the difference in the game. We had lots of ch