The Notre Dame hockey team played its final regular-season road series of the Jeff Jackson era this weekend, facing the Wisconsin Badgers at the Kohl Center. Dropping Friday night’s game 7-3 and snatching Saturday’s contest 6-1, the Irish moved to 10-21-1 overall and 4-17-1 within Big Ten play. Wisconsin’s disappointing season continued with a shellacking on Senior Night, as the Badgers finished their regular season at 12-19-3 overall and 7-16-1 in conference games.
Friday: Notre Dame 3, Wisconsin 7
Both teams entered the series in Madison winless since the fourth weekend of January. The Irish had lost four consecutive games, two to Ohio State at home and two more at Penn State, to seal their first last-place finish in 20 years. Wisconsin, meanwhile, had tanked its bid for an at-large spot in the NCAA Tournament with a six-game skid, averaging only 1.33 goals per game during the tailspin.
One team had to get off the schneid on Friday, and that team was Wisconsin. The Badgers blitzed Notre Dame early, putting four first-period goals on an Irish team that had given up a combined 8 opening-frame tallies in its last two Friday road games at Minnesota and Penn State. Though Notre Dame played even hockey with Wisconsin across the game’s final 40 minutes, the Badgers still won comfortably.
Wisconsin opened the scoring at 8:10 of the first, as leading Badger scorer Quinn Finley made a strong drive to the netfront and sent a spinning pass through the low slot. It found Michigan Tech transfer Ryland Mosley on the back door, where he went skate to stick and stuffed the puck over junior goaltender Owen Say for his 15th goal of the season.
The Badgers later scored three goals in 2 minutes and 25 seconds. At 12:05 of the first, Notre Dame began a power play at the end of a 4-on-4 sequence, only to turn the puck over at the Wisconsin blue line. Captain Owen Lindmark outletted for extra skater Jack Horbach, who beat Say glove-side on a breakaway for his third goal of the year. Ninety seconds later, poor netfront coverage resulted in a one-time stuff-in by Owen Mehlenbacher for his third. Coach Jackson made a goaltending change, calling upon freshman Nicholas Kempf after Say saw only 11 shots, but the Badgers struck again. At 14:30 of the first, defenseman Zach Schulz walked down from the blue line and roofed his 2nd goal of the season.
Just as they did two Fridays ago in State College, the Irish absorbed the first-period frenzy and made a push to start the second. They struck 27 seconds into the new frame, cutting the Wisconsin lead to 4-1 on sophomore forward Cole Knuble’s 10th goal, a rush-finishing backhander between the circles. Notre Dame’s power play would light the lamp again at 2:50 of the second, as a netside scramble forced the puck out to the hash marks, where sophomore center Danny Nelson snapped his 12th goal through traffic and upstairs.
Wisconsin would eventually send the Irish back to square one, though, scoring twice in 30 seconds midway through period two. First, Adam Pietila recorded his first collegiate goal on a 2-on-1 rush that started with a puck hopping over junior defenseman Axel Kumlin’s stick in the Badger zone. Simon Tassy then made the Irish pay for a behind-the-net turnover, backhanding home a Mehlenbacher centering feed for his fifth goal. Wisconsin would carry a 6-2 advantage into the second intermission.
Early in period three, Notre Dame’s power play, which received seven opportunities at the expense of Wisconsin head coach Mike Hastings’ morale, capitalized for a second time. In this case, a Nelson one-timer hit a shot-blocker and careened straight up, coming down at the edge of the crease, where senior winger Justin Janicke skillfully batted the puck home for his 12th goal.
The Badgers would deliver an exclamation point with a power-play tally of their own, as Mosley tipped a Finley shot for his second goal of the night and 16th of the season. Mosley finished with a game-high 4 points, leading the Wisconsin offense in its wake-up call. Finley, who had gone without a point in each leg of the Badgers’ six-game slide, returned to form with three assists. Nelson, his 2024 World Junior Championships teammate with Team USA, matched him with 3 points on the night for Notre Dame.
In goal, everyday Wisconsin starter Tommy Scarfone claimed his 10th win of the season by stopping 22 of the 25 shots he squared up to. Kempt took the loss for the Irish, turning away 16 of 20 shots after Say denied 8 of his 11.
Saturday: Notre Dame 6, Wisconsin 1
With only five guaranteed games left in Jackson’s tenure as coach and the 20-year bench boss still two wins away from 600, Notre Dame needed a Saturday result in the worst way. And from the opening faceoff, the Irish played like it, surprising Wisconsin with their physicality and winning seemingly every puck battle.
The Badgers, despite having the emotional factor of Senior Night on their side, didn’t have an answer to the nine-win Irish pushing them around, and the scoreboard reflected that. Notre Dame struck first at 4:50 of period one, as a perfectly placed dump-in from Kumlin ricocheted off the corner boards and found junior winger Niko Jovanovic, who blasted home his first career goal.
The Irish, who have struggled badly in the final minutes of periods this year, made it 2-0 with 5.6 seconds remaining in the first. A 110-foot pass from Say to Nelson caught the Badgers in an ill-timed change on the penalty kill, gaining the Irish offensive zone entry with numbers. Nelson, graduate winger Blake Biondi and Knuble combined for a crisp passing play through the slot, teeing up Janicke to bang home his 13th goal on the back door. Up 2-0 through 20 minutes, the Irish had shut out their opponent in period one for the first time since Jan. 25, the day of their most recent win against Lindenwood.
Notre Dame’s lead expanded to 3-0 at 7:44 of the second, as Knuble and sophomore defenseman Henry Nelson conducted a rink-wide give-and-go play, leading to a slick, forehand-to-backhand finish by Knuble for his 11th goal. Anthony Kehrer would get the Badgers on the board with his first goal of the season, a rebound clean-up, at 16:35 of the period, only for the Irish to silence the Kohl Center with an answer nine seconds later. A quick zone entry off the post-goal faceoff put a rebound in the middle of the crease, where sophomore winger Brennan Ali duffed what would’ve been the easiest goal of his life. However, after Scarfone swept the loose puck off the goal line, Nelson swooped into the zone and replayed his Friday goal with a follow-up shot under the bar.
Notre Dame’s 4-1 lead carried into the middle part of the third period, when Ian Murphy sent Badger fans parading to the exits. Left alone at the top of the crease, the graduate forward caught a tape-to-tape pass from Biondi before stickhandling once and lifting the puck into the top of the net for his fourth goal of the season.
Moments later, Henry Nelson received a game misconduct for spearing the provocative Tassy after a whistle, handing Wisconsin one last chance to rally. Though Hastings got new netminder William Gramme out for a 6-on-4 power play, the Badgers couldn’t produce on account of repeated Irish blocks. Eventually, on the heels of two near misses at the empty net from distance, the Irish scored as graduate winger Grant Silianoff slid the puck home from his own blue line for his third goal of the season and first since Jan. 3.
In a chippy game that featured more penalty minutes (63) than shots on target (56), the Irish easily prevailed by a 6-1 score. In doing so, they held a Big Ten opponent to one goal for the first time all season. Additionally, they set new season highs for goals in a road game and margin of victory.
Say captured his eighth win of the season, making 31 saves on 32 shots against. Scarfone stopped 17 of 22 shots faced before Gramme entered and made 1 save.
On offense, Knuble finished with 4 points on the weekend, moving his team-leading total to 34 points. Janicke and Nelson each went for 4 as well, with the former crossing the 30-point plateau for the first time in his four-year career and the latter surpassing his freshman-year count of 23 points.
Drama around the conference
Both the Big Ten regular-season title and the cut line for home ice in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals will come down to the final weekend. That’s because No. 18 Penn State intensified its magical run this week in East Lansing, claiming 5 of the 6 available points at No. 1 Michigan State. Meanwhile, No. 5 Minnesota swept No. 7 Ohio State in Minneapolis, jumping the Spartans for the conference lead in the process.
After this weekend’s results, the order of Big Ten teams and their respective point totals read as follows: Minnesota (46), Michigan State (44), Ohio State (40), Michigan (32), Penn State (31), Wisconsin (27), Notre Dame (14). Wisconsin and Notre Dame are guaranteed to finish where they are now, as the Badgers have no games remaining and the Irish are too far back to catch them. Michigan and Penn State are guaranteed to face one another in a quarterfinal, and whichever team finishes higher in the standings will host that series. It’s worth noting that Michigan owns the head-to-head tiebreaker as the Wolverines head to Ohio State and the Nittany Lions host Minnesota next weekend.
In the meantime, Notre Dame will welcome Michigan State to town for a sentimental weekend in South Bend. With Senior Night on Friday and Jeff Jackson’s final game at the Compton Family Ice Arena on Saturday, the Irish will have plenty to play for. So will the Spartans, who are now looking up at Minnesota from second place.
Next weekend’s series will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 28, with a 6 p.m. puck drop to follow on Saturday, March 1.
