Unlike Friday’s game, this game started with Wisconsin in full control and forcing Notre Dame to commit costly turnovers. The first of these came just 5:35 into the game when freshman William Whitelaw stole the puck as Notre Dame was exiting their D-zone. He skated toward Irish netminder Ryan Bischel and deposited it into the top-left corner to give the Badgers a 1-0 lead.
Less than five minutes later, Wisconsin added to their lead with a Mathieu De St. Phalle goal with the assist from Cruz Lucius. Notre Dame continued their sloppy play by taking an interference penalty behind their net and De St. Phalle wasted no time capitalizing on the opportunity by putting another past Bischel for his second goal of the night.
The Irish looked like they were starting to push back when Carter Slaggert scored just 29 seconds later, but that was all that Notre Dame could muster. To make things easier for Wisconsin, Notre Dame took another penalty late in the period and the Badgers were able to push their lead to three with a goal from defenseman Zach Schulz with the extra attacker on the ice.
The second period started as a continuation of the first with Wisconsin controlling play and Notre Dame making sloppy mistakes. This time it was an elbowing penalty that did them in. After a review confirming the penalty, the Badgers piled on to their lead with a goal from Simon Tassy less than 4 minutes into the period.
Down 5-1, Notre Dame decided enough was enough and seemingly flipped a switch. First, it was freshman Maddox Fleming that beat McClellan on the powerplay. Next it was Landon Slaggert’s turn with an even strength goal to pull Notre Dame within two. Just fifteen seconds later, Brennan Ali sent the Compton Family Ice Arena into a frenzy with his third goal of the year, cutting Wisconsin’s lead to just one goal.
Wisconsin sensed things were getting out of control and pulled McClellan and then took a timeout to settle down. That proved to be the right move as new netminder William Gramme stopped the bleeding and kept Notre Dame off the scoreboard for the rest of the period. Regarding that move, Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson said, “Give them credit with the timeout and the goalie switch. They took the momentum back.”
Jackson underscored the importance of that moment by saying, “We didn’t quit… but we needed to tie that game right there.”
Notre Dame continued to apply pressure on Wisconsin in the third, but it was the Badgers that opened the scoring. Defenseman Ben Dexheimer took a drop pass from Simon Tassy around the net after getting Bischel to commit and scored the wraparound goal to put the squeeze on the Irish.
Notre Dame elected for the early goalie pull with just over 4 minutes left in regulation, but Carson Bantle quelled any thoughts of a comeback with an empty-net goal with 3:22 left to put Wisconsin up 7-4. The Badgers ran out the clock, aided by a frustration-laden crosschecking penalty in the final minute, to secure the victory and push their win streak to nine games.
Final Thoughts
This game played out more as anticipated, but the Irish still had a chance to come out on top, despite some costly mistakes. As they’ve been all year, though, the Irish were just inconsistent. They’ve shown they can compete with anyone, but only for small samples of games. To start the first game, they made Wisconsin look flustered, but couldn’t replicate it in the second game. In his post-game presser, Jackson remarked, “We don’t come out well on the the second night of a two-game series.”
The hole they dug for themselves was too much to climb out of, but also give Wisconsin credit. Their team is loaded with young talent (six NHL draft picks in their freshman and sophomore classes) and it seems they’re only getting better as the season progresses. If they continue trending in this direction, it will not be a surprise to see them in the Frozen Four in April.
The Heartland of Hockey 
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