MADISON – Everything was working for Wisconsin except the finish.
The Badgers men’s hockey team returned to the Kohl Center Friday Jan. 9, but for a while the No. 2 scoring team in the nation had nothing to say. They fired 21 shots on goal in the first period against Alaska Anchorage and eight more in the second before getting on the scoreboard.
UW, which is ranked No. 3 in the USCHO and USA Hockey poll, ran away with the game from there, scoring four times in the third period to post a 5-0 victory over the Seahawks in front of 7,314 at the Kohl Center Friday Jan. 9.
The game was just the Badgers’ third since wrapping up the first half of the Big Ten season against Notre Dame Dec. 6. They hadn’t played at home since Nov. 15.
“I look at college hockey as a little different than other sports,” said Wisconsin coach Mike Hastings, whose team improved to 14-3-2. “Nobody’s too good not to get beat. … Our focus really is just trying to get back to where we need to get to and the only way you do that is going and playing games.
“That could have went a different direction tonight because it didn’t go in the back of the net early for us, but I thought the guys stuck with it and they were rewarded for it.”
While UW didn’t have early success scoring, its puck possession was more in line with what Hastings wants compared to what he saw in Milwaukee at the Kwik Trip Holiday Faceoff. Defensively the word of the day was connected with play on that end of the ice leading to opportunities for the offense.
Twelve players scored a point for Wisconsin
The game marked the first back for Quinn Finley, Logan Hensler and Luke Osburn, who missed the Faceoff because of international competition.
“I thought they made an impact on the game tonight and they made an impact on us all over from when they got back here this week,” Hastings said. “It was nice to have everybody back for practice. There was a lot of juice during our week and hopefully we can continue that tomorrow.”
Twelve players scored at least one point for UW. Freshman Oliver Tulk (one goal, one assist) and sophomore Gavin Morrissey (two assists) had multi-point night.
Senior Ben Dexheimer scored his third game-winner at the 16-minute, 24-second mark of the second period during the final 10 seconds of a power play.
Finley and Morrissey were credited with assist on that play but a lot of it was Dexheimer making something happen between the dots.
“We trust ourselves that if we just stay even keel, never get too high, never too low, that one of them is going to go in,” Dexheimer said. “When you have around 20 shots a period with the offense we have, I think that one’s destined to go in. Once the first one went in, they kind of just pop up from there.”
Badgers score four times in span of 8-minutes
The floodgates officially opened with 12 minutes to play when UW scored the first four goals during an 8-minute span. Sophomore Ryan Botterill, who finished with a game-high seven shots, got the first off a Grady Deering assist at the 8:56 mark.
From there freshmen Bruno Idzan, Tulk and Osburn reached the back of the net to give Wisconsin its ninth game with at least five goals.
On the other end freshman David Hauser recorded his third shutout of the season, though his teammates did a lot of the work. Anchorage (3-14) had no more than nine shots in any period and was held below five during the first and third periods.
“The harder we work down there, the more chances we’re going to get on the offensive side,” Dexheimer said. “I think that was kind of a difference. Howie obviously made the saves he needed to and played really well, but I think we bared down and that’s what led to our offense in the second half of the game.”
The next challenge will be to do it again. UW and Anchorage wrap up the series Jan. 10 at 5 p.m. The contest will be the final tuneup for the Badgers before No. 2 Michigan State comes to down next weekend.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin men’s hockey finishes with a flurry to score shutout win over Alaska Anchorage
Reporting by Mark Stewart, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
