The No. 14 Wisconsin Badgers men’s hockey team moved up three spots in the USCHO rankings after sweeping the Nanooks from Alaska Fairbanks over the weekend.
With the wins, Wisconsin remained unbeaten at home
ahead of a pivotal matchup to kick off Big Ten play with No. 19 Minnesota visiting for a Halloween weekend series.
The Badgers (4-0-2 overall) cleaned up plenty from their last series with Minnesota State, which saw Wisconsin trail early in both games before coming back to force overtime and eventually secure two ties. One of the main issues was the lack of discipline, taking some costly penalties that forced them to play from behind.
The script was flipped in the Alaska series, as Wisconsin put together two of its more complete games in the young season, highlighted by great special teams play. This time, it was the Badgers capitalizing on some early penalties to get things rolling.
Seniors Simon Tassy and Kyle Kukkonen both scored power-play goals in the first period, and junior Joe Palodichuk got a freebie when a relatively safe puck on the net was misplayed as Wisconsin got out to a 3-0 lead in the opening frame.
Things got dicey for a minute when Alaska scored two unanswered goals in the second period. Midway through the third, the Nanooks went to the power play with a chance to tie the game, but senior Jack Horbach found a crease and created a shorthanded breakaway, beating the goalie for a big-time special teams play that restored the two-goal cushion for Wisconsin.
Alaska emptied the net early and pulled within one with just under five minutes remaining, but the Badgers held firm and sealed it with an empty netter from sophomore Ryan Botterill.
On Saturday, it was Alaska who struck first, but the Badger power play got them back in it with a goal from junior Quinn Finley in the waning seconds of the first period. The second period was a stalemate before Wisconsin poured it on in the third. Sophomore Logan Hensler, a 2025 NHL Draft first-round pick, netted his first of the year on a drive from the point a minute into the third period to take the lead.
Less than a minute later, freshman Blake Montgomery turned on the jets to breeze past four Nanook defenders before getting to his forehand and firing a wrister glove side to light the lamp. Botterill got his second empty-netter of the weekend to give the Badgers a 4-1 victory and a series sweep.
Freshman Daniel Hauser continued to impress between the pipes. There were some cracks in the armor in game one, giving up three goals on just 18 shot attempts. To Hauser’s credit, what Alaska lacked in shot attempts, they made up for with good scoring opportunities. He locked in to make 26 saves in game two and kept Alaska out of the net after their first-period goal.
Hauser currently sits seventh in the NCAA with a 1.459 goals against average (third among Big Ten goalies) and tenth overall with a .938 save percentage (second among Big Ten goalies). Both will be put to the test this weekend when Hauser starts his first Border Battle against a struggling-but-desperate Minnesota team looking to get back on track after a paltry 2-5-1 start.
We’ll have more on the Minnesota series later in the week, but this will be a test for the entire Badger team, not just Hauser. They’ve been grading out well and improving each week. The Kohl Center should be rocking in anticipation of another ranked matchup with Minnesota and the Halloween festivities in Madison. Conference play is finally here, and things are about to get interesting.
