For the first time since 2014, the Wisconsin Badgers men’s hockey team completed a home sweep of the Minnesota Golden Gophers to remain unbeaten and start Big Ten play on a high note. Neither game was
particularly close, as the Badgers posted a 5-2 win on Thursday night before shutting out the Gophers 4-0 on Saturday.
By all measures, this was a great weekend for No. 10 Wisconsin (6-0-2, 2-0 B1G). It’s only the second time in the modern era that the Badgers have been unbeaten through eight games. The stars played like stars, the newcomers had a huge impact, and the Badgers got some excellent goaltending. Despite being unbeaten coming into the series, Wisconsin was relatively untested. Minnesota State has a solid team, but the Badgers could only eke out a couple of ties in that series. The first big test was always going to be the Big Ten opener with Minnesota.
Let’s start with the experienced leaders. Senior Christian Fitzgerald posted three points in game one, getting things started with a power play goal in the second period and finishing it with an empty netter. Fellow senior Simon Tassy netted his own power play goal early in the third after the Gophers pulled within one, stealing a hat trick from Fitzgerald as his shot from the point went off Tassy. Fitzgerald was initially credited with the goal and a hat trick following the empty net goal, but the goal was reassigned to Tassy on Friday.
While he doesn’t have as much experience as the upperclassmen, sophomore Logan Hensler is still an experienced leader in my book. The 2025 first-round draft pick scored his second of the season to give the Badgers a two-goal cushion in the second period. Hensler would ultimately miss game two with an illness.
Junior sharpshooter Quinn Finley scored twice on Saturday, single-handedly leading the Gophers 2-0 at the end of the second period. The rest of the scoring came courtesy of freshman Blake Montgomery, who has really made a name for himself over the past few weeks.
Montgomery, or as I now call him, “The Microwave”, scored two goals in just 21 seconds to break the game wide open. He’s earned his new nickname due to his knack for heating up fast, going coast-to-coast in the blink of an eye, and lighting the lamp before opponents know what hit them. Montgomery has now posted four goals over the last three games, including one in the series opener.
Once he gets on the scoresheet, it’s almost like he maxes out his signature move gauge in a video game; he starts popping up everywhere. Both Montgomery and Finley could have easily posted hat tricks with some nice scoring chances in the third period, but the Badgers instead settled for the 4-0 shutout.
Speaking of shutouts, freshman phenom Daniel Hauser continued his stellar play in net. Wisconsin did well to control the puck all series and limit Minnesota’s chances, so Hauser only needed to make 14 saves in game one while the Badgers peppered the Gophers with 43 shots. He saw an uptick in action on Saturday, making 22 saves to preserve his second shutout of the season—the first Wisconsin home shutout against Minnesota since November 12, 1983.
Hauser brought his goals against average down to 1.350 on the year, good for sixth in the NCAA and pacing the Big Ten. He’s also logged significantly more minutes than any player ranked above him, with the other goaltenders playing anywhere from one to three games’ worth of minutes. Hauser, on the other hand, has played eight games along with some overtime minutes. It confirms what we already know: the Badgers got themselves a good one.
Minnesota (2-7-1, 0-2 B1G) fell out of the rankings and now finds itself stuck in a rut. They hoped a good performance against Wisconsin could get them back on track; instead, they left Madison with more questions than answers. Therein lies the downside of playing such a tough early schedule with a team comprised mostly of underclassmen. They’ve been thrown directly into the fire with some battles against top ten teams, while the young players for Wisconsin have played a lighter schedule that allowed them to ease into the speed and physicality of NCAA play.
What concerned me about Wisconsin was how they’d fare in the Big Ten, which is a whole different beast than anything they’ve encountered so far. Sweeping a struggling Minnesota team is a great start, but the road only gets harder from here. The Badgers look like they are playing with a ton of confidence now, which they’ll need when they jump right into a road series against No. 2 Michigan next week. Such is life in the Big Ten.
Good news for Badgers fans, it appears some of the big wigs in the league are taking notice of the early success, as game two of the Michigan series will now air on the Big Ten Network Saturday night. That has as much to do with Michigan’s hot start as it does Wisconsin, but it’s encouraging to see a marquee matchup get prime time billing in the home stretch of the college football season.
Next week will be a great opportunity to get some exposure and see how this team competes against one of the nation’s best. One thing is for sure: this team is more than capable of making some noise as the season rolls on.
