Wisconsin hockey is 'gonna learn' from imperfect 3-2 victory
The clock on regulation could not expire quickly enough for anxious Wisconsin hockey and Green Bay Packers fans inside the Kohl Center
Madison, WI — Although Wisconsin Badgers fans were eager to leave the Kohl Center early to watch a Green Bay Packers playoff game, the Wisconsin men’s hockey team did not oblige. Instead, UW delivered a full 60-minute thriller to close its non-conference slate, ultimately prevailing with a 3-2 victory and a series sweep over the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves.
“You gotta find a way to get it done,” Wisconsin head coach Mike Hastings said in a post-game interview.
The Badgers (15-3-2) used a third-period barrage to pull away and easily dispatch the Seawolves 5-0 on Friday night, but Saturday was far from a retelling of the same story. Although Wisconsin did not put its best foot forward, a rare occurrence in a year in which UW has already eclipsed its win total from three of its past four seasons, Hastings recognized the importance of finding ways to win games.
“We haven’t had a lot of periods like that,” Hastings said of an up-and-down third. “And you’re not going to be perfect.”
‘Special player’ showcases never-satisfied mentality
Wisconsin may not have been perfect overall, but Quinn Finley came close on offense.
After an impressive tournament run with the U.S. Collegiate Selects, Finley has returned to Madison with that same scoring touch. At the Spengler Cup, the forward finished fourth in scoring among all players. In his first two games back with the Badgers, he scored a pair of goals.
Both of the junior’s goals came on special teams. The first, Finley scored glove side following a face-off won by alternate captain Gavin Morrissey at the outset of a power play.
“If we can put [Finley] in that spot and [Dexheimer] can put it where he put it, Quinn does a really good job with it,” Hastings said of Finley’s goal that opened the scoring.
In the second period, UW forward Christian Fitzgerald batted down a puck in the neutral zone that defenseman Ben Dexheimer sent flying from back in the defensive zone. Fitzgerald found Finley trailing on the two-on-one rush for the shorthanded score.
Despite twice hitting the post on Friday night, Finley has scored five goals in his last four games with the Badgers. After leading Wisconsin in scoring a season ago, the Suamico native is up to ten goals and nine assists, just behind Morrissey’s team-leading 21 points.
“Quinn Finley’s a special player, he doesn’t need a lot of looks,” said Hastings, who later added, “I think if you ask Quinn right now, he’s be telling you about the one that he missed in the third to get number three. He’s greedy that way and I’m okay with that.”
When asked about that remark from his coach on the near-miss empty net goal after beating an icing call, Finley cited his mentality of “just always trying not to be satisfied.”
“Always trying to get that next goal, trying to get that next Grade-A opportunity,” the New York Islanders draft pick said. “Whether it’s for myself or for my teammates. And I think that’s something that I can help my team do is create those Grade-A scoring chances, so I try to do those every time I’m on the ice and help our team win.”
Wisconsin hockey captain: ‘We’re gonna learn from tonight’
Finley’s pair of goals and another by Finn Brink proved to be just enough to finish off UW’s first sweep of UAA since the 2012-13 season, but not without a valiant effort by the Seawolves.
“Thank goodness we got it to three,” Hastings said.
Alaska Anchorage scored a second-period power-play goal, slimming Wisconsin’s lead to 3-1 shortly before the second intermission.
Hastings called the penalty that led to the goal an “iffy” interference call against Ryan Botterill, but added, “we’ve had benefit to that before, too.”
It was the closing 20 minutes, however, which gave fans inside the Kohl Center a scare.
“They kinda pinned their ears back their in the third period and we kinda had a tough time getting back on track,” Hastings said.
Just minutes into the third, Seawolves forward Oren Shtrom did the difficult work of maintaining possession of the puck in the offensive zone to get his team within a goal. The freshman got the puck in deep, successfully forced a turnover from Badgers defenseman and Ottawa Senators first-round NHL Draft pick Logan Hensler on the forecheck, before finally getting rewarded by scoring a goal on a loose puck in front of the UW net.
Alaska Anchorage goaltender Tyler Krivtsov skated toward the Seawolves’ bench with 2:40 to play in regulation and sustained possession of the puck for nearly all the time remaining on the clock. In the ensuing 160 seconds, UAA attempted nine shots. Only one went wide, Badgers skaters blocked three, and UW goaltender Daniel Hauser stopped the remaining five.
“Daniel Hauser showed himself tonight,” Hastings said. “It’s not going to show up in the stat sheet that he had 35, 40 saves, but we put him on an island a few times tonight and he found a way to get that win for us.”
Although the Badgers had to grind out a win against an opponent that certainly has not put together as impressive a resume as UW has, Wisconsin’s captain found the silver lining in a hard-fought win as his team closes the book on non-conference play.
“Those are the games, those one goal games that we’re gonna have to figure out a way to close,” Dexheimer said. “And we did end up doing that tonight, but I think it wasn’t our best effort in the third. But I think that just comes with conditioning and bearing down a little bit more on those small plays on the walls. But we’re gonna learn from tonight, watch it back, and hopefully grow for the next coming weekends.”
“I think it’s a quality of a good hockey team,” Hastings added. “When you don’t play your best you find a way to get it done.”
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