Wisconsin men's hockey gets help from Ottawa Senators in sweep

A couple of future Ottawa Senators lifted the Wisconsin men's hockey team to timely goals, ending a frustrating streak

Before Saturday’s come-from-behind victory, Wisconsin men’s hockey had been winless in its past nine when opponents scored first. In that streak were a trio of ties, including a pair of frustrating ones last weekend against the Minnesota State Mavericks. A pair of early third-period goals ensured the Wisconsin Badgers would end that streak, and not add a fourth indecisive result to it.

The 4-1 victory, clinching a non-conference sweep of the Alaska Nanooks, capped off what Badgers head coach Mike Hastings called “a big weekend” for his team.

“You start off, and part of it is trying to learn how to win, and that’s not easy,” Hastings said in a post-game interview. “What I think we saw this weekend is we found ways.”

Learning to play, fight back, and win from behind—what Hastings called “an important teaching moment”—required a lights-out goaltending performance, a rousing second intermission speech, and some NHL-caliber talent.

Wisconsin men’s hockey gets stellar second-period goaltending

The Kohl Center during the first period of a Wisconsin Badgers hockey game against the Alaska Nanooks on October 25, 2025. Wisconsin won 4-1.

Daniel Hauser is giving everything he has in net. The freshman goaltender has started all six games for Wisconsin this season and is improving night in and night out.

“I just think he is really showing a calmness to his game, a work ethic every day, whether in the weight room or we’re out on the rink,” Hastings said of Hauser during a press conference on Tuesday. “He’s got a competitive piece to him that speaks more than he does.”

In Saturday’s second period, Alaska outshot Wisconsin 17-9. The Badgers escaped the middle frame without either team scoring, but some untimely mistakes put Hauser on display to make some impressive saves. Saves that his team entrusts their goaltender to make.

“He’s also pulled our bacon out of the fire a few times,” Hastings said Tuesday. “And so that’s provided us to play with a little bit more confidence because we’re not worried that if it goes over our blue line, it’s going into the back of our net.”

The Alberta native pulled Wisconsin’s bacon out of the fire when killing 1:40 of 5-on-3 penalty time. UW defenseman Luke Osburn initially went to the box after he tripped Alaska winger Haden Kruse. Twenty seconds later, UW winger Jack Horbach followed Osburn to the sin bin for slashing.

Hauser made three spectacular saves during the sequence. The most impressive came on a lightning-quick recovery, when the former Western Hockey League standout was suddenly out of position.

A shot from the point by Nanooks forward Davis Borozinskis sailed wide left, but bounced off the boards behind the net to Hauser’s right. Alaska captain Chase Dafoe raced to the loose puck that had bounced from behind the net to out in front of the goal line near the crease. Dafoe seemingly had an open corner to tap the puck into, but a sliding leg save by Hauser denied him.

“He’s doing his job at stopping the ones the he should, and he’s stopped a few that he shouldn’t,” Hastings said after the game Saturday. “And, you know, there’s a lot of confidence that he has right now. Even tonight, I thought he made some very timely, big time saves that allowed us to be in the spot that we were going into the third period and then come out and get the lead.”

“Five-on-threes are tough, but our penalty all year’s been really good. And guys are bought into blocking shots, and, you know, taking away options,” Hauser said in a post-game press conference. “I try my best to come up big when the guys need me.”

Quick-scoring future Senators seal the deal

Deadlocked after 40 minutes, Hastings had assistant coach Nick Oliver deliver a message to his locker room.

“You know, Nicky went and talked to them a little bit,” Hastings said when asked about the message to his team during the second intermission. “I asked him to, I just said, ‘You know what? They might be getting tired of this record, so let’s spin a different one.’”

Whatever Oliver said, it worked. Wisconsin came out firing to start the third. Fans who missed the first two minutes of the final frame missed a pair of goals that put the Badgers firmly in front.

Logan Hensler struck first, after an effective UW forecheck prevented Alaska from establishing effective possession in the Nanooks’ zone. Eventually, Hensler, who was selected by the Ottawa Senators in the first round of the NHL Draft this Summer, gathered the puck at the point. From the blue line, he skated into the high slot and ripped a wrist shot past Alaska goaltender Calvin Vachon to take the lead.

“That was his best game this season,” Hastings said after Hensler scored his first goal of his senior campaign.

A mere 56 seconds later, it was the Senators’ fourth-rounder, Blake Montgomery’s turn.

The freshman raced through center ice, collecting a pass from right wing Kyle Kukkonen along the way, before splitting the Nanooks’ defenders and getting in on Vachon all alone. With a flick of the wrist, Montgomery scored his first NCAA goal, and, along with an empty net goal by UW’s Ryan Botterill late in regulation, put the game out of Alaska’s reach.

Montgomery said he was calling for the puck from Kukkonen, the result of some advice he got from the Senators’ development staff last night.

Montgomery said that Ottawa scout “Andrew Gordon pulled me out after the game and just told me that he didn’t think I was demanding the puck how he had seen me do before, and just use my speed, because that’s my best attribute. So he was just telling me to attack the play more and just really demand the puck.

“Sure enough, I just went out, took the advice to heart, worked out well.”

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