Wisconsin men's hockey 'didn't start good and it got worse'
The Wisconsin Badgers suffered a historic defeat in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament, meaning they'll wait 11 long days for their NCAA Tournament fate
Madison, WI — Much of this Wisconsin men’s hockey season has been marked by the Wisconsin Badgers getting metaphorical monkeys off their backs. Early in the season, UW swept the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Madison for the first time in over a decade. Late in the season, the Badgers shook off being swept on home ice by the Penn State Nittany Lions and returned the favor in PSU’s rink.
The next task was shaking off back-to-back exits in the Big Ten Tournament at the hands of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Instead, Wisconsin suffered its most-lopsided loss of the Mike Hastings era, a 7-1 drubbing at the hands of its playoff nemesis.
“It didn’t start good and it got worse,” the third-year head coach of the Badgers said in a postgame interview.
OSU’s 4th line got the Buckeyes on the board early. Sam Deckhut, while falling in front of the net, delivered a pass to Nathan Lewis in the right circle for the quick goal just 5:01 in. Badgers defenseman Weston Knox was in the area to disrupt the pass from Deckhut, but Knox was unable to make the play because he lost his stick earlier in the shift.
Whether that was Wisconsin failing to make a play in its own end, or Ohio State capitalizing on an opportunity, it was only one goal. The Badgers failed to get on the board until they were already trailing by seven.
“A lot of things that happened tonight on the negative, were deserved,” Hastings remarked. “You know what? We’ve got to look at that. We’ve got to look at a mirror and understand that.”
Ohio State hands Wisconsin men’s hockey its worst loss in years
It was a historically lopsided margin inside the Kohl Center on Wednesday night. Ohio State handed Wisconsin its worst loss in any game in over three years, and its worst loss at home in over eight.
The final score matched a 7-1 victory the Minnesota Golden Gophers enjoyed over the Badgers in Minneapolis on December 9, 2022—that was the last time Wisconsin lost by six or more goals. The difference in quality between those teams was much greater than the gap between UW and OSU on Wednesday night. That 2022-23 Wisconsin squad finished the season ten games under .500, while Minnesota advanced to the national championship game before falling 3-2 in overtime.
Wednesday also marked Wisconsin’s worst postseason loss since another blowout victory by Ohio State. In a best-of-three series beginning on March 6, 2020, OSU swept UW two games to none in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament, including a 9-1 victory in the series opener. The Badgers finished that season in last place in the conference. The Buckeyes did not get to see their postseason through because the remainder of the B1G Tournament and the NCAA Tournament were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before Wednesday night, no team had beaten Wisconsin by six or more goals inside the Kohl Center since Minnesota did so on February 10, 2018.
This Big Ten quarterfinal game against Ohio State was Wisconsin’s 93rd time hosting a playoff game at home. According to Todd Milewski of Badger Extra, Wednesday night was only the second time the Badgers lost a home playoff game by more than three goals. The only other time was UW’s infamous 11-4 loss to Colorado College on March 8, 1981, which became known to Badgers fans as “Black Sunday.” The Tigers’ performance secured a 13-12 victory in a two-game total-goals series in the WCHA Tournament.
Badgers won’t make loss ‘bigger’ than what it is
Although Wisconsin hockey fans and college hockey buffs may be enamored with the historical significance of UW’s conference tournament loss, it was just one game. The Badgers will almost certainly be in the NCAA Tournament when the field is announced on Sunday, March 12th.
Now the Badgers are tasked with turning the page before Selection Sunday.
“We’ve got a mature group. I haven’t been a part of what just happened very often, and my guess is they haven’t either,” Hastings said. “And so you look at it for what it is, and you don’t make it bigger than anything than that. Because at the end of the day, if we have another opportunity to live another day together and put those jerseys on as a group, wanna make sure we put our best foot forward.”
It was only one game, and Wisconsin will likely get to play at least one more, but its senior class will not get the opportunity to play in front of a home crowd inside the Kohl Center again. The Badgers fought in the final weekend of the regular season to secure home ice advantage to open the playoffs, but UW’s home crowd did not do much cheering.
“Obviously it sucks,” Wisconsin captain Ben Dexheimer said about ending his time playing in the Kohl Center with Wednesday’s loss. “It’s not really about me and my emotions; I just feel bad for the group that that was the last time we’re gonna be out there together and, um, yeah. Just feel really bad for the group.”
“You wanted that to be a better memory for them,” said Hastings. “And like I said, in this world, you’ve got to own everything that happens: good and bad. And tonight wasn’t a good ending for us, and now we’ll just—we look forward to hopefully having the opportunity to continue the journey together one more time.”
If that opportunity comes, the Badgers will look to end a long drought by winning an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since advancing to the national title game in 2010.
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You know who started good? Women’s hockey. Not that AD McIntosh would tell their story. I mean 6 Olympians, Coached by the guy who beat the Russians and Badger Bobs kid, and they can’t get any investment in YouTube.