‘We owe them one’: Wisconsin hockey goes for a payback and a Big Ten title vs. Michigan State
MADISON – The buildup to this week has been immense everywhere but where you’d expect it most.
The Wisconsin men’s hockey team is all about its dailies, as coach Mike Hastings likes to say, so he did his best to keep the thoughts of a worst-to-first turnaround that have simmered for his team the past few weeks on the backburner as long as possible.
It wasn’t until Monday that he brought up the prospect of winning a Big Ten championship.
“I know it’s boring hearing it from us, but it is true: The group has kind of stayed present,” he said. “That is why I think they’re in the situation they are.”
Fourth-ranked Wisconsin (24-8-2, 15-6-1 – 47 points Big Ten) faces No. 6 Michigan State (21-8-3, 15-5-2 – 49) at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Kohl Center. Two wins in regulation or one win in regulation and one in overtime would give the Badgers the championship outright, the first league title for the program since 2021. Two overtime wins would give them at least a share of the title.
Michigan State needs only one more win to wrap up its first conference title since winning the CCHA championship in 2001.
In November, Michigan State swept Wisconsin when the Badgers were fresh off a three-week run of six straight wins over ranked teams that included Big Ten favorites Minnesota and Michigan.
The chance for redemption has been more than three months in the making.
“We marked this one on our calendar and early on I think we were hoping it would come down to this weekend,” Badgers senior David Silye said. “It’s something you wish for and kind of fun playing as a player. We’re excited. We learned a lot, but the base thing for us is that we owe them one.”
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Handle the pressure, control the puck
Michigan State defeated the No. 1 UW, 4-2, on Nov. 17 and 3-2 on Nov. 18. If you take away an empty-net goal by the Spartans in Game 1, the contests were one-goal affairs.
The Spartans, however, scored first in both games, never allowed Wisconsin to hold the lead and had a plus-eight advantage in shots on goal in the second game.
Hastings admitted the Spartans set the tone for the series with their pressure on both ends of the ice. That can’t happen again.
“It was one of the first teams that kind of put it to us a bit and we learned and we grew from that,” Hastings said.
The offense continues to show its depth
In addition to simply bouncing back from a sweep by Ohio State, the positive development for UW last week at Penn State was the depth of its scoring. The Badgers dressed 20 skaters for the series. Fourteen scored at least one point. Six had a multi-point series.
The Badgers power play also converted on three of 11 chances (27%), a promising development considering UW was 0 for 8 on the power play at Michigan State.
Leading the way was the No. 1 line of Silye, sophomore Cruz Lucius and senior Mathieu De St. Phalle. The three combined for five goals and six assists at Penn State.
On Saturday, sophomore Christian Fitzgerald snapped a three-game stretch without a point with one goal and one assist in a 3-2 overtime win over the Nittany Lions.
“Those are guys that we were looking forward to being leaders for us offensively and defensively,” Hastings said in regard to his top line and Fitzgerald. “They play in every situation, top-six role, power play, penalty kill. And when those guys are going and you supplement that with Carson Bantle and some of the others … when that happens we’re a much better team and we can have depth scoring.”
Make home ice a true advantage
Wisconsin is 18-1-2 in games when it scores first. That mark is 5-0-1 when scoring first against ranked teams. The challenge for UW has been making that happen consistently. There have been 10 other occasions versus ranked teams when the Badgers gave up the first goal.
With a sellout or near-sellout crowd on hand, the situation is ripe for Wisconsin to take advantage of being at home provided it gives the crowd something to be excited about.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin faces Michigan State with Big Ten hockey title at stake
