With the regular season in the rearview, Wisconsin banks on B1G run to make the postseason.
The Wisconsin Badgers gave fans a Jekyll-and-Hyde performance in their final regular-season series, splitting with Notre Dame after two wildly different games. It’s the perfect embodiment of a campaign that saw the Badgers struggle to build and maintain momentum throughout the year, but it did give fans a glimpse of what this team can look like when they fire on all cylinders.
First and foremost, a quick thank you to the seniors who suited up for their last games at the Kohl Center:
Anthony Kehrer, Defenseman
Daniel Laatsch, Defenseman
Cody Laskosky, Forward
Owen Lindmark, Forward
Ryland Mosley, Forward
Tommy Scarfone, Goaltender
Thank you to our seniors who skated their last regular-season games at the Kohl Center
They always say their best memories are getting to play at the Kohl Center in front of the fans
Tommy Scarfone, @owenlindmark, @DanielLaatsch, @KehrerAnthony, @Ryland68, @Laskosky88 pic.twitter.com/7b4ctUCKte
— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerMHockey) February 24, 2025
Wisconsin (12-19-3 overall, 7-16-1 B1G) put a stop to their six-game skid on Friday night after jumping on the Irish out of the gate with a four-goal first period. The early barrage featured some nifty passing, a shorthanded goal from junior Jack Horbach, and an absolute snipe from sophomore Zach Schulz.
Things got tight for a moment in the second period when Notre Dame (10-21-1 overall, 4-17-1 B1G) scored two quick goals in the opening minutes before the Badgers bounced back with two of their own, holding a four-goal lead at the second intermission. Both teams added a goal in the third, but Wisconsin barely broke a sweat on the way to a 7-3 win.
If Friday night was one of the Badgers’ best games of the year, Saturday night may have been their worst. This time Notre Dame jumped Wisconsin with two first-period goals and the first three tallies overall. Graduate student Anthony Kehrer cut the lead to two with a goal late in the second period, but the Irish got it back just nine seconds later. Notre Dame added two more goals in the third to complete the rout and deal Wisconsin a 6-1 loss in the regular-season finale.
The Badgers can conceivably beat anybody, which is a great trait to have. Their downfall this year is that they can also lose to anybody. Notre Dame posted only four B1G wins this season, half of which came against the Badgers. It was a disappointing senior night after the fireworks provided the previous night, matching their worst loss of the season to then-No. 1 Denver back in October.
Wisconsin finishes second-to-last in the B1G standings, a far cry from last year’s second-place finish. The Badgers posted 27 points in conference play after a 50-point effort a year ago that saw the team ascend from the basement to earn an NCAA tournament berth. Now, their only path forward is catching fire and winning the conference tournament to get an automatic bid.
The B1G tournament will begin on Friday, March 7th, when Wisconsin likely heads to Columbus for a best-of-three series with No. 8 Ohio State. The Buckeyes are pretty much locked into an NCAA tournament appearance, but the Badgers can put a premature end to their B1G title hopes as payback for upsetting the Badgers in the B1G tournament’s first round last year.
Should the Badgers head to Columbus, an interesting wrinkle will place the series at Nationwide Arena (the Columbus Blue Jackets’ home venue) with Ohio State’s Value City Arena unavailable. Ice conditions could be interesting, as Nationwide Arena is also hosting Ohio’s high school hockey championships that weekend.
In the meantime, the Badgers will put an off weekend to use when they host Team USA’s Under-18 team in an exhibition at the Kohl Center on Sunday, March 2nd, at 6 p.m. The exhibition will be broadcast locally on 1310 WIBA.