BORDER BATTLE STARTS HOME STRETCH

Wisconsin (10-7-1, 3-1-0-0 Big Ten) begins what is at least nine consecutive weekends of hockey when No. 7 Minnesota (13-5-2, 5-1-0-0 Big Ten) visits for the weekend. Friday's game begins at 7 p.m. CT, while Saturday's game is a 5 p.m. puck drop. 

Both games will air live on Fox Sports Wisconsin Alternate.

Wisconsin enters the weekend having played just two games since Dec. 10, winning both contests over Michigan State. Minnesota comes off a Big Ten home sweep over Michigan and as winners of six consecutive contests, including a pair of wins over MSU, and home wins over Mercyhurst and Massachusetts.           

SERIES NOTES
The teams meet for the 281st and 282nd times, the most for the Badgers in school history.

Wisconsin and Minnesota's records differ slightly in the all-time record of the series.

UW is 1-5-2 in the last eight meetings in the series over the last two seasons, but posted a pair of 2-1 wins in a sweep of then-No. 1 Minnesota at the Kohl Center on Feb. 6-7, 2014, prior to the last eight-game stretch. 

UW junior forward Matt Ustaski's best career game point-wise came against Minnesota when he scored a goal and two assists on Jan. 30, 2005 in a 7-5 Wisconsin loss. 

Senior forward Grant Besse boasts nine goals and 12 points in his last nine games against Minnesota.

In addition to Besse and Ustaski, UW sophomore Luke Kunin and junior Tim Davison are the only other current Badgers with multi-point game against Minnesota. 

WISCONSIN-MINNESOTA CONNECTIONS
Five Badgers hail from the state of Minnesota, including senior forward Grant Besse (Plymouth), junior defenseman Cullen Hurley (Eagan), sophomore forward Matthew Freytag (Wayzata), sophomore forward Dan Labosky (Edina) and freshman forward Max Zimmer (Medina).

UW associate head coach Mark Osiecki grew up in Burnsville, Minnesota, and won a state hockey title with Burnsville High School.

UW associate head coach Don Granato, though he grew up in Downers Grove, Illinois, skated on the same team as Osiecki at Burnsville High School.

Minnesota boasts one Wisconsin native, sophomore forward Tommy Novak (River Falls). 

UW junior forward Ryan Wagner played on the US NTDP with Minnesota defensemen Jack Glover and Ryan Collins.

UW junior forward Jason Ford and sophomore forward Seamus Malone skated with Minnesota Mike Szmatula for the Dubuque Fighting Saints during the 2012–13 campaign.

UW junior defenseman Jake Linhart played with Minnesota  sophomore forward Brent Gates with the USHL's Green Bay Gamblers in 2013–14.

UW sophomore defenseman Patrick Sexton skated on the same Penticton Vees team during the 2013–14 and 2014–15 seasons with Minnesota sophomore forward Jack Ramsey.

Wisconsin junior defenseman Cullen Hurley and Minnesota sophomore goaltender Eric Schierhorn were teammates with the USHL's Muskegon Lumberjacks. 

LAST MEETINGS
Wisconsin 4, Minnesota 3
March 11, 2016

After allowing Minnesota's Leon Bristedt the first goal of the game, on the power play, 9:18 into the contest, the Badgers struck three consecutive times and never looked back in a 4-3 victory at Mariucci Arena in Minnesota. 

Jedd Soleway scored to tie the game at 17:49 of the first period on the power play, then Luke Kunin scored at 19:41 of the same frame to give UW a 2-1 lead.

Grant Besse scored a power-play marker at 11:19 of the second period to make it a 3-1 game.

Gopher Vinni Lettieri tallied at 10:49 of the third, but Besse put the game away with his second tally of the night into an empty at 18:44. Tommy Novak did score an extra-attacker goal to make it interesting, but UW held on for the 4-3 win.

Matt Jurusik made 32 stops in the win.

Minnesota 4, Wisconsin 1
March 12, 2016

Luke Kunin gave the Badgers a first-period lead with a tally at 7:48, but Leon Bristedt scored shorthanded at 2:28 of the second period, then Hudson Fasching converted on the power play at 4:33 to give Minnesota the lead for good. 

Justin Kloos made it 3-1 at 7:39 of the third period, and Bristedt added an empty-net goal to seal the win.

Jurusik stopped 34 shots in the loss. 

BEHIND THE BENCH

WISCONSIN BADGERS
Head Coach: Tony Granato
Record at WIS: 10-7-1 (1st Year)
Overall: 10-7-1 (1st Year)

MINNESOTA GOPHERS
Head Coach: Don Lucia
Record at UM: 694-374-97 (29th Year)
Overall: 415-219-68 (17th Year)

KEY NOTES TO CONSIDER
Senior Grant Besse leads the Badgers with 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists) in 17 games played. That puts him on a pace to surpass 40 points for the season. Just one Badger (Mark Zengerle in 2013–14) has reached the mark since the start of the 2012–13 campaign.

Besse, who boasts nine goals and 12 points in his last nine games against this week's opponent, Minnesota, is on an eight-game point-scoring streak with five goals, six assists and 11 points during the stretch. His current streak began with a four-game goal-scoring stretch.

Besse's current scoring streak is tied for his career long (Oct. 17-Nov. 20, 2015).

Nine of Besse's 38 career goals have come at the expense of the Gophers (23.7 percent).

Besse sits nine points from 100 for his career.

The Badgers have scored 65 goals in 18 games for a 3.61 goals-per-game average. That ranks 6th in the country. The last time UW averaged more goals per game for a season was in 2009–10 when the team scored 3.98 goals per contest. Minnesota ranks fifth at 3.80 goals per game.

Four of the nation's top six scoring offenses play in the Big Ten (Penn State- 1; Ohio State- 2).

The Badgers have fired off at least 30 shots in each of their last 14 contests and in 16 of 18 games this season. The Badgers' average of 35.94 shots per game ranks second in the country behind Penn State (47.89). UW's 10.89 shot differential also ranks second behind PSU (23.53).

The Badgers are on a two-game win streak for the fourth time this season, looking for their first three-game win streak of the season. It would mark the first time since Oct. 30-Nov. 6 that UW won three consecutive games.

Wisconsin's leading goal scorer with 13 tallies, sophomore forward Luke Kunin has seven goals in the his last six games, including three two-goal games in his last four contests. 

Kunin led the Badgers last season with 19 goals as a freshman.  

MICHIGAN STATE REVIEW
Wisconsin skated to a pair of 5-1 victories at the Kohl Center on Jan. 6 and 7. 

In the Friday game (Jan 6), five different Badgers scored goals (Ford, Hughes, Johnson, Linhart, Zimmer), while 11 different skaters recorded at least one point.

Junior defenseman Jake Linhart was one of four Badgers with multi-point games that night, but the only one with a goal. Linhart's tally marked the first short-handed tally of his career and the second of the season for the Badgers. Wisconsin had just one short-handed goal last season.

In the Saturday tilt (Jan. 7), the Badgers got a pair of goals from Luke Kunin, in his first game back from captaining Team USA to gold at the 2017 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, and won a second consecutive 5-1 matchup over the Spartans. 

Sophomore defenseman Peter Tischke scored his second goal of the season and was plus-4 in the game.

Junior forward Matt Ustaski notched his first goal of the season. 

Sophomore goaltender Matt Jurusik made 23 saves in his first appearance after missing seven games due to an injury sustained  against Merrimack on Nov. 19. 

The Badgers' five-goal totals in each of their last two games give them eight games with at least five goals in a game. That is one more than the team's combined totals over the last two seasons. UW had five games with five goals last season and two the season before. The eight games with at least five goals also equals the total of the 2013–14 season that resulted in the inaugural Big Ten Tournament title. 

The last time UW scored more the five goals in a game more than eight times in a season was in 2009–10 when the Badgers reached the mark 18 times.

FAMOUS SEAMUS
Sophomore forward Seamus Malone was named the Big Ten First Star of the Week after UW's most recent action with a goal and two assists against Michigan State.

Malone had a pair of primary assists in the game, hitting a diagonal cross-ice seam to set up fellow sophomore forward Will Johnson for a five-on-three power-play goal in the second period to make it a 3-1 contest. Then in the third period, while taking a pass on an overlap from Grant Besse, found a cutting freshman Max Zimmer in the third period to close out the scoring. He also had a game-high five shots and finished plus-1 in the contest.

Saturday, Malone struck early, giving the Badgers a 1-0 just 33 seconds into the contest, to put the squad on its way to a second consecutive 5-1 victory. He added two shots and was plus-2 in the game.

Malone, who was also UW's most recent Big Ten First Star of the Week on Nov. 3, 2015, sits third on the Badgers with seven goals and 18 points in 18 games played.

The undrafted forward has 44 points through his first 53 career games.

JOHNSON CONTROLS
Sophomore Will Johnson has three goals in his last four games, and points in four of his last five and six of his last eight contests. 

He has seven points (four goals, three assists) in his last eight games after going pointless in the prior eight contests.

Johnson posted his first career two-goal game on Dec. 9 at Michigan.

He has six goals and nine points in 18 games this year, which exactly match his freshmen year totals accumulated in 34 games.

His six goals rank fourth on the team.

STEADY FREDDY
Freshman forward Trent Frederic made his return to the lineup on Dec. 9 after missing six games due to an injury sustained during practice. He returned with a bang, scoring UW's first goal and adding an assist in UW's 7-4 victory, and has five points in the four games since returning.

The Badgers are 8-4-0 with Frederic in the lineup and 2-3-1 without him.

Chosen 29th overall by the Boston Bruins in the 2016 NHL Draft, Frederic has five goals and 12 points in just 10 games this season, making him one of three Badgers averaging a point per game.

The Badgers average 3.8 goals per game with Frederic in the lineup, and 2.83 goals per game without him.

Frederic shares the team lead with two game-winning markers and shares second with four power-play tallies. He also is one of two Badgers with a  short-handed score.

He has five multi-point games in his first 12 career contests.

WAG THE DOG
Junior forward Ryan Wagner has points in each of his last four games and in six of his last seven contests. The scoring streak is one shy of his career long of five set Jan. 23-Feb. 13, 2006. 

Wagner boasts six assists in his four-game point-scoring streak and has a goal and eight assists for nine points in his last seven games.

Wagner sits fourth on the Badgers with 16 points on four goals and 12 assists.

(FORD)ING AHEAD
Junior forward Jason Ford has points in four of his last five games with two goals and two assists. He has three goals and six points in 16 games this season.

With 15 career points in 75 games played, Ford has collected 26.7 percent of his career points in his last five games.

Ford's career high of eight points came last season with a goal and seven assists. 

His three goals this season are two better than his previous single-season bests of one that he had both as a freshman and a sophomore. 

NON-CONFERENCE
The Badgers finished non-conference play 7-6-1 against non-conference foes. The seven non-conference victories matched the program's combined non-conference win total for the last two seasons. The Badgers were 7-13-6 in non-conference play over the last two seasons.

The Big Ten boasts the nation's second-best non-conference record at 45-27-11 (.608 win percentage). The NCHC leads with a 45-21-13 mark (.652). Three non-conference games remain for Big Ten teams.

LEAGUE LEADERS
Senior forward Grant Besse ranks fourth in the Big Ten with a 1.29 points-per-game scoring average. Penn State freshman Denis Smirnov leads the Big Ten at 1.53 points per game. Besse is seventh in league scoring with 22 points. Luke Kunin shares 10th with 19 points, while Seamus Malone shares 14th with 18 points.

Sophomore forward Luke Kunin ranks fourth in the league with 13 goals in 17 games, while Besse's eight tallies have him tied for 13th and Malone's seven goals are tied for 15th.

Besse's 14 assists are tied for eighth in the Big Ten, while junior defenseman Tim Davison, junior forward Ryan Wagner and junior forward Cameron Hughes all share 11th with 12. Malone shares 15th with 11 helpers. Davison ranks fourth among Big Ten defensemen.

Besse's 10 power-play points are tied for third in Big Ten power-play scoring, while Kunin's and Seamus Malone's nine power-play points are tied for seventh. Frederic's eight power-play points are tied for 12th. 

Kunin's five power-play tallies ranks fifth in the Big Ten, while Frederic, Besse and Johnson's four power-play markers share sixth in the league.

Frederic and Besse share sixth in the Big Ten with two game-winning tallies.

Junior Tim Davison's 12 points and Jake Linhart's 11 points rank fifth and seventh, respectively among Big Ten defensemen.  

Freshman forward Trent Frederic's 15 points have him third among Big Ten freshmen in scoring. His 1.25 points per game also rank third among rookies.

Freshman goaltender Jack Berry's 2.46 goals-against average has him third in the Big Ten.

TOP 12 SPECIAL TEAMS
UW ranks 10th in the country with the man advantage at 22.7 percent (25-for-110).

The Badgers have scored 25 of their 65 goals while on the power play.

Wisconsin's penalty kill ranks 12th in the nation at 86.4 percent (76-for-88).

UW is one of four schools to boast top-12 programs in both power play and penalty Kill (Penn State, Northeastern, UMass Lowell). 

Wisconsin is the second least penalized team in the Big Ten with an average of 11.9 penalty minutes per game.

YOU DON'T KNOW JACK
Freshman goaltender Jack Berry started his Badger career with 144 minutes, 17 seconds of shutout hockey before finally allowing a goal to Merrimack last Friday. That marks the longest shutout streak to start a UW career, more than double Bernd Brückler's 67:59 of shutout hockey to start his career in 2001–02, which is the second longest streak in school history.

Berry's 22-save shutout in UW's game on Nov. 5 against Northern Michigan marked the fourth time a Badger goalie accomplished the feat in his first collegiate start. In addition to Bernd Brückler's 25-save shutout on Oct. 20, 2001 in a 5-0 win over Wayne State in his first start, Jim Carey posted a 22-save shutout on Nov. 1, 1992 in an 11-0 win over Northern Michigan. Wayne Thomas also began his career with a 22-save shutout on Nov. 16, 1968 in an 11-0 win over Pennsylvania.

CAPTAINS
Sophomore forward Luke Kunin was named team captain, the second sophomore captain in school history. Mike Eaves was a sophomore captain for the 1975–76 season. 

Joining sophomore forward Luke Kunin as alternate captains are senior forward Grant Besse and junior forward Cameron Hughes. Besse served as alternate captain last season, while Hughes filled in at that capacity for a handful of games last year.

BESSE TO 100
Senior forward Grant Besse needs nine more points to become the 74th skater in UW history to reach 100 career points, and would become the first since Tyler Barnes (2010–14) reached the mark with 101 points for his career. He began the season needing 31 to reach 100.

With 22 points through 17 games played, Besse currently boasts 38 goals, 53 assists and 91 points in 120 games played.

Besse's 120 games played makes him one of just two Badgers who have played 100 career college games, joining fellow senior forward Jedd Soleway, who has played 106 games.

LINHART AND SOUL
Junior defenseman Jake Linhart's eight goals last year ranked fourth among Badgers and only trailed tied Michigan's early-departure Zach Werenski among Big Ten defensemen, who finished with 11. That means Linhart shares the title the "Big Ten's top goal-scoring defenseman returning." 

Linhart also led UW defensemen with 18 points, which was tied for ninth among Big Ten blue liners.

BIG TEN PLAY
The Big Ten boasts the nation's second-best non-conference record at 44-27-10 (.605 win percentage). The NCHC leads with a 43-21-13 mark (.643). Five non-conference games remain for Big Ten teams.

CAPTAIN KUNIN 
Luke Kunin ended the 2015–16 season with points in a career-best seven straight games, tallying six goals and nine points during the streak. He had points in the first two games of this season with a goal and an assist, before going pointless against BC. That gave Kunin a nine-game point streak dating back to last year. He had seven goals and 11 points in that stretch.  

Luke Kunin finished the 2015–16 season as the Badgers leading goal scorer with 19 goals, the first UW rookie since Dany Heatley scored 28 goals in 1999–2000 to lead the Badgers in goals. The 19 goals are also the most for a UW freshman since Heatley's 28. 

Kunin's 32 points made him the first UW rookie to reach 30 points since Nic Kerdiles tallied 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) in 32 games during the 2012–13 season. The 32 points were good for second among Big Ten freshmen, while his 0.94 points per game ranked seventh nationally among freshmen.

He scored four goals in the last minute of a period last season to rank second in the country, while his seven points in the last minute were also second. He had nine goals and 14 points in the first and last minute of periods, which both led the country.

Kunin finished conference play as UW's leader with 13 goals and 21 points in Big Ten play. His 13 goals ranked fourth among all Big Ten skaters, while his 21 points shared eighth. Both ranked second among Big Ten freshmen.

NEW COACHING STAFF
Tony Granato returns to Wisconsin after 13 years as a head and assistant coach in the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins and Colorado Avalanche. That followed a 13-year NHL playing career that included stops with the New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks. 

Don Granato arrives in Madison after nearly five seasons as head coach with the U.S. National Team Development Program (USNTDP) helping develop the nation's best young hockey players. He also spent one season as an assistant coach with the NHL's St. Louis Blues, in addition to over 10 years as a head coach in junior and minor-league hockey. 

Osiecki returns to Madison, where he previously spent six seasons (2004–10) as an assistant coach. While at UW, he helped the Badgers win the 2006 NCAA Championship, as well as a runner-up spot in the 2010 NCAA Frozen Four. Since his time at UW, Osiecki spent time as the head coach at Ohio State, as well as an assistant coach with the AHL's Rockford Ice Hogs, the minor league affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks. 

All three coaches went to school and played hockey for Wisconsin.

FEELING A DRAFT
Wisconsin begins the season with eight NHL draft picks on its roster, including two first-round picks in Luke Kunin and Trent Frederic, third-round pick JD Greenway, fourth-round pick Max Zimmer, fifth-round selection Grant Besse, sixth-round choice Cameron Hughes and seventh-round picks Jedd Soleway and Matt Ustaski. 

UW's top four picks were all chosen in the 2016 draft.  

This year marks the first time since the 2010–11 season that UW boasts a first-round draft pick on its roster (Jake Gardiner), and the first team since the 2009–10 squad to boast more than one first-round pick (Gardiner, Ryan McDonagh, Brendan Smith).

Forwards Kunin and Frederic give UW its first first-round draft picks at the forward position since Kyle Turris played for UW during the 2007–08 season.

Kunin and Frederic give Wisconsin two first-round draft picks on the same team at forward for the first time in school history. 

CURRENT UW DRAFT PICKS         

GETTING YOUNGER
While Wisconsin boasted one of the youngest rosters in the country last season with regards to age, they get even younger this year. The team average 20 years, 10 months at the start of October last season. This year, the team averages 20 years, 5 months.

WHERE'S HOME?
Wisconsin's two new goaltenders, Jack Berry and Johan Blomquist, hail from places that have been rare at Wisconsin of late.

Berry comes from Holly, Michigan, The Badgers first player from Michigan since Jon Krall (2000–04), who came from Temperence, Michigan.

Blomquist, from Stockholm, Sweden, arrives as just the second Swede to play for Wisconsin. He joins Jan-Ake Danielson (1981–84), who came from Insjon, Sweden.

UP NEXT
Following the Border Battle against the Gophers, Wisconsin will hit the road for a non-traditional series against Ohio State. The two-game matchup will start on Thursday in Columbus at 6 p.m. CT and will be streamed on BTN Plus and on the radio on WIBA-AM 1310. The next game will be played on Saturday, also at 6 p.m. CT, in New York City at Madison Square Garden. The game is part of the inaugural "Super Saturday- College Hoops and Hockey" in which the UW basketball team will take on Rutgers in the morning and then the Badgers' will hit the ice against the Buckeyes at night. The game can be seen on the Big Ten Network and will also be available on WIBA-AM 1310.