MADISON Wis. — In his final game at the Kohl Center, senior Max Zimmer netted two goals to lead the Wisconsin hockey team to a 6-2 win and series sweep over No. 9 Arizona State.
Twelve Badgers tallied points in the Saturday night series finale against Arizona State after the Badgers recorded six goals on the Sun Devils to total 13 goals on the weekend.
Wisconsin started out the game with two goals in the first period and scored three more in the second period to take a 5-0 lead just before the second break. Arizona State got on the board late in the second to give the Badgers a 5-1 lead going into the third. From there, the comfortable lead for Wisconsin was too much for Arizona State to overcome.
Sophomore Roman Ahcan and freshman Alex Turcotte continued their offensive dominance against Arizona State in game two of the non-conference matchup. Ahcan netted his fourth goal and second game-winning goal of the weekend after recording his first career hat trick last night. Turcotte assisted Ahcan's Saturday night goal as well as dishing an assist on Zimmer's second goal.
Other multi-point scorers for Wisconsin included Cole Caufield, scoring a goal in the second and assisting on Zimmer's first goal, and Jack Gorniak tallying two assists on the night to Owen Lindmark and Tarek Baker. Lindmark and Baker scored the first and fifth goal for the Badgers, respectively.
Sophomore goalie Daniel Lebedeff saved 28 shots for the Badgers en route to the four-goal win. Senior goaltender Johan Blomquist went in between the pipes for Wisconsin on his senior night at the Kohl Center and saved two shots as well.
The weekend at the Kohl Center boasted over 100 Wisconsin men's hockey alumni in Madison to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1970 team that was the school's first in the NCAA tournament, the 30th year anniversary of the 1990 national championship team, 20 years for 2000 WCHA championship team and 10 years for the 2010 NCAA runners-up.
Notes to know:
- Ahcan scored both game-winning goals for the Badgers on the weekend
- The Badgers improved to 7-4-0 against teams ranked in the top-10 of the polls
- Wisconsin scored two power-play goals snapping Arizona State's streak of 47 consecutive successful penalty kills
- Freshman Cole Caufield is now tied for sixth place all time for goals scored by a freshman at Wisconsin with 19
Straight from the rink:
Head Coach Tony Granato:
"We had the jump. We had the energy. I think the alumni's presence around our locker room this morning sharing their stories gave us a little bit of energy and excitement besides the fact that we were trying to play a team that was looking to get in the tournament. It was a big game for us. Looking at the two games, it was probably the best two games we've had all year. When you score 13 goals in two games, you get a lot of contributions from lots of players. Roman [Ahcan] had a heck of weekend. [Alex] Turcotte had a heck of a weekend."
"I don't think there's any reason to look back, we're looking forward. So I know what our team is capable of doing. I thought we played some tremendous hockey over this year. We've got some tremendous hockey players and this weekend is something that's been building for the past few weekends."
Senior forward Max Zimmer:
On his last game:
"It was a special one, that's for sure. Some of the guys talked before the game and said to go out and make a statement. I think we really went out and did that tonight. My success or goals don't really matter, we came out and played a complete team game tonight. I think we are definitely hitting our stride at the right time. We haven't had the success we wanted all year but we are finally pulled it together and put up some good wins down the stretch here."
On what the whole day means to him:
"I don't think I'm going to be able to give you a complete answer on that one until tomorrow. I'm just still trying to soak it all in and spend as much time with the boys as I can. I can't say thank you enough to them or my parents. I left my senior year of high school to play juniors so I never got a senior night, it was nice to give them a little bit of recognition tonight."
Sophomore goalie Daniel Lebedeff:
On bouncing back tonight:
"Yesterday's game, from a goalie standpoint was probably one of the hardest. I think ASU was really effective and they created surprisingly good plays. I was expecting them to be more like a Penn State kind of team, shooting from all over the place, but they got a couple of nice plays early on. It was a really weird game but today I think, overall the team defense and the way we were structured. Grabbing that early lead really helped us."
Freshman forward Owen Lindmark:
On alumni's message to team:
"It's just crazy how much love they still have for Badger hockey, no matter how old they were or what team they were on and how successful the team was, no matter who it was talking they just talked about how much they loved being a Badger. It is truly special."
Up Next: The Badgers will be on the road for their final regular-season series against Ohio State next weekend in Columbus. Puck drop is at 5 p.m. Friday night and 7 p.m. Saturday night. Both games will broadcast on BTN and on the radio stream on 1310 WIBA.
