MADISON, Wis. – The No. 6 Wisconsin men's hockey team ended its three-game losing streak on Saturday Night with a 5-0 shutout win against Alaska Anchorage at the Kohl Center.
Freshman goaltender William Gramme made his first career NCAA start, posting a 25-save shutout to push Wisconsin (10-4-0, 4-2-0) past Alaska Anchorage (6-9-1). UW put up two goals in the first period and three in the second from four different skaters to secure its 5-0 victory.
The Badgers came into the game fired up, scoring their first goal 8:42 into the first period. Senior forward
David Silye passed from Wisconsin territory up to freshman forward
William Whitelaw in the neutral zone. Whitelaw skated the puck up the ice and passed to sophomore forward
Christian Fitzgerald on his left. Fitzgerald sent it back to Whitelaw, who tapped the puck past the right side of Alaska Anchorage goaltender Joey Lamoreaux to make it 1-0.
Wisconsin struck again 42 seconds later on the power play. Sophomore forward
Cruz Lucius passed from the Seawolves' right circle to sophomore defenseman
Ben Dexheimer, who was ready in the middle of the ice. Dexheimer let a slap shot fly for his second of the season.
The Badgers continued to dominate offensively, adding three more goals in the second period from Whitelaw,
Jack Horbach and
Charlie Stramel.
Whitelaw's goal came three minutes into the period after he picked up the puck while skating into the Seawolves' zone and sent a swift shot off the corner of the crossbar and into the net.
Horbach picked up his first goal of the season 5:46 into the middle frame. Graduate student forward
Owen Lindmark passed the puck to Horbach in the Badgers' zone as he skated it down the ice into Alaska Anchorage territory. Horbach passed to his left to find freshman forward
Sawyer Scholl, who passed back to the sophomore forward in front of the Seawolves' net. Horbach took a shot before the puck deflected off an Alaska Anchorage player to give UW a 4-0 lead.
Sophomore forward
Charlie Stramel netted his first of the season nine minutes later to make it five goals for the Badgers.
Neither team found the back of the net in the third period, leaving the final score at 5-0 and helping
William Gramme to a perfect NCAA debut.
Notes to know:
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William Gramme's shutout made him the first Badger since Jack Berry on Nov. 5, 2016, against Northern Michigan to post a shutout in his collegiate debut. Bernd Bruckler (2001), Jim Carey (1992) and Wayne Thomas (1968) all accomplished the feat.
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William Whitelaw posted his first-career two-goal game
- Freshman defenseman
Zach Schulz picked up his first NCAA point with an assist on Whitelaw's tally
- Sophomore forwards
Jack Horbach and
Charlie Stramel each netted their first goals of the season
- The Badgers outshot the Seawolves 77-46 in the series split
Straight From the Rink
Head Coach Mike Hastings
On the players' response to last night
"Last night, I don't know how many plays we made when we had outnumbered rushes, and we got an outnumbered rush early, and we finished a really nice play from Fitzgerald and Whitelaw. The second thing is, if you saw what
William Whitelaw can do, as far as that, that second goal, he could beat somebody from a distance, and he did that. William has a lot of history of scoring goals over his short career. Goal scorers can be streaky; hopefully, he'll stay on that. We just had some depth scoring. We had different guys contribute. I thought our power play was better to score a goal, also get some energy off it, and then our penalty kill was really good."
On William Gramme's debut
"I wanna make sure to tip my cap to Gramme. Seeing our guys' reaction in the locker room for him because I'm not gonna say he works harder than anybody else, but I will say I don't believe anybody works harder than he does. He puts in his time, the time that
Kevin Murdock has spent with him; as far as our goaltending coach, we ask our guys to be prepared when their number gets called and he was prepared. So very happy for him to be able to get that shutout."
Freshman goaltender William Gramme
On getting the start tonight
"It was a dream come true; I had some tears in my eyes before I went out. It was just so fun, and I'm so happy; I had my debut going, and I'm so proud of the team and so happy."
Up Next: The Badgers continue their three-weekend home stand with a Big Ten series against Ohio State on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1 and 2. Puck drop for Friday's game is scheduled for 7 p.m. while Saturday's contest will start at 8 p.m. and serves as 'Goalie Night.' The game is available to stream live on B1G+ while audio play-by-play will be available on the Badgers app and The Varsity Network App. You can also follow along on X/Twitter and Instagram @BadgerMHockey.
