MADISON, Wis. – Two goals in the third period from Owen Lindmark weren't enough to grab a victory as the No. 3 Wisconsin men's hockey team tied the Lindenwood Lions, 3-3, on Saturday night at the Kohl Center. The tie marks the end of the Badgers' 10-game win streak, which began Nov. 25, but continues an 11-game unbeaten streak.
Though the Badgers (19-4-1, 10-2-0 Big Ten) took an early lead in the first period, Lindenwood (3-14-3) tied it up fast and added another in the second period to skate into the third with a 2-1 advantage. Graduate student Owen Lindmark scored two goals in the third frame, but the Lions battled back to tie it and send the game to overtime. Neither team found the back of the net during the extra time, resulting in a 3-3 tie.
Shootout goals by Quinn Finley and Cruz Lucius, and William Gramme's pair of saves, handed the Badgers the exhibition shootout win.
Wisconsin got on the board first 5:20 into the first period on the power play. Sophomore defenseman Ben Dexheimer took a shot from the blue line that rebounded off the goaltender's pads and onto the stick of senior forward Mathieu De St. Phalle. De St. Phalle then passed to his left to sophomore forward Cruz Lucius, who ripped a hard shot past the left of netminder Trent Burnham for his 10th goal of the season.
Less than two minutes later, Lindenwood evened the score up at one on a deflection by Patrick Schmiedlin.
The Lions took a 2-1 lead 6:38 into the second period after Caige Sterzer beat the left side of UW freshman goaltender
William Gramme.
With 12:58 remaining in the third period,
Owen Lindmark tied the game at two. Sophomore forward
Jack Horbach passed from the right side of the Lions' zone to freshman defenseman
Zach Schulz in the middle of the blue line. Schulz took a shot and Lindmark deflected it into the net for his ninth tally of the season.
Lindmark lit the lamp again with 6:08 left in the third.
Ben Dexheimer passed from the Badgers' blue line to Lindmark in the neutral zone. The forward then used a burst of speed to rush into the Lions' territory and toward the net before pushing the puck past the goaltender to give the Badgers the lead.
One minute and three seconds after UW's go-ahead goal, Lindenwood tied it back up on a deflected puck that hit
Simon Tassy's stick on defense, before bouncing off Coltan Wilkie, then again off Tassy, before finding the net.
After Lindenwood's tying goal, no one else scored in the final five minutes of regulation, so both teams skated into a five-minute sudden death overtime knotted up at three.
The Badgers registered two shots on goal in overtime but were unable to convert on any scoring chances so the game ended in a 3-3 tie.
After the overtime period, both teams participated in a best-of-three exhibition shootout. Freshman goaltender
William Gramme made two saves as freshman forward
Quinn Finley and
Cruz Lucius scored to give the Badgers a shootout win.
Wisconsin went one-for-four on the power play and killed off three penalties. UW finished the contest with a 54-24 advantage in shots on goal.
Notes to know:
-
Owen Lindmark scored his 10th goal tonight marking his first-career season with double-digit goals
- UW has scored power-play goals in three straight games
- Wisconsin continues to have the national-leading scoring defense number with 1.63 opponent goals per game
- This marks the second time this season that the Badgers put up over 50 shots on goal
Straight From the Rink
Head Coach Mike Hastings
On the team's effort in the third period
"We found a way to come back in the third period, that's one thing that I don't want to get lost, because we haven't been in that spot a lot. I thought the guys bound together between the second and third and said, 'Hey, let's go at this in blocks of five minutes.' They gave some people who were brave to come watch us something to cheer about in the third period."
On breaking the ten-game win streak
"I don't want to be the rain cloud, because these guys have been there every single day putting the work boots on and going after it. It's not like we went out and played a dud, we had 50 some shots and found a way to come from behind. Yes, I know there's some people that are disappointed leaving the building tonight, including us. I want to credit Lindenwood, they came in, they did what they needed to do. We're going to learn from it and move forward."
Graduate student forward Owen Lindmark
On tonight's game
"They came out of the gates playing really hard, credit to them as a team. We showed that we can overcome adversity like that. At the end of the day, it may go down as a tie but we did what we could to try to take home that win. We just have to learn from this game and it's only going to help us get better as long as we take lessons away from it. There's a lot of positives to take from our winning streak, and there's no better time to start a new one than now."
Up Next: The Badgers have a week off before heading to Ann Arbor, Mich., for a series at Michigan on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 26-27. Puck drop for both contests is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT. The games will be available to stream live on B1G+ while audio play-by-play can be found on the Badger Radio Network, as well as on the Badgers app and The Varsity Network app. You can also follow along on X/Twitter and Instagram @BadgerMHockey.
