MADISON, Wis. – The No. 17 Wisconsin men's hockey team continues its final four weekends of Big Ten play by visiting No. 4 Minnesota for a Border Battle matchup in Minneapolis on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 31-Feb. 1.
Friday's game starts at 7 p.m., while Saturday's begins at 5 p.m. Both games stream on B1G+. Saturday's game will air on TVW in the Madison area.
Here's six quick things to know before tuning in:
Rosters: Wisconsin || Minnesota
Game Notes: Wisconsin
1 - BACK IN THE POLLS: For the first time since October 21, Wisconsin men's hockey ranks in the USCHO.com top-20 poll as the 17th-best team in the nation, according to voters.
Following its 5-4 win and 4-4 tie against then-No. 10 Michigan last weekend, Wisconsin earned 118 votes to nab the No. 17 ranking. The last time UW found itself in the rankings was the Oct. 21 poll when it ranked No. 20 with 81 votes.
Wisconsin is also ranked No. 18 in this week's USA Hockey/The Rink Live poll with 64 votes.
2 - CHRISTIAN FITZMAGIC: Junior forward
Christian Fitzgerald had a big weekend against Michigan last Friday and Saturday, tallying three goals over the weekend to help the Badgers earn four conference points against the Wolverines.
Fitzgerald lit the lamp twice in Friday's thrilling 5-4 comeback victory, scoring the Badgers' first goal on the power play in the opening frame and the game-winning goal with 3:09 left in the contest. This marked the junior's first two-goal game with Wisconsin, which came in his 100th collegiate game.
The forward then found the back of the net once in Saturday's 4-4 tie, scoring a key second-period goal for Wisconsin to tie the game at three. Fitzgerald's efforts over the weekend helped him earn his first career Big Ten First Star of the Week nod.
3 - DEFENSE GENERATING OFFENSE: Badger blue liners have been on fire lately with three different defensemen lighting the lamp four times over the last four games.
Through the first 22 games of the season, only senior defenseman
Daniel Laatsch had tallied from the Badger blue line. Both of Laatsch's goals were overtime game-winners. Since Laatsch has been sidelined for the season prior to UW's series against LIU on Jan. 17-18, Wisconsin's blue liners have stepped up offensively, with
Zach Schulz,
Logan Hensler (twice) and
Ben Dexheimer all scoring over the last four games.
Sophomore Schulz scored his first goal of the season against the Sharks on Jan. 17. On that same night, freshman Hensler also tallied his first career NCAA goal. Hensler struck again versus Michigan on Jan. 24 with a nifty stickhandle, and junior Dexheimer scored his first goal of the year on the 25th. Dexheimer leads all Badger defensemen with 15 assists and 16 points.
Other defensemen have also been generating offensive power, with graduate student defenseman
Anthony Kehrer recording three primary assists in the series against Michigan.
4 - LAST TIME OUT: The Badgers enter the Minnesota series after recording a 5-4 win and 4-4 tie against the then-No. 10 Michigan Wolverines on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 24-25.
In game one, the Badgers rallied back from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Wolverines, 5-4. Michigan got on the board first 1:37 into the first period. Wisconsin's
Christian Fitzgerald and
Logan Hensler then scored two quick goals at 10:06 and 11:11 into the first period to give UW a 2-1 lead. Michigan lit the lamp three more times – once at 15:06 of the first period and twice in the second period at 10:44 and 11:40 to make it a 4-2 game in favor of the Wolverines. The Badgers began their comeback with a power-play goal from
Owen Mehlenbacher with 5:16 left in the second before Fitzgerald and
Simon Tassy scored twice with 5:12 and 3:09 remaining in the game, respectively, to help Wisconsin rally for a 5-4 victory.
In game two, a goal from
Ben Dexheimer with 3:43 left in regulation helped the Badgers erase a two-goal deficit for the second straight night and tie Michigan, 4-4. Michigan opened the scoring 3:42 into the first period before Wisconsin's
Tyson Dyck responded at 8:27 into the first to tie the game at one. UM then scored two more times in the opening period – once at 9:30 and again at 12:13 – to take a 3-1 lead heading into the second.
Quinn Finley lit the lamp 4:46 into the second period to make it a 3-2 game then
Christian Fitzgerald tied it up at three, 11:05 into the frame. The Wolverines regained their lead 8:24 into the third before
Ben Dexheimer tied the game at four for UW to force overtime. Neither team scored in overtime and the game officially went down as a 4-4 tie. Michigan found the back of the net in the third round of the shootout to claim the extra conference point.
5 - SCOUTING MINNESOTA: The Gophers currently have a 19-6-3 record, including a 10-4-2 record (32 points) in Big Ten play. They head into the weekend after suffering a loss and a tie against No. 2 Michigan State last weekend, losing game one, 9-3, and tying game two, 3-3, before losing the exhibition shootout, 2-0.
Junior forward Jimmy Snuggerud leads the roster with 18 goals and 37 points in 28 games played. Sophomore goaltender Nathan Airey has 11 wins in 15 starts, accumulating a .901 save percentage and a 2.50 goals-allowed on average.
The last time the Badgers and Gophers met this season was on Nov. 8-9, 2024, in Madison. Minnesota won game one, 3-2, in regulation and game two, 3-2, in overtime.
6 - HOW TO WATCH: Friday's game starts at 7 p.m., while Saturday's begins at 5 p.m. Both games stream on B1G+, with Saturday's game airing in the Madison area on TVW. Audio play-by-play can be found on 1310 WIBA or on the Badgers app and the Varsity Network app. You can also follow along on X/Twitter and Instagram at @BadgerMHockey.
