MADISON, Wis. – The No. 17 Wisconsin men's hockey team welcomes No. 20/19 Minnesota State to the Kohl Center for its home-opening series on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 16-17.
Both games start at 7 p.m. and stream on B1G+.
Here are six quick things to know before tuning in:
Rosters: Badgers || Mavericks
1 - FRIENDS TURNED FOES: Nine Wisconsin players and staff members have ties to Minnesota State, including Badgers Head Coach Mike Hastings, who stood behind the bench for 11 seasons at MSU (2012-2023) before starting at Wisconsin for the 2023-24 season. Staff members who also made the leap from the Mavericks to the Badgers in 2023 include current UW Associate Head Coach Todd Knott, Strength Coach Tom Inkrott and Director of Hockey Operations/Video Coordinator Luke Regner. Assistant coach Kevin Murdock spent his freshman season as a goaltender at MSU before finishing his career at Lake Superior State.
On the ice, three players have a connection to Minnesota State. Senior forwards Simon Tassy and Christian Fitzgerald transferred to Wisconsin alongside Coach Hastings in 2023, while sophomore goaltender Eli Pulver transferred from MSU to UW before the 2025-26 season.
Minnesota State also has two staff members and a skater with ties to Wisconsin. Head Coach Luke Strand was an Associate Head Coach for Wisconsin during the 2015-16 season, as was MSU Associate Head Coach Troy Ward from 2002-05. Junior forward and Medford, Wisconsin, native
Sawyer Scholl, who scored the Mavericks' first goal of the season 20 seconds into their first game, skated for UW from 2023-25.
"There's a lot of familiarity," Coach Hastings said on this weekend's games in a press conference. "Not very often do you see one staff that was at the program that you're playing, and then that staff being at where you're at with [Luke Strand] and [Troy Ward]. That brings a different twist to it. But at the end of the day, we're both trying to build our book of business. Non-conference games are, as you've seen over the last couple of years, they just become so important in building that book of business. For us, we have to defend our home ice."
2 - NO PLACE LIKE HOME: UW is officially back at the Kohl Center for the first time since Feb. 22! Badger fans are some of the best in the nation, and last year, Wisconsin led the Big Ten and ranked second in the nation in average attendance with 10,461 fans. The series against Minnesota State marks the start of a six-game homestand for the Badgers, with Alaska (Oct. 24-25) and Minnesota (Oct. 30/Nov. 1) also coming to town in the coming weeks.
To celebrate the home opener, Thursday's game is "Bucky's Pucktoberfest" themed. There will be Oktoberfest-themed activities throughout the game, as well as a Wisconsin suspenders giveaway for the first 1,000 students.
View the full
promotions schedule here.
3 - FANTASTIC MR. FITZGERALD: Senior forward
Christian Fitzgerald is off to a hot start and he leads the team in most major statistics: goals (4), points (5), shot percentage (.500), power-play goals (3), first goals (2), game-winning goals (2), hat tricks (1) and penalty minutes (6).
At Lindenwood on Oct. 3-4, Fitzgerald totaled four goals, including three on the power-play, and five points on the weekend. He tallied his first-career hat trick in Saturday's game, earning him a Big Ten Third Star of the Week nod for his efforts.
4 - LAST TIME OUT: Following its season-opening sweep at Lindenwood on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 3-4, Wisconsin enters the series after earning a 6-0 shutout victory in an exhibition game against the U.S. Under-18 Team on Thursday, Oct. 9.
Wisconsin opened the scoring 2:21 into the first period after freshman forward
Bruno Idžan found the back of the net. Just over two minutes later, at 3:42 into the frame, junior forward
Quinn Finley lit the lamp, and he tallied again on the power play at 9:27 of the first. The only goal of the second period came from freshman forward
Vasily Zelenov at 6:50 into the frame. In the third period, freshman forward
Blake Montgomery scored 2:57 in before Idžan tallied his second goal of the night at 18:07 to help the Badgers to a 6-0 victory.
The U.S. Under-18 Team put up 17 shots on goal, but
Eli Pulver (15 saves) and
Anton Castro (two saves) stood tall between the pipes to backstop UW to the shutout win – its second through three games of the season.
"We learned more about our goaltending," Coach Hastings said. "I thought Pulver did a really good job in the two periods he played. We saw our young guys take another step. Bruno found a way to score a couple of goals, Montgomery had a goal and an assist, and I thought he played very well in the minutes he had the opportunity to play. We need those guys to continue. Finley scores two – we need everything that happened that night to continue for us."
5 - SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS: The Mavericks have a 1-1-0 record through two games, and they enter the weekend after splitting their season-opening series at Omaha, losing game one, 6-2, and winning game two, 4-1.
Four MSU skaters are tied for the team lead with two points and six are tied for first with one goal. Senior goaltender Alex Tracy has one win in two games played, accumulating a .889 save percentage and 3.03 goals-allowed on average.
This is the first meeting between Wisconsin and Minnesota State at the Kohl Center since 2012, when
Mike Hastings was in his first season as head coach of the Mavericks, leading them to a pair of 4-2 victories over the Badgers. UW went on to win the next three meetings in the series, winning a pair of overtime contests in Mankato, then taking a victory at the 2013 WCHA Final Five in St. Paul, Minnesota.
"There's history, but that's what it is," he said. "It's history. I'm sure Coach Strand and his staff will learn from their history here. Todd [Knott], my staff, myself will learn from our history at MSU. We're going on three years, so it's not yesterday. Both groups are trying to build what they want to at the university that they're at. This is another step for both of us in a very young season, but a very important series."
6 - HOW TO WATCH: Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. on both nights and both games will stream on B1G+. Audio play-by-play can be found on 1310 WIBA as well as on the Badgers app and The Varsity Network app. You can also follow along on X/Twitter and Instagram at @BadgerMHockey.
