Notre Dame Hockey: Irish dominate Wisconsin Badgers 5-1 in Big 10 play

The no. 15 Notre Dame Fighting Irish opened the home portion of the Big Ten season on Friday, welcoming the Wisconsin Badgers, where coming into the matchup, they had won four of their first five in front of the home crowd. The Badgers came to South Bend fresh off splitting a series with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, who swept the Irish in Notre Dame’s only other conference series this season.

First Period

The Wisconsin offense came into the contest struggling, ranking last in the nation with just 1.90 goals per game. It seemed apparent this trend would continue with the red hot Matthew Galajda between the pipes for Notre Dame. However, it took them less than three minutes to get on the board when Roman Ahcan opened the scoring after a roughing call to Landon Slaggert. The goal was just the second given up by the Irish penalty kill in 35 attempts.

Second Period

The second period was all Irish. In a period where they nearly doubled the Badgers in shots on goal, Landson Slaggert found the back of the net thanks to a textbook pass from Ryder Rolston. Two minutes later, Jesse Landsdell tipped in a Spencer Stastney shot to put the Irish in front. Later in the period, on the man advantage, Trevor Janicke found the top corner to extend the lead to two.

Third Period

The team leader in points piled it on in the final period. Midway through the frame, Max Ellis got his first of the night by burying home a Rolston rebound to put the Irish up 4-1. Six minutes later, he tacked on a short-handed empty-netter to make it 5-1.

Game Summary

Scoring

Wisconsin: Roman Ahcan (PPG) at 02:35 in the 1st

Notre Dame: Landon Slaggert at 02:47 in the 2nd, assisted by Ryder Rolston and Spencer Stastney

Notre Dame: Jesse Landsdell at 04:51 in the 2nd, assisted by Spencer Stastney and Zach Plucinski

Notre Dame: Trevor Janicke (PPG) at 15:05 in the 2nd, assisted by Landon Slaggert and Spencer Stastney

Notre Dame: Max Ellis at (PPG) at 10:39 in the 3rd, assisted by Ryder Rolston and Solag Bakich

Notre Dame: Max Ellis (ENG, SHG) at 16:29 in the 3rd, assisted by Adam Karashik and Solag Bakich

Penalties

Notre Dame: Landson Slaggert for roughing at 01:23 in the 1st

Wisconsin: Brock Caufield for tripping at 19:06 in the 1st

Wisconsin: Tyler Inamoto for cross-checking at 06:01 in the 2nd

Notre Dame: Adam Karashik for interference at 08:13 in the 2nd

Wisconsin: Brayden Morrison for slashing at 10:54 in the 2nd

Wisconsin: Jake Martin for holding the stick at 14:17 in the 2nd

Goalies

Notre Dame: Matthew Galajda, saves

Wisconsin: Jared Moe, saves

Moving Forward

The Irish will conclude their series with Wisconsin on Saturday, November 13, at 6:00 PM ET. The game can be seen on NBC Sports Chicago Plus, or streamed on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App.