Men’s Hockey: Michigan State defeats the Badgers in the Big Ten, forcing a split.

Badgers’ divisional hopes dashed as Michigan State claims Big Ten title over the weekend

After defeating the University of Wisconsin in the series’ opening game this past weekend, the Michigan State University men’s hockey team (22-9-3, 16-6-2 Big Ten) won their first Big Ten championship since the conference’s formation for hockey in 2014. They also prevented the Badgers (25-9-2, 16-7-1 Big Ten) from playing in a winner-take-all game on Saturday.

It was too little, too late for the Big Ten, but Wisconsin at least showed they could defeat the Spartans, winning 4-1 on their senior night in the regular season finale.

Here’s how the two-game series went down this weekend in Madison.

Game 1 — Michigan State 5, Wisconsin 2

This game was supposed to be the one to set the table for the Badgers. A win would force a winner-take-all battle on Saturday.

They played like it right away, blitzing the Spartans early and getting the game’s first goal 47 seconds into the contest on an arcing shot from junior Daniel Laatsch through a screen that found its way past Michigan State goalkeeper Trey Augustine and in. It was fluky, but the Badgers and Laatsch had no complaints. Especially with how the next goal was scored.

A little under five minutes later, a long shot from top NHL Draft prospect Artyom Levshunov that looked like it was going over the goal, tipped off of the glove of UW goalie Kyle McClellan and in to even the score at one.

The Spartans grabbed the lead on a 2-on-1 rush where senior Reed Lebster made a great pass to junior Jeremy Davidson, who buried it. That’s how the first period would end, one where the Badgers outshot the Spartans 19-7.

Thanks to a shot by senior Mathieu De St. Phalle from sophomore Ben Dexheimer, UW was able to tie the score in the second period after Michigan State committed a serious penalty. The Badgers had a commanding shots-on-goal lead during this phase as well, but they could only muster one goal.

Lebster, who set up the second goal for the Spartans, tore through the Badgers’ defense and forced one past McClellan with 7:10 remaining in the game.

As the game was coming to an end, the Spartans would add two more as the Badgers’ net remained empty in their final-ditch attempt to win. Wisconsin had a 47-24 face-off advantage and a 46-26 shots on goal edge at the end of the game.

“With forty-odd shots, only two goals? After the game, Mike Hastings, the head coach of UW, stated, “We need to be more productive than that.” “And then, whether they were using the puck or not, make a few more plays while they were there.”

The Big Ten saw little purpose in the Saturday game after the Badgers’ difficult defeat.

Game 2 — Michigan State 1, Wisconsin 4

The game might not have mattered for the Big Ten, but the Badgers needed to turn the page quickly. After all, Pairwise points were still on the line and while a Big Ten title would be nice, the ultimate goal is always the national championship. Plus, it was senior day and UW had 10 of them they wanted to send off in style.

As a result, the Badgers enjoyed another fast start. They fired 17 shots on goal in the first 8:11 of the game, an unsustainable pace that, drawn out over a whole 60 minutes, would equate to over 120 shots on goal in the game.

Among those 17 shots was the game’s first two goals. The first one came from freshman Sawyer Scholl, who launched one on from a tough angle and squeezed it off the pad of Augustine and in before he could close it off. The second was scored by senior Carson Bantle eight seconds into the first UW power play of the game, to give UW a 2–0 lead.

Michigan State tightened up after that and cut the lead in half on a 5-on-3 power play, thanks to freshman Karsen Dorwart. That’s how the first period would end.

The Spartans applied intense pressure in the second quarter, but McClellan—who, according to Todd Milewski of BadgerExtra, had been expecting to take the day off—made good on his wish to get started and held his own the remainder of the game.

The sophomore Jack Horbach made a wonderful pass all the way through the seam that allowed Bantle to score his team-leading 14th goal, just as the Badgers were starting to let up on pressure. That was a significant deterrent for the Badgers, giving them some breathing room and reducing Michigan State’s momentum.

In the third, which started and ended very calmly, Scholl scored his second goal of the match with an empty-net goal to give Wisconsin the victory.

The Badgers won thanks to 28 saves from McClellan, who helped them to their first 25-win regular season since 2000.