The 11th ranked Wisconsin men’s hockey team (13-7-0, 11-5-0 0-1-0 Big Ten) swept the Minnesota Golden Gophers (15-5-0, 11-5-0 0-0-0 Big Ten), pulling out a 8-1 win in their series finale in Minneapolis on Saturday night. The win pushes the Badgers into first place in the Big Ten standings, one-point better than the Gophers.
Six different Badgers scored goals as UW outscored Minnesota 12-2 in the two-game weekend series.
The Badgers went on the power play just four minutes into the game and quickly found the net when Roman Ahcan tipped a Cole Caufield shot past Jack LaFontaine for an early 1-0 lead. Dylan Holloway also scored on the power-play at 8:25 of the first period to put the Badgers up 2-0.
After Minnesota cut the lead to 2-1, Ty Emberson put the Badgers up by two again with his first goal of the season.
Ty Pelton-Byce scored a quick goal just 42 seconds into the second period to put the Badgers up 4-1. Roman Ahcan added his second goal of the game a short time later and Jack Gorniak finished the second period scoring, giving the Badgers a 6-1 lead.
Emberson added his second goal of the game at 9:36 of the third and Cole Caufield capped off the scoring with his first goal of the game and third on the weekend. Caufield extended his point streak to 12 games (13 goals, 12 assists) and leads the nation with 17 goals and 33 points.
Dylan Holloway recorded a five-point night with a goal and four assists and has points in eight straight games (5 goals, 16 assists).
T y Pelton-Byce also has a nine-game point streak with six goals and six assists.
Freshman goaltender Cameron Rowe earned the win in goal, stopping 27 of 28 shots he faced.
Wisconsin swept Minnesota in Minneapolis for the first time since Feb. 6-7, 2009. The eight goals on Saturday night equal the most the Badgers have scored against Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Next up, the Badgers face a two-game road series against the Michigan Wolverines (10-6-0, 7-6-1-0-0 Big Ten) for a Saturday-Sunday series in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Faceoff time on Saturday, Feb. 13 is 1 p.m. CT and Sunday Feb. 14 is set for 4 p.m. CT. Saturday’s game can be seen live on Big Ten Network.
