Jason Dhooghe

Hobey Baker Award candidate Cole Caufield notched a hat trick to lead the 5th ranked Wisconsin men’s hockey team (17-8-1, 15-6-1 1-1-0 Big Ten) to a 7-0 win over the Ohio State Buckeyes (6-17-1, 6-17-1 0-2-0 Big Ten) in the Badgers regular season home finale.

Ty Pelton-Byce also scored twice for the Badgers, who also got single tallies from Ty Emberson and Dylan Holloway.

Freshman goaltender Cameron Rowe stopped all 21 shots he faced for his second career shutout. Rowe leads all freshmen goalies with a .939 save percentage.

Linus Weissbach, Pelton-Byce, Tarek Baker, Jason Dhooghe, Josh Ess and Robbie Beydoun make up Wisconsin’s senior class.

The hat trick for Caufield is his second of the season and third in his two-year career.

The Badgers kept the heat on the Minnesota Gophers. With two games left, Wisconsin needs to win twice at Michigan State and get Minnesota to lose once to Michigan for the Badgers to clinch their first regular season league title in 21 years.

The Wisconsin men’s hockey team (4-5-0, 4-3-0-0-1-0 Big Ten) fell behind 4-0 in the first period and their comeback effort fell short, falling to the Ohio State Buckeyes 4-2 in their series opener in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday.

Starting his 9th game in 21 days, goaltender Robbie Beydoun surrendered all for first period goals before he was replaced by freshman Cameron Rowe, who didn’t allow a goal for the rest of the game.

Senior Jason Dhooghe scored his first goal of the season on a back-hander to put the Badgers on the board in the second period. Sophomore Cole Caufield knocked in his own rebound a minute later to cut the deficit to 4-2, but that’s all the closer Wisconsin would get with both teams going scoreless in the third period.

The series with the Buckeyes is now tied 20-20-4 with the rematch coming Friday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. CT in Columbus.