Wisconsin backup goalie holds off Irish’s comeback for Big Ten sweep
SOUTH BEND – Just when it looked like Notre Dame’s nightmare start Saturday night in its Big Ten hockey game was beginning to turn into a nightmare for No. 5 Wisconsin, Badgers coach Mike Hastings went to his bullpen.
After seeing his team’s 5-1 lead over the Irish evaporate to a 5-4 just past the midway point of the second period, Hastings yanked senior goaltender Kyle McLellan, arguably the nation’s No. 1 goaltender this season, and went to William Gramme, a 6-foot-4 freshman from Sweden
Gramme stoned Notre Dame over the final 8:35 of the period with 10 saves and then added 13 more in the final 20 minutes as Wisconsin regathered itself for a 7-4 victory to complete a sweep of Notre Dame before a sellout crowd of 5,077 watching at the Lefty Smith Rink in the Compton Family Ice Arena.
“The way we started was awful,” Irish coach Jeff Jackson said after his team fell to 10-10-2 overall and 4-6-2 in the Big Ten (for 15 points) with its fifth straight league loss. “We got some life in the second period. But give them credit — they made the right call during a timeout to switch goalies and that changed the momentum back away from us.”
Coming off Friday’s 2-1 victory, the first-place Badgers won their ninth straight to improve to 18-4-0 overall and 10-2-0 in the Big Ten for 30 points.
Wisconsin jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period on a goal by William Whitelaw (5:35) and two by Mathieu De St. Phalle (9:06 and 11:54). Irish freshman Carter Slaggert beat McClellan over his right shoulder at 12:23 to make it 3-1. But Wisconsin answered with a backdoor goal by defenseman Zach Schul at 18:33, and it appeared the night would be short for Irish goaltender Ryan Bischel, who wasn’t receiving much help from his teammates.
Jackson sent Bischel out for the second period, however, only to see the Badgers make it 5-1 on Simon Tassy’s power-play goal at 3:38. But the Irish woke up with a power-play goal of their own from freshman Maddox Fleming at 8:06 and then Irish captain Landon Slaggert (11:10) and freshman Brennan Ali (11:25) scored within 15 seconds.
Hastings, in his first year behind the Badgers bench, had seen enough. Out came McLellan, who had a 1.59 goalsagainst average and five shutouts entering the game, and in came Gramme, who would make 10 saves before Bischel made one on the period’s last shot with one second remaining as Notre Dame finished the period with a 20-7 edge in shots.
Gramme continued his mastery of the Irish in the third period, making six saves at the start, including a pair on Ali on the doorstep at 2:24 and another on Fleming moments later to keep his team in the lead 5-4.
Finally, Wisconsin defenseman Ben Dexheimer took a pass from Tassy, skated around the Irish net and wrapped it under Bischel at 8:06 for some breathing room. Jackson would pull Bischel at 16:04, but Carson Bantle’s shot into the vacated net at 16:38 ended the scoring. Bischel finished with 26 saves.
“It’s just unfortunate we started as slow as we did,” Jackson continued. “As many good things we did (Friday) night in our own end defensively (and) then breaking out, we were not nearly as good tonight.”
The Irish, who had power-play opportunities to score against McClellan Friday night and couldn’t convert, are now 1-4-0 on Saturday nights in their last five series.
“For whatever reason, we don’t come out well the second night of a series,” Jackson said. “I don’t know what it is — I’ve tried different things. It’s been like that (almost) all year.”
Now 15 points out of first, fourthplace Notre Dame travels to Ohio State next Friday and Saturday for a pair of Big Ten games with the Buckeyes, who are in seventh place in the league with four points but coming off a home-andhome, non-conference sweep after winning 4-2 at Bowling Green Saturday night.