Wisconsin men’s hockey: UW rains goals upon No. 15 Penn State in 6-3 win on Monday night

In a rare Monday night tilt, the No. 14 Wisconsin Badgers (3-2-0, 3-2-0-0-1-0 Big Ten) efficiently picked apart the No. 15 Penn State Nittany Lions (0-3-0, 0-3-0-0-0-0 Big Ten) defense in a 6-3 victory at LaBahn Arena in Madison.

Wisconsin goalie Robbie Beydoun found himself under siege in the first two periods, facing 44 shots on goal, but he stood tall and saved 42 of those shots which helped the Badgers, who only mustered nine shots on goal in the first two periods, to a 3-2 lead entering the final stanza.

Whatever head coach Tony Granato said during intermission lit a fire under the Badgers offense because UW outshot PSU 11-8 in the third and, most importantly, poured in three goals to cement the win. All three members of Wisconsin’s top line, Cole Caufield, Brock Caufield and Linus Weissbach, scored in just under a six minute time frame in the middle of the third period.

Freshman RW Sam Stange out of Eau Claire scored the first two goals of his career, joining the Caufield brothers (Stevens Point) and Jack Gorniak (West Salem), in the onslaught of in-state goals for the Badgers. Weissbach, who is sadly from Gothenburg, Sweden and not Wisconsin, put an exclamation point on the evening with the sixth goal, and his third on the season, for the Badgers.

Stange earned first star of the game for his efforts, while Brock Caufield and human brick wall Beydoun earned second and third star respectively.

Some notes from UW:

• Freshmen on fire: F Sam Stange earned his first two goals and points of the season while D Anthony Kehrer notched his first two assists and points of the season.
• The entire first line earned a goal in the third period within a span of 5:45 minutes. This is the first game brothers Brock and Cole Caufield scored together in the same frame.
• Wisconsin’s power play improved 5-17 (29.4 percent), scoring a power-play marker for the fifth consecutive game.

UW takes on No. 15 Penn State in the series finale Tuesday night at 5 p.m. at LaBahn Arena. Watch the games live on Big Ten Network or listen locally on 1310 WIBA.