Wisconsin men’s hockey: UW starts second half of season with Holiday Face-Off title

We know that this news is so last year, but sometimes things get pushed to the back burner despite being awesome. The Wisconsin Badgers men’s hockey team opened up the second half of their season with an impressive tournament win. UW beat the Yale Bulldogs and No. 16 Providence Friars in consecutive days to claim the 2021 Holiday Face-Off title in Milwaukee.

On Tuesday night against Yale, the Badgers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second period thanks to freshman forward Zach Urdahl’s first career goal. Wisconsin extended the lead to 2-0 early in the third period, but gave up two straight goals to the Bulldogs which sent the game to overtime.

In the extra frame, Brock Caufield played hero and scored the game-winner (fast forward to 32 seconds in the video below to see the replay) to send Wisconsin to the finals.

On Wednesday night in the championship game against the No. 16 Friars, the roles were reversed. Heading into the final period the Badgers were down 2-0 and things were looking bleak. Corson Ceulemans scored early in the third to cut the lead in half and then Mathieu De St. Phalle jammed home a rebound to tie the score at two and send the game into OT.

While the game will go on the record as a 2-2 tie, a shootout was needed to determine the Holiday Face-Off Champion. Badgers goaltender Jared Moe stood tall in net, stopping five of six Friar shooters. Brock Caufield and Zach Urdahl scored in the shootout to win the tournament for the Badgers.

De St. Phalle was named most outstanding forward and Ceulemans was named most outstanding defenseman of the tournament.

Next up for UW, the Badgers play host to Ohio State at the Kohl Center Friday and Saturday Jan. 7-8. Puck drop on Friday is set for 7 p.m. CT and 6 p.m. CT on Saturday.