No. 8 Denver got three goals in 2:41 — from Liam Finlay, Tyler Ward and Kohen Olischefski — to turn a tie game at the start of the third period into a runaway, 6-3 victory over the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team on Friday at the Kohl Center.
Three stars
No. 3: Left wing Jack Gorniak may have been the Badgers’ best all-around forward even though he didn’t have a point.
No. 2: Defenseman Ian Mitchell single-handedly set up the Tyler Ward goal that gave Denver its first two-goal lead.
No. 1: Denver forward Liam Finlay scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and added two assists.
Up next
The Badgers and the Pioneers close the non-conference series at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Pregame
The University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team opens the second half of the season on Friday (7 p.m., no TV, BTN Plus pay stream, 1310 AM) with a big challenge against No. 8 Denver.
Not only are the Badgers playing a team ranked sixth in the PairWise Rankings, they’re doing it without leading scorer K’Andre Miller, who’s with Team USA at the World Junior Championship.
Jesper Peltonen will make his first appearance in the defensive top six against the Pioneers, working with Ty Emberson.
Denver has Canadian defenseman Ian Mitchell back from the World Juniors.
Badgers (8-7-3)
Jack Gorniak – Seamus Malone – Will Johnson
Linus Weissbach – Tarek Baker – Sean Dhooghe
Roman Ahcan – Dominick Mersch – Brock Caufield
Max Zimmer – Mick Messner – Jason Dhooghe
Tyler Inamoto – Wyatt Kalynuk
Jesper Peltonen – Ty Emberson
Pioneers (10-4-2)
Jarid Lukosevicius – Cole Guttman – Emilio Pettersen
Colin Staub – Jaakko Heikkinen – Ryan Barrow
Tyler Ward – Kohen Olischefski – Liam Finlay
Jake Durflinger – Tyson McLellan – Jared Resseguie
Griffin Mendel – Michael Davies
Slava Demin – Ian Mitchell
Les Lancaster – Erich Fear
Wisconsin Badgers
Badgers earn slew of WCHA Season Honors · The Badger Herald
