(UW ATHLETICS) MADISON, Wis. – A hat trick from Onalaska native Carson Bantle on ‘Wisconsin Night’ helped the No. 6 Wisconsin men’s hockey team to a 6-3 victory over No. 17 Penn State on Friday at the Kohl Center.Bantle’s performance powered UW (13-4-0, 7-2-0 Big Ten) to its fourth-straight win. In addition to Bantle’s three goals, William Whitelaw netted two and Quinn Finley tallied one to lift the Badgers over Big Ten opponent Penn State (9-6-3, 2-4-3 Big Ten) for its third consecutive conference victory.The Badgers got things going early with a goal 5:43 into the first period. Sophomore forward Christian Fitzgerald passed from the middle of Penn State’s left circle to sophomore forward Simon Tassy in front of the net. Tassy passed backward through his own legs to Whitelaw, who ripped a shot past the glove of Nittany Lion goaltender Noah Grannan to open the scoring.
UW struck again less than two minutes later. Sophomore forward Charlie Stramel passed from the neutral zone up the ice to find graduate student forward Owen Lindmark at the blue line. Lindmark skated the puck into the Penn State zone before saucing a pass to his right to find Bantle. Bantle let a slap shot fly to make it 2-0, Wisconsin.
Penn State found the back of the net with 11:51 remaining in the first period on a shot from Matt DiMarsico. Bantle scored his second goal of the evening 48 seconds into the second period. Senior defenseman Anthony Kehrer passed up the neutral zone to meet Bantle at the top of Nittany Lion territory. Bantle skated up to the top of the right circle and sunk a shot past the netminder for his sixth goal of the season.
The Badgers added a fourth goal less than five minutes later on a wrist shot from Finley to skate into the third period with a 4-1 lead.
Then 6:37 into the third period, Whitelaw tallied his second goal of the evening after Stramel made a cross-ice pass to the rookie before the freshman slid it past the pad of Grannan.
Five minutes later, Penn State scored its second goal of the evening on a shot from Alex St. Servagno. A goal from Tyler St. Paquette just after an expiring PSU penalty, 15:06 into the final frame made it 5-3.To cap off an eventful evening, Bantle completed his hat trick on the power play with four minutes left in the contest.
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