(UW ATHLETICS) WORCESTER, MASS – Senior Jack Horbach broke a 1-1 tie at 9:47 of the third period to jump start the third-seeded Wisconsin men’s hockey team to a 5-1 victory over second-seeded Dartmouth at DCU Center on Thursday.
The win sends the Badgers (22-12-2) to their first Regional Final since 2010 to face top-seed Michigan State (26-8-2) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2 and the ESPN app.
The Badgers controlled play through most of the game, outshooting the Big Green, 28-14, and getting the first goal when Simon Tassy put home a rebound 2:52 into the game on the power play.
However, Hank Cleaves evened the score for Dartmouth at 10:05 and the game remained that way to just shy of the third period’s midpoint.
The Badgers did their best to regain the lead before then, but saw Quinn Finley, Grady Deering, Luke Osburn and Simon Tassy ring shots off the post; Finley and Jack Phelan fail on slot chances shorthanded; Finley, Tassy and Deering miss on backdoor chances; and Tassy get stopped on the doorstep.
With UW still controlling play, Vasily Zelenov threaded a pass to Horbach during a zone entry, and the senior skated through the slot, finishing backhand past Dartmouth netminder Emmett Croteau to finally give UW another lead at 9:47 of the third period.
Tassy scored for the second time, redirecting Ryan Botterill’s shot, at 14:17 of the third period.
UW sealed the game with a pair of empty-net tallies from Christian Fitzgerald and Quinn Finley, who each scored their 16th goals of the season in the process.
Freshman goaltender Daniel Hauser stopped 13 of 14 shots faced, and UW went 1-for-2 on the nation’s second-ranked penalty kill. UW was perfect on its three penalty kills.
Notes to Know
– Wisconsin won its first NCAA Tournament game since the 2010 NCAA Frozen Four semifinals and snapped a five-game NCAA losing streak with the victory
– UW tallied four goals in the third period, giving it eight four-goal periods on the season and the 18th period with at least three goals
– The Wisconsin-Dartmouth matchup marked the first all-time meeting between the two schools
– Senior forward Christian Fitzgerald’s goal marked his 100th career NCAA point, making him the first Badger since All-American Linus Weissbach (2017-21) reached the mark in 2021. Fitzgerald tallied his first 29 points as a freshman at Minnesota State
– The Badgers officially improved to 38-24-2 all-time in NCAA Tournament action in their 28th official appearance
– Junior forward Quinn Finley scored his sixth goal in the last 10 games and tallied his second three-point game of the season. He entered as the lone Badger skater with a goal in NCAA play
– Senior Simon Tassy recorded his first two-goal game of the season
– Senior Jack Horbach tallied his second game-winning goal of the year on just his third tally of the season
Up Next: Wisconsin faces a familiar foe in Michigan State on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. CT in the Worcester Regional Final. The winner advances to the 2026 NCAA Frozen Four in Las Vegas on April 9 and 11.
The game will air on ESPN2
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