MADISON, Wis. — Coming off a disappointing third-place finish in the Great Lakes Invitational earlier this week in Detroit, fifth-ranked Michigan Tech needed little motivation for Friday’s showdown with former WCHA rival Wisconsin at the Kohl Center.
Paced by a pair of tallies from both leading scorer Tanner Kero and fellow co-captain Blake Pietila, MTU blitzed the Badgers with three goals on their first six shots and six goals in the first 32 minutes en-route to an 8-1 thrashing of the hosts.
“It was a similar game to that Michigan (loss) at the GLI, similar in both shots and opportunities, except that night we didn’t capitalize,” Michigan Tech coach Mel Pearson said. “Tonight, they went in, and maybe went in a little bit too easy for us, but it’s nice that they went in.”
Michigan Tech (15-4-0) wasted little time getting their offense started as Kero forced a turnover just under four minutes in. On a one-on-two shorthanded rush, Kero unleashed a long screened shot from just inside the blue line that eluded Badgers’ goaltender Joel Rumpel’s glove hand.
“[Wisconsin] is having a bit of a down year, so we wanted to get on them early and set the tempo,” Kero said. “It was huge to get off to that big start and get a couple to go in early. From there, we just kept our foot on the gas pedal and kept on rolling.”
Less than five minutes later, it was Tech on the man-advantage, but the result was still the same. Michigan Tech’s top goal scorer, Alex Petan, took time to set up at the top of the slot before calmly ripping his team’s third shot of the game through traffic and past Rumpel’s stick side.
The Huskies’ offensive outburst briefly came to an end a minute and half later as Shane Hanna slipped in untouched deep in the slot. When he was finally confronted, Hanna’s errant shot caromed to Pietila for an easy tap-in and a 3-0 lead.
“When you are counted on for offense, it’s your role and that’s what you want to do,” Pietila said. “But all four lines for us played extremely well and all of our lines were contributing tonight.”
At that point, Badgers’ coach Mike Eaves swapped out Rumpel for fellow senior Landon Peterson, who held the dam up for the rest of the period, making several key saves to keep Wisconsin treading water.
“Tonight, we got caught not being able to play at their pace,” Eaves said. “They took advantage of their opportunities and got the great start that you always talk about. But the pace was the difference right away.”
Just over a minute into the second period, the Huskies blasted open the floodgates as Michigan Tech’s fourth line put together a beautiful backdoor setup. Joel L’Esperance set the play in motion, perfecting a cross ice feed onto Dylan Steman’s stick for an easy redirection goal past Peterson.
“I was really happy for Dylan Steman scoring that goal,” Pearson said. “I thought he had a tremendous game for us.”
Just over eight minutes later, Blake Hietala saw Mark Auk’s shot deflect to him alone in the slot. With time to burn, the Houghton, Mich., native slid the puck under Peterson for a 5-0 advantage.
Kero put the exclamation point on the pummeling by taking Petan’s power-play feed from behind the net and rifling Michigan Tech’s sixth tally off the far post.
“Tanner’s having a fantastic year for us and he got a couple of great goals for us tonight,” Pearson said. “Blake Pietila hasn’t scored for a while, so it was good for him to score, too.”
Wisconsin (1-11-1) finally got on the board in the closing seconds of the second period, as Adam Rockwood hit Morgan Zulinick in stride on a seem pass which split the Huskies’ defense. In all alone, Zulnick beat MTU goalie Jamie Phillips with a beautiful forehand deke to the far side.
“It was 8-1 tonight, but I thought that power-play goal by Morgan Zulinick was the prettiest goal I’ve seen in a month,” Eaves said. “We will build on that as we try to get this thing going in the second half.”
In the third period, Pietila added his second goal of the night as David Johnstone’s left hashmark blast rebounded to him and he followed it up with a laser to the top corner. With just over seven minutes to play, Malcolm Gould rounded out the scoring.
With the 8-1 lead and the win assured, Phillips gave way to sophomore Matt Wintjes to finish the contest.
Peterson made 29 saves for Wisconsin, while Rumpel took the loss after making just three saves.
“It was tough to say who their first line was because they all play the same way,” Eaves said of the Huskies. “They all play at [a high] pace, get the puck in [deep], win battles, back pressure like a banshee and they’ve got really good goaltending. There is a reason why they are ranked number five in the country.”
The Huskies will go for their first road sweep in Madison since 1974 in Saturday night’s rematch back at the Kohl Center.
“Wisconsin will be better tomorrow night,” Pearson said. “They haven’t had the opportunity to play many games lately and it’s always tough the first game back from the Christmas break. Having said that, this was a big win for us and a huge win for our program.”
