Wisconsin
Wisconsin’s chance for a split with Penn State falls apart in third period
MADISON – The Wisconsin men’s hockey team moved the needle in the right direction on Jan. 24, but the bottom line didn’t change.
The Badgers, who are ranked No. 5 in the USCHO and USA Hockey polls, dropped their fourth straight game, falling, 3-1, to No. 8 Penn State at the Kohl Center in a game played in front of the largest home crowd of the season (13,255) and on a night when the 2006 national championship team was in attendance and honored.
Wisconsin threw a shutout before allowing three goals during the final 14 minutes 56 seconds.
The effort came one day after Badgers coach Mike Hastings challenged his players to look in the mirror to see where they can improve to help the team. What was on display Saturday was better than what UW showed Friday in a 7-2 loss, just not good enough.
“We talk about being process-driven and tonight our process was better,” Hastings said.
Wisconsin created more chances but couldn’t finish
The Badgers finished with a 41-33 edge in shots. They also out-shot their opponents in their three previous losses.
Finishing has been the problem. Wisconsin has averaged 1.8 goals per game during its losing streak. Before that the Badgers were averaging 4.2 goals per contest.
Saturday the team’s leaders in shots were seniors Ben Dexheimer (six shots), Aiden Dubinsky (six), wSimon Tassy (five) and Christian Fitzgerald (five).
The only shot that got through through ironically came while Wisconsin was short-handed. Fitzgerald did the honors at the 13:10 mark off a pass from senior Tyson Dyck.
Penn State goalie Kevin Reidler finished with 40 saves
“I think we generated definitely enough chances to win the game,” Fitzgerald said. ”I think ultimately the result was caused by our defensive blunders at times.
“I felt we were in a position to win a game there going into the third, and it’s on us to do better. Can’t let that slip away.”
Wisconsin’s Daniel Hauser finished with 30 saves
That said, the UW defense was more up to the challenge Saturday. It killed three penalties during the first two periods and the play of freshman Daniel Hauser, who finished with 30 saves, was more in line with what he has shown for most of the season.
“I think Daniel Hauser absolutely answered the bell tonight,” Hastings said. “Last night, I think if you asked him, he wanted to be better and he definitely was tonight.
“Now I thought we supported him a bit more tonight, but when we did leave him on an island, he made some very, very good saves, and kept them at that point to zero.”
The Nittany Lions got the game winner from junior Reese Laubach with 6:52 to play off the rebound of a Hauser save.
“I think it’s a team game. I think you completely win as a team and lose as a team …,” Fitzgerald said. “There’s a handful of plays that could have gone into the net, put us up a few more goals and ultimately we lost as a team tonight, and we need to be better.”
The game didn’t end without drama.
When Wisconsin’s Blake Montgomery and Penn State’s Gavin McKenna were called for facemasking and game misconduct penalties with 10 seconds to play. Penn State was also called for four persisting misconduct penalties and Wisconsn was hit with five.
“If you’re around our game long enough, it’s an emotional game,” Hastings said. “Guys are out there competing and sometimes it boils over. I will say, getting the guys off the ice that was probably the best thing for that situation.”
Penn State, which raised its record to 18-6 overall and 10-4 Big Ten (31 points) moved into a first-place tie in the conference with Michigan, which is idle this week.
Wisconsin (15-7-2, 8-6 Big Ten, 22 points) is firmly entrenched in fourth place, eight points behind third-place Michigan State and eight points head of Minnesota.
But if the Badgers aren’t careful, that could change next Friday and Saturday when they visit the Minneapolis. The Gophers are on an eight-game winless streak that includes seven losses.
“Obviously they’re pretty hungry,” junior Quinn Finley said. “We need to go on there with the right mindset and be ready to go Monday and make sure that we’re ready to go when we get to Minnesota.”.
A missing Wisconsin teen was found safe after mysteriously vanishing from home four years ago as her family had believed she was “lured away.”
Joniah Walker, 19, was safely discovered on May 25, the Milwaukee Police Department told WISN on Tuesday.
Police officials didn’t disclose where Walker was found or provide any further information on the case, including whether the teen was with someone else.
Walker, then 15, had disappeared from her Milwaukee home on June 23, 2022.
Walker’s mother, Tanesha Howard, said she last saw her daughter lying in bed when she left for work the morning of her disappearance, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
“Joniah was lying in bed because she had just finished school. I went in to give her a hug before leaving for work,” Howard told the organization.
The mother and daughter duo had talked on the phone several times throughout the day before Walker “suddenly stopped responding.”
Walker was supposed to meet her father to apply for a summer work permit but failed to arrive at the designated time.
“He called me and said that Joniah wasn’t picking up her phone,” Howard said. “That is when I immediately knew something was wrong. I left work right away.”
A nearby ring camera captured Walker leaving the apartment complex at around 2:30 p.m. in the Brewer’s Hill neighborhood, a mile-and-a-half north of Downtown Milwaukee.
Video footage showed the teen carrying a large green backpack.
It was the last known sighting of Walker until she was reportedly found last month.
Howard believed her daughter had met someone online after she deleted her digital footprint and never returned.
“Somebody stole her…that was my first instinct,” Howard said. “But when I saw that she left with a big backpack that I had never seen, that’s when I knew. I was like, someone lured her away.”
The protective mother issued multiple pleas for her daughter to come home, begging Walker to “call me,” WISN reported in July 2022.
“She is my youngest daughter, so I always call her by ‘baby girl’ because that is exactly who she is, my baby girl,” she said. “She is what I would describe as a perfect daughter. She is angelic, soft spoken and very intelligent.”
Walker was one of the faces of a legislative push by Wisconsin State Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) seeking to pass a bill to create a Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force, according to Fox6 Now.
Stubbs says she believed Walker was still alive, telling Howard to hold out hope for her daughter’s return.
“I believed Joniah was still living, and I said that to her – I don’t believe Joniah is dead, it’s only a matter of time,” Stubbs told the outlet.
“I think right now, the family needs their privacy,” Stubbs added. “I know there are so many questions, but I think as time goes by when they are ready to tell their story, they will tell it.”
Wisconsin’s sports teams will have a fitting jersey patch on their uniforms this year.
The Badgers unveiled a Culver’s uniform patch in a new video on Tuesday.
The fast food restaurant, known for its ButterBurgers and Frozen Custard, was founded in Wisconsin and is beloved by those in the state. Now, Culver’s has partnered up with the state’s flagship university.
The Wisconsin Badgers basketball offseason has looked slightly different than normal through the month of June.
Head coach Greg Gard’s class of 2027 rounds out the month of June, featuring three high-profile high school talents. Headlined by four-star in-state sensation Jalen Brown, the class also features three-star center Jack Thelen and Baboucarr Ann, Minnesota’s No. 1 prospect for the class of ’27.
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While 247Sports considers Brown the No. 70 player, No. 13 shooting guard, and No. 5 recruit from Wisconsin for the class of 2027, Ann’s status as a small forward is certainly comparable. The outlet’s composite ranking ranks Ann as the No. 63 overall player, No. 18 small forward, and top-rated recruit from his state, making the tandem one of the most prestigious duos to commit to UW in recent history.
247Sports’ director of scouting Adam Finkelstein had this to say about Ann in his recruiting profile:
“Ann is a long-armed, two-way wing who already has versatile tools and yet plenty of potential to keep improving for the foreseeable future… Ann is a long-armed, two-way wing who already has versatile tools and yet plenty of potential to keep improving for the foreseeable future.”
But how did Ann perform during his latest season with Maple Grove High School in Maple Grove, Minnesota?
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Through 31 games, he averaged 18.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.4 steals per appearance, according to StribVarsity. If Ann can provide even half of that production as a freshman, Wisconsin’s wing depth could look quite scary when he arrives in Madison.
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This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: What did prized Wisconsin commit Baboucarr Ann average in 2025-26?
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