The start of the first ever Big Ten/Hockey East Challenge was a forgettable one for the Badgers, as they were crushed from the beginning to the end in a 9-2 loss to the Boston College Eagles on Friday night in Boston.
With a scoreline like that, there wasn't much positive for the Badgers to take away, and it sure sounded that way as assistant Gary Shuchuck talked to radio play-by-play man Brian Posick, spinning a "positive" that at least the Badgers didn't give up a power play goal on the night.
Yep, that, and the Badgers going 1-for-2 on the power play on their end were about the only good things to take away from this one for the Cardinal and White.
BC's leading point scorer, Johnny Gaudreau, would have a major say in this affair—scoring a goal and recording two assists in the win.
In fact, this was a complete team effort for the Eagles, with only one player scoring multiple goals in the win.
With a scoreless tie hanging in the balance the Badgers gave up the opening goal at the 10:14 mark of the 1st period to Austin Cangelosi, with assists by Gaudreau and Kevin Hayes.
Less than a minute later Cangelosi would hit the back of the net again, scoring at 11:04 in the first period, with assists by Hayes and Ryan Fitzgerald.
Cangelosi would come close to lighting the lamp a few more times, but would be denied his hat trick on the night.
After the crazy 50 second period between Cangelosi's goals, the momentum was completely with the Eagles and they never let up.
Gaudreau would find the back of the net nearly two minutes later, putting BC up 3-0 at 13:30 in the 1st period.
Wisconsin's night was over then and there, but it only got worse.
Goals came pouring in to the Wisconsin net and Landon Peterson, despite some amazing saves and a great overall effort, was pulled in favor of walk-on Adam Miller after giving up goals one through six in all of 21:54 of ice time as well.
Miller came in to play the last 38:15 of the game, allowed three more goals, but made 24 saves on 27 shots by the Eagles.
Wisconsin was outshot 41-29 on the night by the Eagles, who also won 46 of 80 faceoffs.
BC would push their lead to 7-0 before the Badgers battled back (too little, too late obviously) on a goal by Michael Mersch (2), to make it 7-1 at the 14:45 mark of the 2nd period on a power play.
UW would add a goal from stud Nic Kerdiles after the scoreline read 8-1 in favor of the home team, extending his point streak to 15 straight games.
There's no sugarcoating what happened on Friday night—Wisconsin got their butts kicked.
However, the good news is they don't have time to let the loss linger, as they must take on Boston University tomorrow night at 6pm CT in the final game for the Badgers in the Big Ten/Hockey East Challenge.
Let's just hope results are better this time around?
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