Caufield, Badgers come up just short in OT loss to Notre Dame

Published Nov. 17, 2019 12:19 a.m. ET

Star freshman Cole Caufield and the Badgers came within inches of sweeping formerly undefeated Notre Dame.

They'll have to settle for a split after falling 5-4 in overtime Saturday in Madison.

Caufield, who entered Saturday's game tied for the national scoring lead with nine goals in 11 contests, broke in alone in overtime and flipped the puck to his backhand while sliding to a stop in front of the goal but had his shot turned aside at the line by Irish goaltender Cale Morris.

The Badgers won Friday's series opener 3-0, dealing Notre Dame its first loss of the season.

"We played well enough to win. We played a great team," head coach Tony Granato said. "There were lots of parts of the game when we fell behind and it looked like they were taking over but we found a way to get back in it."

The scoring began just 34 seconds into the game, when leading scorer Trevor Janicke put the Irish in front early. It took Wisconsin just a few minutes to respond.

Freshman Dylan Holloway evened things up at 6:37, scoring his second of the season. The Badgers answered again after Notre Dame's Cam Burke broke the tie at 11:17 of the first, as junior Linus Weissbach made it 2-2 at 13:06.

Jesse Lansdell scored the only goal of the second period to put the Irish up 3-2, but the two teams were back at it in the third.

Junior Wyatt Kalynuk scored 31 seconds into the third, while sophomore K'Andre Miller converted on the power play at 10:57 -- both on assists by Caufield -- to give the Badgers their first lead of the night.

Notre Dame's Colin Theisen scored at 13:36 to force overtime, before Alex Steeves ended it just under two minutes into the extra frame.

Sophomore Daniel Lebedeff made 31 saves for Wisconsin, as the Irish outshot the Badgers 36-35. Wisconsin scored the only power-play goal of the game, going 1-for-5 with the extra skater and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

Wisconsin (6-6-0, 1-3-1 Big Ten) visits Minnesota next weekend.