MADISON, Wis. – For the second weekend in a row, Wisconsin had a freshman come to the forefront of its potent offense.
Following up on Linus Weissbach’s two-goal effort last Sunday, Badgers forward Tarek Baker scored a pair of goals, including his first collegiate goal on a penalty shot on Friday, and then the crucial third goal in Wisconsin’s 3-2 victory over Ohio State in front of 9,480 fans Saturday night at the Kohl Center.
“I know Tarek can score, but his overall play this weekend was outstanding,” Wisconsin coach Tony Granato said. “He should be confident with his play so far and he’s going to be a big part of our team moving forward.”
Baker’s second goal of the weekend came 103 seconds after the Badgers took a 2-0 lead in middle frame. On a two-on-one rush, the Verona, Wisconsin native faked a pass to teammate Matthew Freytag, before firing a shot underneath Ohio State junior goaltender Sean Romeo.
“Tarek was huge for us tonight,” Wisconsin captain Cameron Hughes said. “He’s plays a lot on our penalty kill, wins a lot of face offs and makes a lot of plays for us.”
Baker’s goal proved to be the difference after the Buckeyes rallied for the second straight night to make things interesting. Trailing 3-0 with eight minutes and 45 seconds remaining, Ohio State cut the deficit to two when junior forward Freddy Gerard one-timed a perfect back-door feed from defenseman Matt Joyaux.
“Freddy plays with a lot of energy and he’s just one of those guys that you root for every night because he plays so hard,” Ohio State coach Steve Rohlik said. “He’s not the biggest guy out there but he goes to the dirty areas, and when you are playing with a guy like Mason (Jobst), pucks are going to find you somewhere.”
Just 24 seconds later Ohio State climbed to within a goal, as this time Gerard was the middle man on a beautiful tic-tac-toe setup from Jobst, which Buckeye forward John Wiitala finished behind Wisconsin goaltender Kyle Heyton.
“It is two good hockey teams, but for a while there it looked like tonight was going to be a yawner,” Ohio State coach Steve Rohlik said. “Give my guys credit in that they battled to the end. They were relentless and have that belief they can come back.”
Heyton survived the third period onslaught to record his second win of the season, as the senior netminder made 16 saves. Romeo stopped 22 of 25 Wisconsin shots to take the loss.
“It was important for Kyle to get back in there after a tough loss on Friday,” Granato said. “He played really well last night and those two back door goals tonight are really tough on any goalie. But he’s confident and it was important for him to bounce back with a win tonight.”
Prior to Baker’s beautiful tally, Hughes one-timed a carom off a point shot by Peter Tischke nine minutes into the second period to give the Badgers a 2-0 lead.
“(Tischke) made a good play from the defense, and it was a pretty lucky bounce,” Wisconsin’s leading returning scorer said. “But if you go to the net good things will happen.”
Badgers forward Will Johnson opened the scoring shortly after the 12-minute mark of the first period, on a play setup by defenseman Josh Ess. Cutting down the left side Ess found Hughes with cross crease feed. Romeo stopped the initial shot, but Johnson found a gaping net on the rebound.
Overall, Ohio State and Wisconsin’s intense opening weekend series of Big Ten hockey is a great sign of things to come in 2017-18. The 12th ranked Badgers and 19th ranked Buckeyes represent just two of the ultra-competitive seven teams in the conference this season.
“All of the Big Ten teams are going to make each other better this season,” Granato said. “The competitiveness of the conference is great for our players, and it’s a great thing for our fans.”
Next weekend Wisconsin (2-1-0, 1-1-0-0 Big Ten) will face its first road trip of the season with visits to Boston College and Merrimack. Ohio State (1-1-0, 1-1-0-0) kicks off its home slate at Value City Arena with a two-game series against Rensselar.
