From flirting with disaster to the NCAA championship game: How Wisconsin turned its season around

In three years under head coach Mike Hastings, each year has delivered peaks and valleys. The Wisconsin Badgers ascended to the nation’s top ranking in 2023-24, Hastings’ first year at the helm, before a late-season collapse resulted in a first-round overtime loss to Quinnipiac.

The valleys were lower in year two as they struggled to win close games. But year three has been a rollercoaster from the jump. Let’s take a closer look at how Wisconsin managed to earn its way to the title game when it nearly found itself on the outside looking in.

Year three of the Hastings era got off to a strong start, mirroring the early-season success of 2023-24 with Wisconsin rising to number two in the USCHO ranking after splitting at then-No. 2 Michigan and sweeping then-No. 1 Michigan State in East Lansing. But the March stumble the Badgers experienced in the first two years came early this season as Wisconsin dropped six straight to close out January and effectively kill any hopes of competing for the Big Ten regular season title.

In order to get a good picture of how Wisconsin battled back from the quicksand that was strangling the life out of the season, it’s important to first diagnose what went wrong during the winter break.

First and foremost, Wisconsin was an absolutely elite offensive team in the first half of the season. The Badgers averaged 4.44 goals per game in the first semester while playing half their games against teams ranked at the time. The offensive prowess allowed some breathing room as freshman goaltender Daniel Hauser got comfortable between the pipes. Hauser was afforded some mistakes, knowing Wisconsin could make up the difference, though he also showed some brilliant flashes early in the season.

The emergence of freshman forward Blake Montgomery also helped set the tone for Wisconsin’s early-season success. His speed through the neutral zone and quick strike ability made the offense a bit more dynamic. Montgomery notched his eighth goal of the season against Notre Dame on December 6 and looked prime to take on a key contributor role the rest of the way.

As of April 10, Montgomery has only added one more goal in the second half of the season as his production slowed dramatically, only registering five total points since that Notre Dame series in early December.

It’s not all Montgomery’s fault by any means, but his story is indicative of a larger offensive struggle that’s plagued the Badgers as the season started to slip away. Wisconsin’s scoring average dropped in the second half of the season, where they averaged only three goals per game, nearly a goal and a half less than in the first half. The second-half scoring average is also largely propped up by a couple of high-scoring series against Notre Dame and Penn State, where they scored nearly six goals per game in those four contests.

The offensive stagnation coincided with some incredibly inconsistent goalie play. Hauser was dealing with a nagging upper-body injury that lingered a bit from the offseason, likely made worse by his dominating the time share in the crease. I would also argue that he started to hit the freshman wall after setting a pretty high bar early in the season.

With Hauser being limited for a stretch, the Badgers turned to transfer Eli Pulver, who initially shone in the two-game sweep over Michigan State before enduring a stretch where he was pulled in three of four starts. The inconsistency on the back end certainly wasn’t translating to more goals for the offense.

The timing was less than ideal, as Wisconsin returned to conference play in January with then-No. 4 Michigan State and then-No. 8 Penn State, all four games being losses for the Badgers. Losing to those teams wasn’t too concerning, but it was the fifth and sixth losses to a poor Minnesota team that started to sound the alarm bells.

By the time February rolled around, the Badgers were playing themselves out of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament despite being one of the best teams in the country earlier in the season. With the benefit of foresight, we now know that Wisconsin is playing for a national championship on Saturday. So what happened that allowed them to turn their season around and get back on track?

Well, I don’t know that there is one singular thing we can point to as the reason Wisconsin was able to right the ship. If we want to try and point to one cause, it’s the man behind the bench: Mike Hastings. Hastings is an elite coach who now has three Frozen Fours to his name, taking Minnesota State in 2021 and 2022 before taking the Wisconsin job in the 2023-24 season. This is an experienced coach who knows the game, and the job he did pulling this squad out of their slump has been incredible. He has a consistent message, and when times were dark, the players bought in.

That said, getting consistent play in goal was also a big factor. Wisconsin was giving up five goals per game during the six-game skid in January, an unsustainable amount no matter how well the offense plays. The goaltending hasn’t needed to be perfect, just good enough to not let the game get away early.

Most importantly for Daniel Hauser, he was essentially able to gain valuable playoff experience during the regular season while Wisconsin was fighting for its postseason lives. That type of experience is already paying dividends with the recent stretch of wins over Dartmouth, Michigan State, and North Dakota.

This last part is less quantifiable, but you can see it when you watch Wisconsin play—this team has started to play for each other, and I think that stems largely from captain Ben Dexheimer. He’s the undeniable heart and soul of this team. When the Badgers lost defensemen Logan Hensler and Zach Schulz to long-term injuries, Dexheimer elevated his play and refused to let this team use it as an excuse to pack it in.

Dexheimer leads all Big Ten defensemen in goals this season with seven, none bigger than his overtime winner against Michigan State to propel Wisconsin to the Frozen Four. His presence was felt against North Dakota when he sold out to block a shot with his ankle as the Badgers were fighting off a five-on-three. His play has been the embodiment of the lengths this Badger team is willing to go to keep their season alive, and they’ve been fighting for it since the beginning of February.

What we’ve seen over the last two months is a team willing to recognize that they put themselves in an unfavorable position and, rather than fold, embrace the adversity and come out better on the other side for it. Nobody cares who gets the glory. They’re not worried about forcing the puck to players to feed any egos. This is a selfless hockey team, which now makes them a dangerous hockey team.

Don’t believe me? Ask Michigan State or North Dakota. Someone better warn Denver, too.