WORCESTER—The city and the College of the Holy Cross teamed up to host an NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Regional on March 26 and 28 at the DCU Center.
The two-day, three-game event featured four of the nation’s top 16 teams in Michigan State, UConn, Dartmouth and Wisconsin. Worcester served as a host city for the 17th time overall and first time since 2022.
Wisconsin (23-12-2) shocked Big Ten conference rival and top-seed Michigan State (26-9-2) with a thrilling come-from-behind 4-3 overtime win in Saturday’s regional final. The Badgers, winners of six NCAA titles in their storied history, advance to the Frozen Four in Las Vegas where they will take on South Dakota on April 9.
“I’d like to thank Worcester for hosting and giving us a place to write some history,” said Wisconsin head coach Mike Hastings in the postgame press conference.
Hastings also noted that his players now have “a memory of Worcester that will last forever.” Wisconsin makes its first trip to the national semifinals since 2010–16 years ago.
Facing a 3-1 deficit in the third period, the Badgers pulled off a miraculous rally, scoring two goals just 34 seconds apart with less than five minutes remaining to even the score 3-3.
In the extra frame, a shot by Ben Dexheimer found its way into the back of the net 24 seconds into overtime to complete Wisconsin’s improbable comeback. Dexheimer finished the game with a goal and an assist while teammate Gavin Morrissey added a goal and two assists. Daniel Hauser had 24 saves in net for the Badgers.
“I saw my winger, who’s supposed to be on me, get caught on the wall,” said Dexheimer. “I just thought any shot is a good shot in overtime and just kind of filtered it there and was fortunate enough for it to go in.”
The game marked the fifth meeting of the season between two teams separated by only one goal in four of the five contests, including two overtime games. Saturday’s game was the first time Wisconsin and Michigan State faced off in an NCAA Tournament game in 21 years.
After a scoreless first period, Quinn Foley got things going for the Badgers with the first goal of the game 18 seconds into the second period. Morrissey picked up his team-leading 26th assist of the season on the play.
The Spartans answered when Gavin O’Connell notched a power play goal at 8:10 that evened the score 1-1. A mere 31-seconds later, Patrick Geary put Michigan State on top 2-1 with his
second strike of the season at 8:41. Anthony Romani and Owen West assisted on O’Connell’s goal while Tommi Mannisto and Tiernan Shoudy added helpers on the go-ahead score.
The Spartans appeared to put the game out of reach in the third when Matt Basgall’s power play goal from the point with just more than 11 minutes remaining gave them a two-goal advantage at 3-1.
But Wisconsin had no plans of ending its season early. Luke Osburn netted a goal at 15:13 to bring Wisconsin back within one before Morrissey added his ninth tally of the season at 15:47 to tie the game in dramatic fashion.
The Badgers held a 38-27 advantage in shots for the game, including an 18-6 edge in the third period.
Michigan State’s Trey Augustine suffered the tough luck loss in goal despite posting a game-high 34 saves. The Spartans, who played in their third consecutive NCAA Tournament, allowed four goals for the first time in more than a month.
In regional semifinal games at the DCU Center on March 26, Wisconsin defeated second seed Dartmouth 5-1 and Michigan State topped fourth seed UConn 2-1.
Student-athletes on both sides of the regional final spoke about their experience playing in Worcester.
“I think we’ve grown pretty fond of the place. We had a really good time here as a group,” said Morrissey.
“It’s been great. I think the crowd was great. The rink here is beautiful,” said Shoudy. “I remember when we first walked in, the Zamboni guy was asking us ‘Hey, I’m going to ask you guys how the ice is.’ They took great care of us.”
