Badgers men's hockey: Kyle Hayton makes 17 saves in win over St. Lawrence, his former team

The silence around Kyle Hayton’s crease was unexpected.

The University of Wisconsin goaltender thought he would be hearing some chirps from his former St. Lawrence teammates Friday night when he lined up against them for the first time.

“It was kind of quiet out there tonight,” Hayton said. “Hopefully it’ll get a little more mouthy tomorrow.”

Of course, when the puck is at the other end of the ice for most of the game, there aren’t as many opportunities for interactions.

The fifth-ranked Badgers suffocated St. Lawrence in possession time, earning a 4-2 victory at the Kohl Center.

Seamus Malone’s power-play goal in the second period broke a 2-2 tie for UW (6-2), which has its best eight-game start to a season since 2005-06, the last time it won the national championship.

Hayton, who played 104 games in a St. Lawrence jersey over the past three seasons before completing a graduate transfer this summer, made 17 saves in an outing that had carried extra significance.

“There’s obviously a little added emotion,” he said. “I don’t think it could possibly not be.”

Saints coach Mark Morris, whose team fell to 0-7, shrugged when asked what it was like seeing his former goalie in the other team’s crease.

“I turned that page a while ago,” he said. “It was unfortunate for our program that decision was made, but we’ve moved on.”

Morris also said he didn’t think his team, which was outshot 40-19 and had only 40 shot attempts to UW’s 82, did enough to challenge the Badgers.

“I thought Kyle fought the puck,” Morris said. “I’ve seen Kyle play really good hockey, and I thought we had an opportunity tonight if we were sharp to capitalize. But we didn’t.”

Hayton got off to a rocky start when Callum Cusinato scored the first of his two game-tying goals on the Saints’ first shot.

That came after a turnover by Badgers defenseman Tyler Inamoto in front of the net, and it tied the game 1-1 just 45 seconds after Ryan Wagner put the Badgers ahead in the opening minute.

Were there extra jitters to go along with the emotion for Hayton?

“He probably was more nervous than I thought he’d be,” Badgers coach Tony Granato said. “With his composure and his confidence and his demeanor, I thought he’d be a little bit more relaxed.”

Said Hayton: “I don’t think (I was) any more nervous. It was just another game. I think there was a little added excitement, for sure, to play those guys again. Emotion was there, for sure.”

Malone put the Badgers ahead for good with 5:18 left in the second period on UW’s second power-play goal.

In front of the net, Matt Ustaski got his stick on a Jake Linhart shot, but the puck deflected wide right. Malone collected it below the goal line and banked it in off Saints goaltender Arthur Brey (36 saves), who was still getting back in position.

Before that goal, UW had the game tilted in its direction everywhere but in the score. Trent Frederic had scored on the power play earlier in the second period for the Badgers, who were 2-for-5 with the man advantage.

“It’s the difference in the game — two power-play goals, two-goal win,” Granato said.

UW got some breathing room in the third period thanks to something that has become common lately: a Will Johnson rush up the right side in transition.

Exiting the defensive zone, Johnson poked the puck past defenseman Nolan Gluchowski and then beat him to it. Johnson waited for defenseman Dylan Woolf to slide past and then fed Tarek Baker in front for a tap-in and a 4-2 lead.

“I had to make a split-second decision, and I decided to go around him because it’s worked the last couple times,” Johnson said. “I tried it again, and it worked.”

Source: madison