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.