Follow live coverage of Saturday’s Wisconsin men’s hockey game against Notre Dame No. 11 | National Sports News

Two days later than originally scheduled due to COVID-19 quarantine absences with the home team, the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team opens a Big Ten series against No. 11 Notre Dame at the Kohl Center on Saturday. (8:30 p.m., no TV, BigTenPlus.com, 1:10 p.m.).

Here are five pre-game notes and the lines:

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Party : The Badgers honor nine seniors ahead of the game, the penultimate home game of the season. Fifth-year players Tarek Baker, Josh Ess, Max Johnson (four years at Bowling Green) and Tyler Inamoto will join fourth-year seniors Roman Ahcan, Brock Caufield, Jack Gorniak, Dominick Mersch and Jesper Peltonen in the squad.

Faded away: The Badgers had more than half of their roster without practice for at least part of the week due to quarantines, injuries or long-term illnesses. Baker, Inamoto and Daniel Laatsch are out; Owen Lindmark, Mike Vorlicky and Jake Martin are long-term absentees. forwards Johnson, Brayden Morrison, Mathieu De St. Phalle, Ryder Donovan and Caden Brown; defenders Corson Ceulemans and Ess; and goaltenders Jared Moe and Ben Garrity did not practice Tuesday through Friday due to quarantines.

First: Ahcan leads current UW players with seven goals and nine points in 14 career games against Notre Dame.

Streaks: The Badgers have lost six in a row. Their last slippage longer than that was at the start of the 2014-15 0-8 season.

Road: Notre Dame, which is locked in the Big Ten’s top four and entered Saturday 13th in the PairWise rankings, is 7-3 on the road this season.

Badgers (8-19-3, 4-12-1-3 Big Ten)

Attackers

Carson Bantle – Brock Caufield – Mathieu De St. Phalle

Jack Gorniak – Ryder Donovan – Liam Malmquist

Roman Ahcan – Dominick Mersch – Max Johnson

Brayden Morrison/Zach Urdahl-Caden Brown-Sam Stange

Defenders

Josh Ess – Corson Ceulemans

Jesper Peltonen – Anthony Kehrer

Luke LaMaster – Shay Donovan

Goalkeepers

Jared Moe

Cameron Rowe

Ben Garry

Grooves : F Owen Lindmark (injury), F Tarek Baker (injury), D Tyler Inamoto (injury), D Daniel Laatsch (injury), D Mike Vorlicky (injury), D Jake Martin (illness).

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Irish Fighter (20-8-0, 7-5-5-1 Big Ten)

Attackers

Jesse Lansdell – Jake Pivonka – Max Ellis

Landon Slaggert – Graham Slaggert – Trevor Janicke

Solag Bakich – Cam Burke – Ryder Rolston

Grant Silianoff – Hunter Strand – Jack Adams

Defenders

Spencer Stastney – Zach Plucinski

Adam Karashik – Jake Boltman

Charlie Raith – Ryan Helliwell

Hunt Blackmun

Goalkeepers

Ryan Bischel

Matthew Galajda

Josh Graziano

Officials

Referees: Joseph Carusone and Kevin Corbett.

Linesmen: Nick Bradshaw and Sam Shikowski.

Catherine J. Martinez