Four separate times, the No. 14 Wisconsin men's hockey team established one-goal leads over the weekend. The task of holding onto those leads, however, proved to be a far greater challenge.
The Badgers lost their first two games of the season, losing to No. 1 Boston College 5-4 Friday and falling 5-1 the next night at No. 7 New Hampshire. It was Wisconsin's first 0-2 start since 1998.
Wisconsin sophomore forward Patrick Johnson scored the season's first goal three minutes into the game when he put a rebound past the Eagles' sophomore netminder, John Muse. BC tied it up three minutes later when Brian Gibbons scored on a power play.
Early in the second period, the Badgers found themselves down after a shorthanded goal, but freshman forward Jordy Murray scored his first goal as a Badger to tie it up. Freshman defender Eric Springer gave the Badgers the lead again, but BC came back to tie it up at three all before the second period came to a close.
Wisconsin's last gasp came when senior forward Ben Street scored 80 seconds into the final period. Gibbons scored the Eagles' second shorthanded goal minutes later, and Eagles freshman forward Cam Atkinson put in the game-winner on a backhand shot with seven minutes left in the game.
The Badgers failed to convert on any of their six power plays and gave up a pair of goals with the man advantage.
Wisconsin senior goaltender Shane Connelly stopped 84 percent of the shots he saw and gave up more goals (five) than he had in any game since November.
Connelly was not, however, in net the next evening to face UNH. That responsibility fell to sophomore Scott Gudmandson.
Both teams combined for 11 first period penalties, but neither could score despite 27 total shots on goal. Several times the Badgers found themselves in a 3-on-5 disadvantage, but Gudmandson kept turning the Wildcats away.
Junior forward John Mitchell broke the scoreless tie early in the second period off an assist from sophomore defender Ryan McDonagh.
That was, however, the last time the Badgers found the back of the net and served as a prelude to an avalanche of Wildcat goals.
First, sophomore forward James van Riemsdyk scored on a near-empty net when Gudmandson lost track of the puck. Then, sophomore forward Paul Thompson put UNH up for good just 39 seconds later.
Gudmandson again got in trouble when he meandered out of the crease to retrieve the puck but was beaten to it by sophomore Wildcat forward Mike Sislo, who scored an unassisted goal on the open net.
At the end of the second, Wisconsin found itself down 3-1, despite out-shooting UNH 15-7 in the period.
New Hampshire added a pair of insurance goals in the final period, as the Badgers could not score on any of their five power plays in the last 20 minutes.
The Badgers' schedule does not get any easier, with a trip to No. 6 Denver next weekend, followed by a home series with No. 10 Minnesota and a visit to No. 5 North Dakota.
The difficult opening schedule could prove costly for the Badgers, as the NCAA instituted a new rule this season which requires teams to have more wins than losses to compete in postseason tournaments. The Badgers made the 16-team NCAA tournament last season with a 16-17-7 record.
- uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
