Two plays.
Two plays can be the difference between a sweep and a split, and with all else being equal between Wisconsin and Minnesota-Duluth Saturday, a few big moments left the Badgers with a 1-0 loss.
The first one came in the opening period when junior Duluth goaltender Alex Stalock went behind the net to play the puck and tried to clear it up the middle of the ice. Senior Badger forward Tom Gorowsky stood between the circles with nothing but an open net before him as Stalock ran into a Wisconsin forward and
fell down.
And then he sent the shot wide right.
I kind of knew he was going to shoot it and just waited for it. I knocked it down there, had all the time in the world and, I don't know, I just wasn't focused or for whatever reason I missed the net,"" Gorowsky said. ""Was it the reason we lost the game? No. But it would have made the game a lot different.""
After that, both teams settled into a defensive game with few exceptional scoring chances. That was, until sophomore forward Podge Turnbull made a crushing mistake early in the third period.
Turnbull threw an errant pass in his own zone and freshman Bulldog center Jack Connolly intercepted it. After corralling the puck, Connolly fed junior wing Jordan Fulton, who was cutting toward the open side of the net for the score.
The Badgers generated a few scoring chances, but after sophomore defenseman Cody Goloubef's one-timer was blocked with five seconds to go, the Badgers were finished.
Overall Wisconsin out-shot Duluth 33-19, but Stalock turned away every Badger shot.
Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves pointed out that his team had other scoring chances besides Gorowsky's, but said that they just did not play as well as the evening before.
The Badgers fell behind early Friday night when Connolly fired a rebound into the chest of Wisconsin goaltender Shane Connelly, who was falling backward. The puck went over Connelly, and his team trailed just five minutes into the game.
Junior Wisconsin wing Michael Davies answered on the powerplay seven minutes later when his shot caught the inside of Stalock's left leg pad and squirted through for a goal.
Hard work would give Wisconsin the lead as junior wing John Mitchell came from behind the net and tried to wrap the puck around Stalock. The shot was blocked, but sophomore center Sean Dolan fought past his defender to get a stick on the puck and send it in.
""We said going into this game, playing against young Stalock, that he's a very good goaltender and if we're going to get chances, the goals that we're going to get are going to be on rebounds,"" Eaves said. ""It was a second-effort type of goal. He stayed strong with his stick, he stayed strong at the net.""
In the third the Badgers put on a stifling defensive performance, maintaining puck possession and allowing only four shots. Wisconsin scored once more when Stalock was pulled from the net, leaving the final score at 3-1.
""Obviously, the third period they didn't take too many chances, trying to protect the lead,"" UMD head coach Scott Sandelin said. ""We tried to be certainly a little bit more aggressive and had a pipe and some opportunities, but not a lot - not as many as you need to have. They're good. They make it tough to get the puck to the net.""
The split was Wisconsin's second in its last two series. The team now sits in third place in the WCHA, two points behind Denver and one behind North Dakota.
