For just a moment, senior forward Ben Street seemed all alone on the ice.
The lone senior to not participate in a pregame Senior Night celebration found himself racing away from the pack with the final seconds of the second period draining away and only St. Cloud State's freshman goalie Mike Lee standing between him and a two-goal lead going into the third.
Lee barreled out of the net, and Street saw his chance, made a move to his left and muscled a shot toward the goal as Lee took his legs out from under him. The puck found the net as the period ended, and the referees went to video review to see if it really made it in time.
The final verdict: The puck crossed as the clock rolled from 0.2 to 0.1 seconds.
""I knew I didn't have very much time, and I was actually thinking I was going to have to shoot it pretty early,"" Street said. ""When I looked up, the goalie was charging at me, so I figure I could probably make a move on him and then get an open net. Luckily I was able to hold onto the puck kind of while I was falling down and slide it in.""
That goal, set up by a perfect breakout pass from fellow senior forward Michael Davies, gave the Badgers a 4-2 lead, dissipated the No. 4 Huskies' momentum and provided a turning point in Wisconsin's 7-4 win. St. Cloud had scored less than a minute earlier but spent the whole third period playing catch-up and could never equal the home team on the scoreboard.
St. Cloud State head coach Bob Motzko saw it in more dire terms, calling Street's tally ""probably the nail in our coffin.""
Street, however, was not the only senior to shine in his final regular-season game in the Kohl Center. All seven seniors scored, and they combined for four goals and six assists, sharing the team's Hard Hat Award for effort.
Two notable goals came from senior forwards Aaron Bendickson and Andy Bohmbach, a duo not relied upon for goal scoring, as they provided the Badgers' breathing room late in the third.
The symmetry of getting that production from every senior was somewhat unexpected, but the seeds of such an ideal night for the departing players were planted earlier in the day.
""We were talking about it before the game, it would be pretty cool if we all scored but the odds of that are not too good,"" Davies said. ""It's a big way to leave, and we've all had a great experience here, and now it's going to be sad to leave this place.""
For Street the Senior Night process was just a bit different.
The fifth-year player participated in the Senior Night festivities last season, limping onto the ice due to a devastating knee that ended his season in mid-October and forced him to take a medical redshirt. He made a remarkable recovery, however, and has been a key leader for the Badgers' top-5 team.
""Last year [on senior night] obviously I didn't have to play. It was a pretty emotional day, because I didn't really know what was going to happen,"" Street said. ""Tonight I just decided to make the most of it. There's no point in kind of being disappointed that it's the last home game or anything like that. Just try to seize the moment, make the best of it.""
And after five years in Cardinal and White, scoring a goal he called one of the most significant of his career seems to qualify as the moment he'd like to leave the Kohl Center with.
