Facing adversity that was at times overwhelming, the Wisconsin men’s hockey team (1-3-2 WCHA, 1-5-2 overall) managed to force a tie Friday night, and battled to a tough loss Saturday against No. 3 Minnesota (4-2-2, 7-2-2) in Minneapolis.
Both games were played without the services of junior forward Mark Zengerle, who sustained a hand injury in a loss at Kohl Center two weeks ago against Colorado College and is not expected to return for at least another week.
The Badgers withstood 40 penalty minutes and the ejections of two forwards in sophomore Joseph LaBate and junior Tyler Barnes, after each received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for separate hits.
“Everyone in the locker room believes that we’re a resilient group,” sophomore goaltender Landon Peterson said. “We lost a few guys in the game but we all stuck together as a team.”
Junior forward Michael Mersch provided the offense for the Badgers Friday, scoring his fifth and sixth goals of the season in the first two periods.
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead five minutes into the contest on a goal by redshirt junior forward Zach Budish, but Mersch equalized the score within seconds to put the score at 1-1.
Just 48 seconds into the second period Minnesota took another lead with a goal from junior forward Erik Haula.
Mersch was able to tie things back up at two a few minutes later, after a beautiful series of assist passes from sophomore defenseman Jake McCabe and senior forward Derek Lee.
Wisconsin ended the second period having killed a fifteen-minute Minnesota power play, and came up with another huge fifteen-minute penalty kill when play resumed in the third.
“We just seem to keep running into that 50 mile-an-hour headwind,” head coach Mike Eaves said. “We geared down and got it done.”
Peterson held the Gophers scoreless for the rest of the game, and finished the night with 41 saves to record UW’s second tie of the season.
Minnesota came out hot Saturday, taking the only six shots in the first four minutes of the contest. Both teams took part in a few early scuffles that resulted in a total of eight roughing penalties in the first period alone.
“We just didn’t come out with the same passion we had Friday,” senior defenseman and team captain John Ramage said.
Wisconsin converted on a short-handed 2-on-1 opportunity with three minutes left in the first period to go ahead 1-0.
Halfway through the second period Minnesota junior forward Nick Bjugstad sent a slap shot past the Badgers’ sophomore goalie Joel Rumpel to equalize the score.
The third period put Wisconsin under once again, even after going five-for-five on penalty kills throughout the game.
UW was assessed four penalties in the final period, while the Gophers had only one.
With 13 minutes left in the game, Minnesota junior forward Tom Serratore let a wrist shot fly over the shoulder of Rumpel, giving the Gophers what would end up being the winning goal of the night.
Wisconsin was a man down for six of the final 13 minutes and Minnesota was able to sit in the UW zone for most of the final period peppering the Badger defense with shots.
“It’s pretty tough to generate shots when you’re playing in your own zone,” redshirt senior forward Ryan Little said. “We took ourselves out of it [with] a couple dumb penalties.”
The Gophers added an empty net score, putting them up 3-1 with 20 seconds left in the game, sealing Wisconsin’s fate.
Eaves attributed a portion of the loss to a failure to capitalize on power plays. “Our power play was anemic," he said. "I think we had four power plays and one chance [to score].”
