Fourth-ranked Wisconsin men’s hockey falters down the stretch, loses in OT to last-place Ohio State

The Wisconsin men’s hockey team had to settle for one point Friday night.

The Badgers were less than 2 minutes away from closing out a win over Ohio State that would have given them a chance to take lead in the Big Ten on Saturday.

Instead, Ohio State’s Stephen Halliday’s goal with 1 minutes 39 seconds left in regulation forced overtime and Davis Burnside’s goal with 12 seconds left in extra time lifted the Buckeyes to a 3-2 victory over the fourth-ranked Badgers in front of 6,353 at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

BOX SCORE: Ohio State 3, No. 4 Wisconsin 2, OT

The victory snapped a seven-game losing streak for Ohio State, 10-15-4, 2-15-2 – 9 points Big Ten). Wisconsin (22-7-2, 13-5-1 – 42) gained one point for the overtime and are four points behind Michigan State, which is idle this week.

Wisconsin finished with a 30-23 advantage in shots on goal but struggled to create opportunities for itself all evening.

Both teams, however, had no problem finding the back of the net in the third period.

All of the game’s scoring in regulation occurred during those 20 minutes with Wisconsin taking a 1-0 lead on a sophomore Jack Horbach goal that was set up by assists from freshman William Whitelaw and senior David Silye at the 5:40 mark and gaining a 2-1 advantage on an unassisted goal by sophomore Ben Dexheimer at the 16:26 mark.

The series finale begins at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.