Wisconsin men’s hockey rebounds from slow start but falls to No. 9 Minnesota in overtime

MADISON – Minnesota came to the Kohl Center Friday night and spoiled the party.

The Wisconsin men’s hockey team played in front of its largest crowd of the season at the Kohl Center, but that support didn’t save the Badgers from an overtime loss to the Golden Gophers.

Sophomore Brody Lamb’s goal 61 seconds into OT lifted ninth-ranked Minnesota to a 2-1 victory over the fourth-ranked Badgers in front of 13,498. That is the largest crowd to see an NCAA men’s hockey home game this season.

The victory denied fourth-ranked UW a potential comeback victory as it overcame a slow start to control the second period and tie the game in the third.

BOX SCORE: No. 9 Minnesota 2, No. 4 Wisconsin 1 (OT)

The effort wasn’t all for naught, though. UW, which played without leading scorer Cruz Lucius due to injury, gained a point for the overtime. Meanwhile, Big Ten leader Michigan State lost to Notre Dame, leaving UW four points behind the Spartans in the standings.

“I thought Minnesota got off to a pretty good start, but I do like our resolve,” Wisconsin coach Mike Hastings said. “I thought the guys came back and played the right way. I thought our power play gave us some momentum. There weren’t a lot of special teams. That was playoff hockey. That’s battling in the Big Ten.”

Senior Owen Lindmark scored Wisconsin’s only goal at the 1-minute 35-second mark of the third period off assists from sophomores Simon Tassy and freshman Zach Schulz.

The Badgers (20-6-1, 11-4-0 – 33 points) finished the night with a 41-27 advantage in shots on goal and weren’t called for a penalty. Minnesota, however, got a first period goal from freshman Oliver Moore and owned a 2-0 advantage in shots in OT to  score the win.

“Our start is something we want back, but we were really happy with the rest of the game and the way we played and bounced back,” senior Mathieu De St. Phalle said. “Credit to their goalie. He played a great game, but I thought we did a good job of feeding off the crowd as the game went on. It’s just a tough way to go, but good thing we’ve one more tomorrow.”

The teams play the series finale at 7 p.m. Saturday and from the Wisconsin perspective there is plenty to build on.

After Minnesota (16-7-4, 9-5-3 – 28 points) played much of the first period in its offensive zone, UW bounced back in the second period and recorded 21 shots.

Five of those shots came on a power play that came as the result of an indirect contact to the head penalty at the 15:53 mark by Gopher Jimmy Clark on UW sophomore Jack Horbach. The play was initially ruled a major penalty but downgraded to a minor after a video review.

Either way it was a golden opportunity UW gained momentum from but not a goal.

“I thought our end to the second (period) was really good,” Lindmark said. “We had the power player and had it in their zone the whole time and had a lot of really good looks and he (Minnesota goaltender Justen Close) just stood on his head and made the plays to keep it out of the net, but I think that was a good turning point in the game.”

UW senior goaltender Kyle McClellan made 27 saves. The goals he allowed came on 2-on-1 rushes. Between the scores he and the rest of the UW defense held one of the country’s more explosive teams scoreless for almost 55 consecutive minutes.

Meanwhile, Close recorded 40 saves and Wisconsin was held to one goal for the second time in a week.

“What you saw tonight was two teams that understand what is at stake,” Hastings said. “You’re waiting for somebody to blink, whether that’s going to the power play or that is giving an outnumbered rush. Both teams defended really hard tonight. I thought both teams tried to get inside and the other team wouldn’t let them very often.”

The loss leaves Wisconsin in a similar position as last week. It lost the first game at Michigan and needed to win the series finale in OT to get the split.

The Badgers are focused on getting the same outcome this week while playing in front of what is expected to be an even larger crowd Saturday night.

“At the end of the day we got a point and we have an opportunity to take 10 out of 12 points on the year against these guys so we’re going to be jumping, ready to go,” Lindmark said. “We’re going to be playing for the fans and all the support we have on campus.”