Wisconsin downed, 9-4, in Minneapolis

Wisconsin downed, 9-4, in Minneapolis

Late third period scoring surge spoils Badgers’ comeback effort

Jan. 25, 2019

MINNEAPOLIS — Despite only trailing by a goal late in the third period, the Wisconsin men’s hockey team could not corral Minnesota in the final moments of regulation, allowing four goals in four minutes to drop a 9-4 decision Friday night inside 3M Arena at Mariucci.

Freshman center Mick Messner scored in the second period, and forwards Brock Caufield, Jack Gorniak and Seamus Malone each lit the lamp in the third period to make it a 5-4 game in favor of Minnesota (10-10-4, 7-5-3-0 Big Ten), but the Gophers rattled off four unanswered goals with under five minutes to play, putting the game out of Wisconsin’s 8-11-4, 4-5-4-1 Big Ten) reach.

Wisconsin outshot the Gophers 46-28, but Minnesota’s success on the power play and an early 3-0 lead in the first period were enough to doom the Badgers.

Junior goaltender Jack Berry, while freshman netminder Daniel Lebedeff tallied 13 saves in the relief effort for the loss.

Notes to Know: 

• Rookie forwards Brock Caufield, Jack Gorniak and Mick Messner all tallied goals in Friday’s loss. Wisconsin’s freshman class finished the game with three goals and three assists for half of UW’s points.
• Freshman forward Jack Gorniak (1 goal, 1 assist) and freshman defenseman K’Andre Miller (2 assists) recorded multi-point games.
• The Badgers were 1-for-4 on the penalty kill in the loss.

Straight from the Rink
Head Coach Tony Granato
On Friday’s outcome: 
“For 55 minutes, we played good hockey, but you can’t play a 55-minute game. Minnesota is a team where if they see weakness or they see us on our heels, they take advantage of it and that’s what happened. Every time we let off the gas, they made a play and were able to pull away from us.”

“The last five minutes, we were frustrated. We played a great 55 minutes and we didn’t get rewarded for it. We got a couple penalties and that made things a little sloppier. We lost our composure and that was unacceptable. It’s been addressed and it won’t happen again.”