Badgers inches away from claiming Big Ten lead, fall to Gophers 3-2

Published Feb. 25, 2017 11:16 p.m. ET

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Hockey proved itself once again to be the game of inches at Mariucci Arena.

With the Badgers down a goal and on a 6-on-4 man advantage, senior forward Grant Besse sent a shot past Minnesota goaltender Eric Schierhorn, but forward Vinni Lettieri was there to swipe it away.

The Badgers went on to lose, 3-2.

Minnesota jumped out to a quick start and led 15-5 on shots in the first period. Gophers' Rem Pitlick broke open the game with his 11th goal of the season, and Ryan Norman batted a puck out of midair to put the Gophers up 2-0 right before the end of the first intermission.

But Wisconsin, one night after beating the Gophers to tie them in the Big Ten Standings, weren't finished.

The captain Luke Kunin sent one past Schierhorn's right pad to bring Wisconsin within one. It was his 20th goal of the season, making Kunin the first 20-goal scorer in a Badgers uniform since Michael Mersch in 2013-14.

Wisconsin used another power play to tie the score with under one minute remaining in the second period. Jake Linhart scored his sixth of the season.

Minnesota improves to 21-9-2 overall and 12-4-0-0 in the Big Ten, good enough for first place. Wisconsin (18-11-1, 11-5-0-0 Big Ten) falls to second place in the conference.

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