The Wisconsin men's hockey squad fell in an early hole and could never completely recover on Friday night, leading to a 5-2 setback at the hands of Penn State at the Kohl Center.
Upstart Penn State (8-4-2 overall, 2-1-0 Big Ten) surged out to a quick 2-0 lead on Friday, seemingly before the host Badgers knew what hit them.
Then, however, Wisconsin got a goal from Morgan Zulinick to close to within one score, at 18:10 of the opening period. That was as close as Wisconsin (1-9-1, 0-1-0 Big Ten) would get, though.
Wisconsin got a late goal from Tim Davison to whittle Penn State's lead down to 4-2, but it wasn't enough.
Penn State added a last-minute, empty-net goal to cap its impressive showing.
Badgers netminder Joel Rumpel, peppered all night on Friday, produced 35 saves in a losing effort.
Penn State was paced by sophomore David Goodwin's goal and three assists.
The Badgers and Nittany Lions square off again on Saturday night in Madison.
