Deja vu: Badgers hockey opens series with 4-3 loss to Spartans
The Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey team lost 4-3 in Friday's series opener against the Michigan State University Spartans in a matchup of the Big Ten's worst at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.
Wisconsin (6-14-7, 1-9-3-1 Big Ten) outshot Michigan State (8-20-3, 4-10-1-0 Big Ten) by a 37-21 margin and had clawed back from a two-goal deficit before surrendering the final goal.
UW came out hot, with freshman Luke Kunin scoring his team-leading 13th goal of the season just 45 seconds into the first period. Cameron Hughes and Grant Besse had assists. Kunin, Hughes and Besse combined for six points in the loss.
Midway through the first, the Spartans' Ryan Keller tied up the game by deflecting a sharp angle shot past Badgers freshman goaltender Matt Jurusik. Brennan Sanford and Cody Milan assisted.
MSU took momentum into the second period, scoring twice in the first 3 minutes. The first was Dylan Pavelek's on a rebound of a shot by John Draeger; then Zach Osburn found the back of the net with assists from Joe Cox and Mackenzi MacEachern.
UW's Will Johnson then cut the Spartans' lead to one with a power play goal with assists from Jake Linhart and Seamus Malone.
In the third period, Wisconsin tied the game on Hughes' fourth goal of the season with a little help from Kunin and Besse -- but Michigan State's Matt DeBlouw struck the final blow with a shot from the left circle and assists from Villiam Haag and J.T. Stenglein.
Badgers sophomore forward Ryan Wagner saw a career-long, five-game point-scoring streak (with goals in each game) end after going without a point.
The teams conclude the series Saturday at 8 p.m. CT. Wisconsin will be looking for a repeat of the teams' last series, Dec. 11-12 in East Lansing, Mich., in which the Spartans took the first game 4-3 and the Badgers took the second 3-0 -- Jurusik's only career shutout.
