Badgers drop back-and-forth battle in opening game of Big Ten Tournament

Published Mar. 3, 2018 1:19 a.m. ET

The Wisconsin men's hockey team dropped a back-and-forth affair to No. 3 Michigan 6-5 in the opening game of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday at Yost Arena.

After Michigan struck first at the 1:40 mark of the first, Wisconsin went on to score a trio of goals in a four minute span.

Tyler Inamoto lit the lamp at the 3:58 mark before Matthew Freytag scored at 6:59. Ryan Wagner completed the run at 8:03 to give Wisconsin a 3-1 lead.

Michigan then scored on three-straight power plays to take a 4-3 lead after one period. The Wolverines struck again in the second on another power play opportunity to widen their lead to 5-3.

Wisconsin responded with two power-play goals of its own. Linus Weissbach scored at the 10:00 mark of the second and Wagner added another at 1:13 to tie the game 5-5.

Michigan scored the go-ahead goal at 11:07 to secure a 6-5 win in the opening game of the best-of-three series.

Wisconsin goaltender Kyle Hayton stopped 23 shots in the loss.