MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin men's hockey team allowed a goal 12 seconds into the opening period and couldn't overcome the early deficit in a 9-2 loss to Minnesota on Saturday night at the Kohl Center.

The Badgers (4-12-6, 1-7-2-1 Big Ten) trailed 4-0 after the first period, but mounted a comeback in the second, as they outshot the Gophers (13-10-0, 8-2-0-0) 15-5. UW got two goals back in that middle stanza, but couldn't get any closer than three goals the rest of the way.

"Being around sports long enough, you're going to have nights like this," head coach Mike Eaves said. "It's disappointing, but they happen. We don't have to overanalyze it. Young goaltender struggled, we weren't good enough in front of him, and didn't do enough good things to get off to a good start."

After the tough start, Wisconsin started the second strong and held a 10-1 edge in shots on goal more than halfway through the frame.

UW got on the board 4:27 into that second period when Cameron Hughes' wrister got deflected past Minnesota goaltender Eric Schierhorn. Jake Bunz started the play at the Badgers' blue line and sent a cross ice pass to Grant Besse at the Minnesota line. Besse then dropped a pass off for Hughes, and his ensuing shot ricocheted off a Minnesota defenseman's skate.

"It obviously wasn't the start we wanted, but we just had to regroup," Hughes said of the early deficit. "I thought even in the second period we came out and we had a lot of chances, we played pretty solid. It was tough but there's not much more you can do."

Minnesota got that goal back with less than four minutes left in the middle stanza, but the Badgers answered almost immediately. Twenty seconds after the Gophers scored, Minnesota-native Grant Besse found the back of the net to cut the deficit to 5-2.

Adam Rockwood set that score up with a feed from the side of the net to Besse, who was perched just outside the top of the crease. Besse collected the feed and fired it past the glove of Schierhorn for his sixth goal of the year. It was the team-leading 20th point of the season for Besse, giving him his 12th career multi-point game.

Neither team scored the rest of the second period, but the Badgers went into the third with nearly a full power play at the start of the frame. But after Wisconsin failed to convert on that power play, Minnesota's Michael Brodzinski scored the first of three goals in the final period to put the game out of reach.

Minnesota then scored twice on the power play less than a minute apart, as Connor Reilly netted a five-on-four goal on the man advantage at 7:48 followed by a Brodzinski five-on-three tally just 48 seconds later. Brodzinski finished his hat trick with just 55 seconds left in the game.

"At the base of the pyramid, it's all about playing hard," Eaves said. "We have to go back to playing hard and win battles. Play smart, play well as a team. We'll go back to our foundation and that's where we have our foundation."

Wisconsin continues its eight-game homestand with a series against Alaska next Friday and Saturday, Jan. 29-30. Faceoff is at 7 p.m. both nights at the Kohl Center.