GREEN BAY, Wis.—The Wisconsin men's hockey team (1-1-0, 0-0-0-0) won a high-scoring, back-and-forth game against the Northern Michigan Wildcats (1-1-0, 0-0-0-0) 6-5 on Saturday night at the Resch Center in Green Bay.
 
The victory would mark Tony Granato's first career win as head coach.
 
Penalties would once again be a factor in the game with 16 penalties called and seven out of 11 goals scored from special teams units.
 
"The penalties and momentum shifts a lot more in college hockey than the NHL," coach Granato said, who coached in the NHL prior to signing on as the Badgers' head coach. "Two, three, four penalties in a row and the game changes a lot."
 
Luke Kunin opened the scoring at 5:34 of the first period on the power play after a pretty tic-tac-toe pass from Cameron Hughes and Grant Besse.
 
The Wildcats would fight back with two goals of their own, however, as their first of the night came from Robbie Payne's short-handed goal that hit the post and bounced off a UW player before going in. Gerard Hanson would give the Wildcats the 2-1 advantage at 15:38 of the first on a Northern Michigan power play.
 
UW would enter the first intermission down 2-1 for the second night in a row.
 
The Badgers responded quickly in a wild second period that featured three ties and two lead changes as Corbin McGuire lit the lamp just 1:38 into the frame to tie the game at 2-2. The goal marked McGuire's fourth tally as a defenseman in just 11 games after managing just three goals in 56 games as a forward.
 
Will Johnson would score his second goal of the season to give Wisconsin the lead on the power play to make it 3-2. Johnson was left alone out in front of the net and fired it home after Grant Besse's second assist of the game.
 
The Wildcats would even the score at 3-3 after Darien Craighead scored for Northern Michigan with under six minutes to go in the second.
 
Just a few seconds after the Northern Michigan goal, NMU's Luke Voltin took a five-minute major and game misconduct. UW would capitalize on a power-play goal from Seamus Malone to make it 4-3 in favor of the Badgers.
 
However, the two teams would enter the second intermission tied at four goals apiece as Robbie Payne scored his second short-handed goal of the game shortly after Malone's power-play tally.
 
"This was a position these guys were in a lot last year and it didn't go well for them," Granato said. "We talked about being confident, wanting to be on the ice, wanting to help us win and we went out there and made some big plays."
 
Craighead scored his second of the game at 2:21 of the third period, tapping in a Payne centering pass. The goal gave NMU a 5-4 lead and Payne his fifth point of the evening.
 
McGuire would bring the Badgers right back to even the score at five after a nifty move just 59 seconds later.
 
About mid-way through the third period, the Badgers would earn a huge 5-on-3-penalty kill that held the score at 5-5. Sophomore goalie Matt Jurusik would come up with several huge saves to keep the puck out of the net.
 
"That was the biggest part of the game, killing the 5-on-3," Granato said. "Matty Jurusik made three big saves in that 5-on-3 and I thought our guys did a really good job."
 
The penalty kill would prove to be a huge one as UW would score their fourth power-play goal of the game on the ensuing man-advantage. Trent Frederic scored his first goal as Badger, banging home a rebound in a net-mouth scramble to make it 6-5 UW. The assists came from Ryan Wagner and Seamus Malone.
 
The four power-play goals in the game was the first time since Oct. 15, 2010 against Alabama-Huntsville that Wisconsin scored four goals on the man-advantage in the same contest.
 
The Badgers would hold on for the remaining nine minutes to give themselves a series split and their first victory of the year.
 
"It's the second game of the year so we're not in midseason form," Granato said. "What I did like was our poise with the puck. Maybe too much sometimes but our poise and composure was really good tonight."
 
Wisconsin returns to the Kohl Center for its home-opening series of the season, taking on Boston College on Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.