ST. PAUL — The Wisconsin men's hockey team managed to hold one of the best offenses in the country at bay, but even that was not enough to keep Penn State off the scoreboard.
 
The Badgers (8-19-8, 3-13-4-2 Big Ten) held the Nittany Lions, the national leader in shots on goal, to a season-low 29 on Thursday, but PSU scored twice in each of the first two periods en route to a 5-2 win, ending UW's season in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals. 
 
 "We hung around; just didn't sink," head coach Mike Eaves said of trying to come back from a deficit. "Once again, we were close like all year, but just didn't get to come with it.
 
"This group of kids, there were many times that we were behind in a game and came back and tied and fought.  They were a persistent group.  They were a resilient group.  And I think that's one thing that youth have.  And this young group of people had that in spades."
 
Wisconsin dominated the game in the early stages, possessing a 5-0 advantage in shots on goal in the first five minutes. It took almost six minutes before the Nittany Lions finally put a shot on UW freshman goaltender Matt Jurusik, who had averaged more than 40 saves in his first three starts against PSU this year.
 
Despite being outshot and outplayed in the first, Penn State took advantage of the opportunities it did have in the opening frame to take a lead it wouldn't relinquish the rest of the way.
 
Eric Scheid started the scoring on a breakaway at the 12:55 of the first, and Connor Varley beat Jurusik (24 saves) off a faceoff exactly four minutes later to give PSU a two-goal cushion after the first period.
 
But Wisconsin, which had come back from an early deficit to beat the Nittany Lions in the most recent meeting, tried to battle back again.
 
It was the red-hot Luke Kunin who helped lead the way for Wisconsin. On an odd-man rush less than four minutes into the second period, Kunin punched a pass from Cameron Hughes past PSU goaltender Eamon McAdam to get the Badgers within one. That goal was Kunin's team-leading 19th of the year and gave him nine goals in his last 10 games.
 
But that was as close as Wisconsin could get the rest of the way, as the two-goal, first-period deficit proved too much to overcome, with McAdam holding strong in goal for PSU with 35 saves.
 
Penn State scored twice more in the middle frame after Kunin's goal to open up a three-goal cushion heading to the final period. Again both Nittany Lions' goals came off of similar plays.
 
"They were throwing pucks at the net, kind of throughout the whole game.  So, when you do that, stuff kind of happens," Hughes said of Penn State's two goals off deflections. "I guess for us, when we were throwing to that end, it wasn't happening."
 
PSU's Ricky DeRosa gave his team the two-goal lead back at the 13:18 mark, firing a shot that deflected off UW defenseman Tim Davison's leg and redirected past the blocker of Jurusik.
 
Just 94 seconds later, following a missed chance for UW, Tommy Olczyk beat Jurusik on a breakaway to make it 4-1 in favor of the Nittany Lions.
 
Even with a three-goal deficit to make up in the third period, Wisconsin didn't quit. The first line responded for the Badgers again, as junior Grant Besse slid a rebound home 3:26 into the third to give his team a chance.
 
"We were getting chances. Obviously, we scored, pretty early in the third period," Besse said. "That was one of the things we talked about, cutting down the lead as much as we could within the first four minutes or five minutes. I think was a good sign. And then, we were persistent but we weren't rewarded with that next goal."
 
Wisconsin eventually pulled Jurusik in the final two minutes of the third period, but couldn't find the back of the net with an extra attacker. PSU then got an empty netter with 43 seconds left to seal its win.
 
With the loss, the careers of seniors Eddie Wittchow, Kevin Schulze and Adam Miller came to an end. Wittchow, one of the two captains for UW along with Schulze, notched an assist on Besse's goal. That assist gave him seven points in his last 14 games after he went 47 contests without a point from last season through the first 21 games of this season.
 
The trio wrap up their careers with the 2013 WCHA Final Five championship and the 2014 Big Ten Tournament title on their resumes.
 
"You talk to those guys, and the message to their teammates is, 'man, it goes fast.' And that's what they should take when they listen to those young men, it goes quickly and enjoy every year, every moment, every weekend because it's gone in a heartbeat," Eaves said.