MADISON, Wis. – After holding a 2-0 lead over one of the top teams in the nation, the No. 12 Wisconsin men's hockey saw the lead slip in the third period and eventually dropped its Big Ten series opener to No. 4 Notre Dame, 3-2, at the Kohl Center on Friday night.
 
The Badgers (10-8-2, 4-4-1-0 Big Ten) outshot the Fighting Irish 36-32, but Notre Dame (15-3-1, 9-0-0-0 Big Ten) capitalized on the momentum from six Wisconsin penalty kills to complete its 12th consecutive win.
 
Wisconsin took a 1-0 lead late in the first frame when senior forward Cameron Hughes cut towards the net on a Badger power play and one-timed a shot over UND goalie Cale Morris's glove at 14:15.
 
Freshman forward Tarek Baker doubled the lead in the second period, receiving a pass from linemate Ryan Wagner in the neutral zone before skating in on Morris and sniping another shot past his mitt at 6:25.
 
The 2-0 lead held until the 7:06 mark of the third period when Notre Dame took advantage of a Wisconsin penalty kill, scoring just as the time on the penalty expired.
 
Two more Fighting Irish goals in the period gave UND its first lead of the game and the Badgers could not find the back of the net in the final four minutes of play to even the score, despite pulling Berry for an extra attacker.
 
Notes to Know
-Senior forward Ryan Wagner recorded assists on both UW goals.
-Jack Berry made 29 saves in goal for the Badgers.
-The Badgers outblocked the Irish 23-12.
-Wisconsin went 1-for-3 on the power play and killed off each of its six penalties.
- UW had been 32-0-6 when leading after two periods dating back to the 2014–15 season, including 9-0-2 this year.
- Freshman forward Linus Weissbach extended his scoring streak to his last six games played with the primary helper on the game's opening goal.
 
Straight From the Rink
Head Coach Tony Granato
On if this was the best game this season
"Well, I'm looking at the North Dakota series, I'm looking at the Minnesota series last weekend, and I'm looking at the Michigan series and the Ohio State series, and I'm looking at this game. I think there's been a lot of great college hockey games. It was an outstanding game. They're a No. 4 team for a reason for how stingy they are defensively. We did a lot of good things to generate and to get that lead. It's just frustrating to walk out of here knowing that we had them, and they slipped away. We took six penalties tonight, and it just wore us down. It played a lot of our players that were playing really, really well five-on-five on our power play, and we had to overuse Wagner, Frederic, Malone, Hughes and even Baker. We used them a lot during the penalty kills, and I think that took some energy out of us. Obviously, it gave them momentum in the third period when they scored at the end of the play. That was a big point in the game."
 
On the penalty kills
"Yeah, there's lots of positives for sure. When you're up two-nothing going into the third period, and you feel like you're in control of the game, if you play smart in the third and play the same way you did in the first two, you're probably going to come out on top. Again, I think the two penalties we took in the third were chances to give them life. They generated some offensive zone time out of it and hung around our net, and made a couple of plays around our net that they were able to jump on. Those pucks were really all their goals. There were lots of positives in the game.
 
They're on a heck of a run right now, and their goalie is as good as there is in hockey or college hockey. We did a good job, I thought we made some great plays around their net. He did a nice job of keeping that 2-0. We'll just have to find a way to be better tomorrow. I talked to the guys about this, but it's important to file this one, and get it out of our minds as fast as we can. We can't feel sorry for ourselves saying 'we blew it' or 'coulda, shoulda, woulda'. We have another chance to play again tomorrow, and I think it's the same feeling we had last week in Minnesota on Friday night where we thought we played well enough to win and didn't. Tomorrow we'll have to be better and smarter and a little stingier, and hopefully see a better result."
 
On the momentum change in the third period
"I don't know what the shots were in the third, but they had eight and we had 13, so I don't know that we sat back. Shots were 13 and they had the two power plays. So I think they were opportunistic, they went to the net, they scored some ugly goals, they bounced on some rebounds, some loose pucks that were around the net. They didn't beat Berry straight on, all of the plays were off of some sort of scrum or puck thrown towards them or off the backboards. They were able to find a way to get one more by us than we were them, but I thought in the third period we didn't sit back. We played a pretty good period offensively. We did a lot of good things and had some offensive zone shifts, made some nice plays. Like I said, their goalie made the big saves, when we were up two-nothing to keep it there."
 
On the chemistry on the ice
"I think we did a lot of good things offensively and made a lot of plays. Sometimes you make great plays and then you have to go way back there, that's the last line of defense, and that guy's pretty darn good. So we'll have to stay with it tomorrow, we'll have to find a way to keep generating chances. Some of their goals weren't that pretty at the end, but they scored them. I think those are the kind of goals tomorrow that we'll look to go at the net the same way we did tonight. I thought in the first period we had a chance at a few ugly goals around the net, and we just missed."
 
Freshman Tarek Baker
On lines clicking
"I felt like our lines played pretty well. I just think we've got to stick together as a group there in the last 10 minutes. We have to come together as a group and play a full 60. It's unacceptable to let those things happen. In a 2-0 game, to have them come back 3-2 to beat us. We've got to come back tomorrow and be ready to battle." 
 
On fatigue from penalty kills
"Regardless of who we play, we can't take seven penalties. We took a too many men. That was one of them. We can't be doing that. We can't take seven penalties and expect to win the game like that. We're leaving (Jack) Berry out to dry, and we were making our top line play a lot more than they probably should've and we just wore guys down, so we just need to stick together and not take as many penalties."
 
On getting pucks to the net
"As a group we were pretty solid on that front. We've been preaching it all week, and I feel like we had a lot of chances. We've just got to pull to either side or put it upstairs because the goalie's pretty quick on his feet. We had a lot of chances on that front." 
 
Senior Cameron Hughes
On playing championship-level hockey
"You have to play pretty well to beat teams like that, and beat any team. It was a good hockey game. Both teams had chances. Seamus (Malone) had a chance at the end there and they (Notre Dame) came back and scored a couple minutes later. It's tough, but at the end of the day, I thought it was a pretty good game to watch and play in." 
 
On feeling out Notre Dame
"I think both teams played pretty hard. It was fun to play against them, and we're looking forward to playing them again tomorrow. I don't think any teams held back. These two teams went at it pretty hard." 
 
Sophomore Jack Berry
On Notre Dame's passing
"I wouldn't say it was any quicker. They kept out to the perimeter quite a bit to be honest. They only really threw it to the middle when they knew they had a play. Our guys got them out to the perimeter pretty well. They weren't any faster." 
 
On goals against him
"The first one, it was a good play they made there. The last two were just a couple of bad bounces I'd say. Nothing really changed. I thought we did a good job on the penalty kill and they ended up getting one there, unfortunately. But I thought we played well on the penalty." 
 
Up Next
Wisconsin and Notre Dame return to the Kohl Center for the final game of 2017, facing off in a 7 p.m. game. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Wisconsin Plus and broadcast on WIBA 1310. Following the final whistle, the Badgers' first annual Teddy Toss will take place.