MADISON, Wis.—The Wisconsin men's hockey team welcomed Penn State to the Kohl Center on Friday night looking to extend their five-game winning streak and potentially stand alone in first place in the Big Ten.

But despite erasing a 2-0 hole in the second period, the 17^th-ranked Badgers (15-9-1, 8-3-0-0 Big Ten) ultimately fell to the ninth-ranked Nittany Lions (17-6-2, 6-4-1) by a score of 6-3.

"Obviously it didn't go as smoothly as we had planned. We were kind of on a roll those last five games with those wins and we were connecting the dots pretty well," defenseman Tim Davison said. "Today the passes weren't as crisp, we were off a little bit, but that's all part of the game and we've got to be able to fight through that and find a way to win games."

Despite a string of good shifts to start the game for UW, Penn State opened the scoring 6:50 into the first period on a power-play goal from David Goodwin. PSU doubled their lead 2:14 later to make the score 2-0 on Brandon Biro's fifth goal of the season.

Despite being down by two heading into the first intermission, Wisconsin outshot Penn State 14-8 in the opening stanza.

The Cardinal and White came out firing in the second period as they pulled to within one on Seamus Malone's eighth goal of the year. The sophomore forward finished off a 3-on-2 after Ryan Wagner picked off a Penn State turnover in the neutral zone.

UW knotted the game at 2-2 just 1:02 later on power-play marker from Luke Kunin. The captain's 18th goal of the year was assisted by Cameron Hughes and Trent Frederic.

Despite swinging momentum in their favor, the Badgers gave up a goal just 50 seconds later that gave Penn State a lead they would not relinquish. The Nittany Lions netted one more before the end of the second period to make it 4-2 heading into the final period of play.

"We weren't as sharp as we have been the last couple weeks, but to the other team's credit, they did a good job on how they played us away from the puck," head coach Tony Granato said. "I thought that they stuck with their game plan longer than we did and again I thought when we did get the momentum back when we got those two goals, that long delay on the timeout was a great play on their coach's part on challenging that. They settled back into their game and were able to take advantage of that dumped in puck and it bounced funny off the wall."

Wisconsin entered the third period on the power play, but PSU cashed in a short-handed goal just 56 seconds into the frame that took the wind out of the Badgers' sails.

Jake Linhart clawed a goal back on the power play with under five minutes to play as Jack Berry was pulled for an extra skater. The defenseman's fourth goal of the campaign was assisted by Kunin and Frederic.

Penn State added an empty net goal with 1:25 to play in the game to seal the Badgers' 6-3 defeat.

Berry made 25 saves on 30 shots faced on the evening.

This was the first home game since the passing of former UW head coach Jeff Sauer. There was a moment of silence prior to the game for Coach Sauer as well as a video tribute during the first intermission.

The team will wear jersey patches and commemorative stickers on the back of their helmets for the remainder of the season.

"I had the pleasure of meeting Coach Sauer a few times here on campus. He was an unbelievable human being and a great coach. He was a great ambassador for the game," Davison said. "It's tough to have a moment of silence for him and then to come out and lose 6-3, but it's definitely in the back of our mind that we want to win for him and we want to win for each other and our coaches and the fans. So hopefully we can rebuild, coach will have some film for us and we'll try to get the win tomorrow."

Wisconsin will look for a split and wrap up their weekend-series with Penn State tomorrow night at 7 p.m. CT. The game will be available on the Wisconsin Channel, BTN2Go and on the radio on WIBA-AM 1310 and the Badgers Sports Network.