UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 15 Wisconsin men's hockey team played a rollercoaster of a finale against No. 14 Penn State, coming back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the contest, 3-3, in the final minutes of play.
 
Trailing by a 3-2 score with the clock winding down, the Badgers (10-10-3, 4-6-2-0 Big Ten) sent the puck to the point where junior Peter Tischke sent a laser past three PSU (12-7-3, 5-4-3-2 Big Ten) jerseys and behind Nittany Lions goaltender Peyton Jones to knot the game 3-3 with 1:52 left in regulation.
 
During extra time, Penn State potted a goal and cleared the bench to celebrate, but the officials reviewed the goal and ruled that James Robinson had affected senior goaltender Kyle Hayton's movement and disallowed the goal. The teams played on but neither would connect in overtime and the game officially ended in a 3-3 tie.
 
Penn State opened the scoring for the second night in a row, taking advantage of a Wisconsin penalty and scoring while on a power play at the 6:49 mark of the first period.
 
The Badgers, however, would tie the game before intermission after a PSU turnover in the neutral zone. Freshman Tarek Baker made a quick pass to fellow rookie Wyatt Kalynuk who skated in for a two-on-one opportunity with Linus Weissbach. Kalynuk dished a pass and Weissbach snapped the one-timer over Jones for a 1-1 game.
 
Defense ruled the middle period and it looked as though the tied would hold into the second intermission, but Penn State connected in the final minute of the stanza to lead 2-1 heading into the break. The Nittany Lions kept the momentum going, scoring in the first minute of the third frame to make it 3-1.
 
Freshman Sean Dhooghe cut the lead back to one at the 16:19 mark, tapping in a centering pass from Kalynuk before Tischke set the game up for overtime.
 
Penn State would go on to take the extra point in Big Ten conference standings, winning the shootout on a goal from Liam Folkes.
 

Notes to Know
-Freshman defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk recorded two primary assists, while fellow rookie Sean Dhooghe notched a goal and a helper as the duo lead UW with two points each.
-In all, UW frosh recorded seven points (two goals, five assists) in the game.
-Penn State outshot Wisconsin, 38-29, and went 1-for-7 on the power play. Wisconsin was 0-for-4 on the man-advantage.
-Senior goaltender Kyle Hayton made 35 saves in the draw, the second most in his career as a Badger.
 

Straight from the Rink
Head Coach Tony Granato
On his feelings about the game
"I thought we battled like crazy tonight. I thought our compete level was where it needs to be. We had to kill some huge penalties in the third period, one of them was on me on the bench. I liked the way we played.
 
On the shootout
"A shootout is a shootout. It is what it is. It's great entertainment, it's in our league because it's in the NHL, it's good for the fans. Would you like to win the shootout, of course you would. But it's not going to take away from what you did in the 65 minutes you played, and that was a great response from a disappointing performance last night. Our guys battled hard, we played well."
 
On the penalties affecting the flow of the game
"First of all, I thought it was two teams playing like a playoff game. It was intense out there, there were a lot of battles, a lot of individual competitions between pairs of players all over the ice. A lot of guys saw a lot of each other. It was very competitive so I'm not surprised there were a lot of penalties. What you want to see is consistency throughout the game and if you get that you have no problems as a coach as long as they're calling it the same way."
 
Senior defenseman Peter Tischke
On his goal
"Yeah I really got a hold of that one. We had a good net presence so I don't think Jones even had a chance to see it. Really good by our forwards.
 
"There was some frustration and then there was just getting pucks to the net. We were really pressing to get the tying goal and I think it shows a lot that we were able to do that. Obviously it wasn't the outcome that we wanted but I think it shows a lot about our character that even though things weren't really going our way we stuck with it and we kept our nose to the grindstone."
 
On the goal waved off in overtime
"What I saw was pretty much goalie interference. Got his leg in with Kyle's legs and Kyle wasn't able to kick his leg back and they put it in."
 
On PSU's odd-man rushes
"Next time we play them, we have to make sure we're staying very aware and making sure we know where all five guys on the ice are. They love to fly the zone, love to get guys behind us and create odd-man chances. I think that's a big part we need to work on for the next time we play them."
 
Senior goalie Kyle Hayton
On the goal waved off in overtime
"He was right behind me in the crease, I couldn't get back to my post. I thought it was goalie interference for sure. I've never had that (an overtime goal waved off). happen. It was interesting and I think we responded well, came back and held tight the rest of overtime and we played well."
 
On the comeback as a building point
"Yeah, for sure. I think we really played well the second half of this game, especially the third, we battled hard. Battled in overtime. I think it's a good start, got a lot of hockey left and have to continue to compete this hard every game."
 

Up Next
Wisconsin returns to the Kohl Center for a Friday-Saturday series with Michigan State, Jan. 12-13. Both contests have a 7 p.m. puck drop.