ANN ARBOR, Mich.— In a roller-coaster start to the 2018 Big Ten Tournament, the sixth-seeded Wisconsin men's hockey team pushed until the end, but dropped a 6-5 contest to third-ranked Michigan on Friday night at Yost Arena.
 
Wisconsin (14-18-4, 8-13-3-1 Big Ten) outshot the Wolverines (19-13-3, 11-10-3-2 Big Ten) by a 53-29 margin and clawed back from two deficits, but time expired before the Badgers could complete a third comeback in a game marked by momentum swings.
 
Michigan struck first at the 1:40 mark of the first period, shortly after a Wisconsin goal was disallowed. Wisconsin, however, would score three times in a 4:05 span to take a quick lead.
 
Freshman defenseman Tyler Inamoto scored his first career goal at the 3:58 mark on a slapshot that snuck through traffic before junior Matthew Freytag notched a tally at 6:59 when he grabbed a rebound off of goaltender Hayden Lavigne.
 
Senior Ryan Wagner completed the run with the clock at 8:03, sniping a shot over Lavigne's glove from the top of the right circle to give Wisconsin a 3-1 lead.
 
Continuing the trend of scoring in bunches, Michigan surged to a 4-3 lead, scoring on three-straight power plays to head into the first intermission with an advantage. The Wolverines struck early in the second on their fourth-consecutive power play to widen the 5-3 lead.
 
Wisconsin responded with two power-play goals of its own, one from freshman Linus Weissbach at the 10:00 mark of the second and another from Wagner 1:13 into the third to knot the game at five all.
 
Michigan would score the go-ahead, off the stick of Tony Calderone for the fourth time, which proved to be the game-winning goal at 11:07. The goal secured a 6-5 win in the opening game of the best-of-three series.
 
Senior goaltender Kyle Hayton stopped 23 shots in the loss.
 
 
Notes to Know
-Wisconsin outshot the Wolverines 53-29, including an 18-7 margin in the final period. Its 53 shots are Wisconsin's most against any opponent this season.
-Freshman Tyler Inamoto scored his first collegiate goal.
-Michigan went 4-for-5 on its power-play chances while Wisconsin went 2-for-4 on the advantage.
 
 
Straight From the Rink
Head Coach Tony Granato
On outshooting Michigan 53-29 but losing
"We have to feel pretty good about how we played. You throw 53 shots on goal, you have to feel pretty good about yourself. They found a way to capitalize, on their power plays especially.
 
"We had the first disallowed goal, a bad break on that one. They came right back and scored. A crazy first period, you come out of it down by a goal and you think, 'holy cow.'
 
"It was one of those weird games where pucks just found the net. I think their goalie settled in and made some big saves in the third period. I loved the way we fought and kept coming. We got 53 shots against a pretty good team."
 
On the penalty kill
"We didn't give up many shots. Obviously they have some good goal scorers and when they got the chances they were able to make the most of them. They made their plays and were able to score on the first chance or on a rush or a quick entry and making a quick play. They didn't have a lot of sustained zone time, 5-on-5 or on the power play."
 
On the message to the team
"Our message is simple. The team that can recover and forget this game as quick as they can has the best chance of winning tomorrow. If we feel sorry for ourselves, 'aw jeez we should have done better, we should have won this one,' and you think about it for the next 20 hours, when game time starts tomorrow, we won't be ready. If we can play the same way we did and get after it the same way we did, forecheck like we did, then we have a chance. That's what I liked about how we played tonight.
 
"We battled. It's pretty hard to get 50-plus shots and look at your team and be too critical."
 
Senior forward Cameron Hughes
On processing the loss
"To be honest, we've parked that game. It is what it is, we're moving on to tomorrow. It's all we can do at this point. We're looking to bring the same effort tomorrow."
 
On coming back despite the deficit
"I think we're still confident in our game. Like I said, we've moved on, we're ready for tomorrow and we're going to bring the same effort."
 
On whether the team did enough offensively
"We scored five goals."
 
Junior defenseman Peter Tischke
On what broke down
"We'll watch (the game) and pick up on what we need to fix and we'll be better tomorrow. I think the main thing tonight was that our penalty kill was not as good as it needed to be."
 
On the mentality of fighting with their backs against the wall
"I think this team definitely has that. Today we saw that. Five-on-five we outplayed them, we got a bunch of chances. We just weren't getting the bounces that we needed to go in. I think that everyone is excited to get at it tomorrow and hopefully get at it again Sunday."
 
Senior forward Ryan Wagner
On the breakdown
"It's definitely frustrating. I said this earlier in the year, but it comes down to special teams. In the first period (Michigan) was killing it, they were hot. Tip your hat to them, they did a really good job. On the flip side, our penalty kill has to be better."
 
On fighting back to ties the game 5-5
"The energy was up on the bench, guys were talking, we were flying out there. When they score, we just have to be mentally tough. We have to push back right away. There was plenty of time on the clock to change the score of the game. That's where the guys need to step up and say, 'hey, we got this."
 
 
Up Next
Wisconsin and Michigan meet up again Saturday in Ann Arbor for the second game of the best-of-three first-round series. Puck drop is set for 6:30 p.m. CT.