MADISON, Wis. – The second-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team dropped a 3-1 battle against top-ranked Ohio State on Friday night at LaBahn Arena. 

Maddi Wheeler tallied the lone goal on Senior Day as the Badgers (28-5-0, 22-5-0 WCHA) fell short to the Buckeyes (29-2-0, 26-1-0 WCHA). 

After dominating the shots on goal in the first period, 19-2, Wheeler broke the deadlock 1:32 into the second slate to give Wisconsin the lead.

The Buckeyes tallied a pair of goals late in the second period to grab the lead headed into the final 20 minutes. 

OSU capped off the scoring with an empty-net power-play goal with less than a minute to go to put the game out of reach. 

Three Notes of the Game
- Graduating seniors Britta Curl, Chayla Edwards, Katie Kotlowski, Casey O'Brien, Maddi Wheeler and Anna Wilgren were each honored before the game for their contributions to the program. 
- Jane Gervais stopped 31 of the shots she faced. 
- The Badgers recorded their 17th sellout of the season on Friday night. 

Straight from the Rink
Head Coach Mark Johnson
On the momentum shifting throughout the game:
"It's just a game of momentum sometimes, one team can have momentum early on and then it can switch, we saw a little bit of that tonight. We came out and our first period was strong and we created a bunch of opportunities. We didn't get rewarded for some of the chances that we had in that period."

On staying playing strong the full 60 minutes:
"At this time of the year, you have to be able to dial it in and do things for 60 minutes. You have to be able to play 60 minutes. I thought we did a good job of blocking shots. We went a long stretch where they didn't even have a shot on net. Then the light switched over and then they started to do that."

Up Next: The Badgers and Buckeyes will wrap up their series on Saturday at 8 p.m. CT in a nationally televised game on Big Ten Network. The game is sold out.