For the second straight weekend the Wisconsin Men's Hockey team rallied late to force overtime, but despite their best efforts, they could not come away with a victory.
The Badgers traveled to Houghton, Mich. for their first road test of the season against Michigan Tech, but returned to Madison empty handed after dropping both games in overtime.
During Friday night's contest, Wisconsin fell behind 1-0 on a second period goal by Tech freshman forward Tanner Kero, but once again, the Badgers wouldn't give up. With 12 minutes left in the third period, sophomore forward Tyler Barnes scored a power play goal to tie the score at 1-1 and send the game to overtime.
After three minutes of back-and-forth action in the extra session, MTU capitalized on a Badger error when freshman goalie Landon Peterson fell behind the goal, leaving an open net letting Tech easily score the game winner.
Saturday was more of the same for Wisconsin, as they fell behind 1-0 and 2-1, but still fought back to force overtime. Barnes again scored the equalizer, his third straight game with a goal, off of a very nice pass by sophomore forward Mark Zengerle with just two minutes remaining in regulation.
However, overtime was fruitless yet again for the Badgers as MTU senior forward Brett Olson knocked the puck past freshman goalie Joel Rumpel just 20 seconds into the extra frame.
Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves acknowledged that there were good things to take away from this weekend, but the losses weren't easy to swallow. ""It's terribly disappointing, its crushing,"" Eaves said after Saturday's loss. ""It's terribly disappointing, but we learned more about our team today.""
One of the bright spots this weekend was the play of Wisconsin's fourth line, made up of freshman forward Brad Navin and sophomore forwards Keegan Meuer and Gavin Hartzog. The line produced the Badgers' first goal on Saturday, scored by Meuer, and continued to be a force throughout the game.
""They were really, really good tonight,"" Eaves said of his fourth liners ""They were really the catalyst.""
Whenever the fourth line is able to contribute on the score sheet, it should wake up the rest of the team, which certainly seemed to be the case for the rest of the game, but it still was not enough.
The Badgers continued their freshman goaltender rotation this weekend, starting Peterson on Friday night and Rumpel on Saturday. Peterson allowed just two goals on 36 shots, but is still looking for his first win on the season, while Rumpel allowed three goals on 25 shots.
Wisconsin returns home this weekend and will face a tough challenge in the No. 6 North Dakota Fighting Sioux at the Kohl Center.
-UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
