While it was not lacking in chances, the Wisconsin men’s hockey team could not take advantage of them as they fell to Penn State 3-2 in overtime.
The Badgers (10-7-7 WCHA, 14-11-7 overall) took a 2-0 lead in the third period, but the Nittany Lions (13-14) fought back with two goals of their own to force the extra frame. With 34 seconds left in overtime, Penn State junior forward Taylor Holstrom scored his second goal of the game to seal the victory in the team’s last game of the season.
“I wouldn’t say momentum has been lost, but yes it’s devastating, especially after what kind of happened around college hockey last night,” junior center Mark Zengerle said. “You can’t do anything about it now, we still control our fate as far as getting home ice and going from there.”
Coming off a 5-0 victory over the Nittany Lions Sunday, the Badgers were hoping to maintain their position in the Pairwise rankings, where they had jumped into a tie for 17th place, with another win. Following the loss however, the team falls back down into a tie for 28th, effectively killing their hopes for an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament.
“I think what it does… it just squeezes the importance of our last four games,” head coach Mike Eaves said. “We have to primarily win out.”
During a power play in the first period, senior center Derek Lee left the ice with an apparent lower body injury, and did not return to the game. Lee has been the team’s power play quarterback this season, recording a team-high 18 assists on the year.
The pace would pick up in the second period, with Wisconsin recording 20 shots on net en route to taking a 1-0 lead. With just under four minutes left in the period, Zengerle found himself on a two-man break with freshman forward Nic Kerdiles. The two passed back and forth before Zengerle buried a wrist shot past Penn State freshman goalie Matthew Skoff.
Wisconsin would see its lead grow to two in the third period when sophomore forward Joseph LaBate found the back of the net, but the celebration would be short lived. Just seven seconds after the goal, Holmstrom beat sophomore goaltender Landon Peterson to cut the lead back down to one.
With less than eight minutes left in regulation, the Nittany Lions would strike again, this time on the power play. After a faceoff in the UW zone, the puck drifted in front of Peterson, who misplayed it, allowing PSU freshman forward Casey Bailey to put the puck between the goalie’s legs for the goal.
“For the most part I thought it was pretty good,” Eaves said of Peterson’s play. “On the second [goal] [Peterson] took a chance and tried to poke check it and got beat there.”
Wisconsin controlled much of the play in overtime, but after a faceoff in the Badger zone, Kerdiles could not clear the puck, which eventually ended up in front of Peterson, and eventually in the back of the Wisconsin net.
“We’re going to look back at this game and say it was a game of missed opportunities,” Eaves said. “We’re going to probably look at the film and say we out-chanced them 2-to-1 and we didn’t score enough to put out of the game in regulation.”
The Badgers recorded 44 shots on goal, but they failed to score on any of their four power play opportunities, and only had four shots with the man advantage.
The Badgers will have a chance to bounce back on the road next weekend when they travel to Nebraska-Omaha.
