Eight minutes into the second period of Friday night’s game, Penn State dumped the puck into the Badgers’ zone on a seemingly harmless play. The puck, however, took a weird jump off the boards, bounced over freshman goalie Jack Berry’s stick, and found its way to Denis Smirnov right in front of the Badgers’ net for a goal that put the Nittany Lions up 3-2.
Just 50 seconds prior to that goal, the No. 17 Badgers (8-3-0 Big Ten, 15-9-1 overall) had battled back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game and looked ready to pull ahead in the middle frame. However, letting up that quick goal to No. 10 PSU (6-4-1, 17-6-2) right after a score altered the momentum of the game, and after that point the Badgers simply couldn’t recover. They would ultimately fall, 6-3, in front of a home crowd.
“That was a big one. They took advantage of a bad hop off the boards there on a dumped-in puck,” head coach Tony Granato said. “That’s a good team. They were No. 1 in the nation for a long time for a reason, and we did get some momentum back when we got those two goals there in the second. I thought we were coming, so that was a big play in the game for sure.”
Before the Nittany Lions scored to take a one-goal lead, the Badgers looked like they were ready to storm back and give themselves a lead of their own. Sophomore captain Luke Kunin scored on a power play to tie the game, and UW’s benched looked energized. The game looked ready to turn in the Badgers’ favor.
“We were creating a lot when we were doing things right. We were sticking to the game plan and getting pucks behind their D. Not turning it over,” Kunin said. “When we were doing that, getting pucks behind D, getting pucks to the net, bodies to the net, that’s when we were successful.”
That momentum, however, died quickly. After that eight-minute mark in the second, UW struggled to put many chances on the Penn State net. In fact, Wisconsin started the third period on a power play with a chance to cut into the 4-2 Penn State lead but couldn’t capitalize. On the contrary?the Badgers gave up a shorthanded goal which set the tone for a flat third period.
“We scored a nice power play goal in the second. We had a full two minutes basically to start the third period and we ended up giving up a shorty,” Granato said. “I thought that was the one that really took the wind out of us.”
From then on, the Badgers were mostly flat for the rest of the game, and were never able to get much of anything on net.
“We never really generated any more momentum where we generated consistent shifts in the offensive zone,” Granato said. “We weren’t as sharp as we have been in the last couple weeks.”
Throughout the second half of the game, the Badgers’ passes weren’t tape-to-tape, their forecheck wasn’t creating turnovers and the 50-50 battles often ended up on Penn State sticks.
“Obviously it didn’t go as smoothly as we had planned. We were kind of on a role the last five games with those wins. We were connecting the dots pretty well,” senior defenseman Tim Davison said. “And then today, passes weren't as crisp. We were just off a little bit.”
Hockey is a game of momentum, and after Penn State took that 3-2 lead, UW simply could not get it back.
“We got to keep our emotions never too high, never too low during a game like that. You get one, you have to worry about going out and getting the next one,” Kunin said. “Just all around we have to be better on the bench when things like that happen. We have to bounce back quicker.”
