Coming off their first win of the season last weekend, the Wisconsin Men’s Hockey team faltered once more, losing to Penn State 5-2 at The Kohl Center.
The Badgers drop to 1-9-1 while Penn State matches their total amount of wins last season with a record of 8-4-2.
“We’re disappointed as a coaching staff because last week Saturday night we played pretty well and we had high expectations coming into this game tonight,” UW head coach Mike Eaves said.
The loss itself was bad enough, but it was how the Badgers lost that was concerning. The Badgers didn’t even muster a single shot on net by the time Penn State had 10. This led to a 40-24 shot advantage for the Nittany Lions.
Scoring began with Penn State’s David Glenn ripping a one-timer past Joel Rumpel at 11:20 in the first period.
The Badgers’ misfortunes continued on.
A misfortunate bounce of the puck gave Penn State forward, James Robinson a breakaway who left no doubt, beating Rumpel top right.
Despite Penn State dominating the period, the Badgers got on the board late in the first thanks to Sophomore, Morgan Zulinick who tipped in the goal, his second of the season, past Eamon McAdam.
McAdam posted 22 saves on the night.
Penn State put distance between the two teams early in the second period and held on to have a 3-1 advantage entering the last 20 minutes of play.
After a five-minute game misconduct penalty on Cameron Hughes early in the third period, Penn State converted giving them a commanding 4-1 lead thanks to Casey Bailey.
Penn State was 2 for 5 on the man advantage on the night, 25.4% on the year.
Tim Davison was not going down without a fight. He ripped a shot that found the back of the net. The goal pulled the Badgers within 2, extended his point streak to 3 games, and gave him team high six points on the year.
The Badgers then pulled Rumpel from goal with over three minutes left in the game.
It was not enough as Penn State added an empty net goal, securing a 5-2 win for the Nittany Lions.
“Penn State’s a good team,” Rumpel said, “I obviously have to be better out there, whether it’s better second save opportunity or better rebound control or finding pucks through screens. It’s unacceptable letting four goals in any night, so I need to be better.”
He gets his chance tonight as the teams square off again in Madison.
The puck drops at 8 PM CT at The Kohl Center.
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