After two solid periods of play, the Badgers watched their one goal lead disappear in the third period of their season opener against Northern Michigan on Friday night. However, a crazy set of moments earned Wisconsin a 2-2 tie to open the season.
Down 2-1 with under a minute to play, Grant Besse swatted a backhand out of mid-air in the crease to tie the game at 2 with 41.2 seconds left.
The game would go to overtime but ended in a tie.
The Badgers put together a great first period of play to open up the year. UW managed to out shoot Northern Michigan 13 to 4 in the first period but ended the 20 minutes tied at zeros.
“We played the way we needed to,” said head coach Mike Eaves on his team’s first period performance, “We played simple.”
Luke Kunin made himself known to the underwhelming Kohl Center crowd early and often, getting a great look on a breakaway less than a minute into the first period and generating the majority of Wisconsin’s chances throughout the opening stanza.
UW killed a power play with excellent shot blocking and set up a great looking power play late in the first period, generating numerous chances with the man advantage as well as getting great looks during a 36-second period of 5-on-3 hockey.
The Badgers got on the board early in the second period after Northern Michigan’s Senior Ryan Trenz was called for hooking Adam Rockwood, after Rockwood pulled a nifty toe drag past Trenz into the offensive zone.
The power play unit converted thanks to a cross-ice pass by Freshman Seamus Malone finding Sophomore Jake Linhart for a one time slap shot that whizzed by Northern Michigan’s goaltender, Atte Tolaven.
Linhart’s first career goal gave the Badgers a 1-0 lead 4:20 into the second period of play.
The Badgers’ penalty kill also came up big in the second period, killing all three penalties in the period. They were three for four on the night on the penalty kill and helped the Badgers take a one-goal lead into the final stanza.
Then the third period happened.
After Luke Kunin was called for slashing, the Badgers penalty kill was called on once more but could not get it done as the Wildcats tied it up with some nice passing ending in an easy goal for Junior Captain, Shane Smooth at the 5:47 mark of the third period.
The Wildcats kept on the offensive minutes later when Gerard Hanson stripped Kevin Schulze in the Badger’s defensive zone and fed it to Redshirt Freshman Filip Starzynski for a one timer in the slot to put the Wildcats up 2-1.
“We seemed to sag after the first goal” Eaves reflected, “A bunch of young guys looking around wondering, ‘Who’s gonna lead the charge back?’ now they now it’s more of a group effort.”
The Badgers however, would respond just in the knick of time.
With under a minute left, and goaltender Adam Miller pulled for the Badgers, Wisconsin threw a puck on net. The puck bounced up in the air and Grant Besse was there to swat a backhand out of the air and into the net to tie the game with 41.2 seconds remaining.
“It was uplifting” Eaves commented after the game about getting the last second goal. “I think Grant was at the bottom of the pile, probably had a hard time breathing. But no, it was uplifting.”
The Badgers then looked to score as time expired as Luke Kunin crashed the net but upon further review it was called that the play had been ruled dead before Kunin crashed. The game was headed to Overtime.
Both teams with a couple of good chances in Overtime but the five minute period ended with both teams locked at two goals a piece.
A shootout that did not affect the final score yielded Northern Michigan as the winners but officially, the game went down as a 2-2 tie.
Adam Miller, who started in his first game in about two years ended the night with 32 saves for the Badgers.
His counterpart, Atte Tolvanen managed to snag 25 saves for the Wildcasts.
The Badgers will finish off their season opening series Saturday night facing off against the same Northern Michigan team at 7 pm CT at the Kohl Center. The game will be available to subscribers of BTN Plus.
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