It’s one and done for the Wisconsin Badger men’s hockey team in the NCAA Tournament.  Bucky fell to North Dakota 5-2 in the

Tyler Barnes

Tyler Barnes

Midwest Regional semifinal in Cincinnati on Friday night.

Jedd Soleway and Tyler Barnes scored goals for the Badgers, but the Badgers never led in the game.

North Dakota scored the games first goal, 5:06 into the contest when Michael Parks took a pass from Drake Caggiula and slid the puck past Badger goaltender Joel Rumpel.

Soleway scored his first Badger goal with 8:19 left in the first period on the power play to tie the game 1-1.  The game stayed tied until Rocco Grimaldi stole the puck at Neutral ice, skated into the Wisconsin zone and pushed a backhand shot past Rumpel to give North Dakota a 2-1 lead.

Tyler Barnes evened things for the Badgers when his wrister from the right circle beat UND goalie Zane Gothbert to tie the game
2-2 with 10:28 left in the 3rd period.

Mark MacMillan had a puck bounce off his body and into the Wisconsin net with just 1:44 to play, giving North Dakota the game winner.  North Dakota ended a pair of empty net goals to give UND its final margin of victory.

The Badgers finished 1 for 3 on the power play and killed off all 5 of UND’s power play opportunities.

Wisconsin finished the season with a 24-11-2 record and a Big Ten Tournament championship in their inaugural Big Ten season.  But they also bowed out of the NCAA tournament in the opening game for the second straight year.

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