The 12th-ranked Wisconsin Badger men’s hockey team (6-6-0, 6-3-0-1 Big Ten) split its home series against No. 1 Minnesota (11-1-0, 9-1-0-0 Big Ten) after coming up short in Sunday’s matchup. The Gophers claimed game two, 5-3, after the Badgers handed them their first loss of the season a day earlier.
After the Gophers scored the first goal of the game just 1:21 into the first period, the Badgers even the score when freshman Sam Stange scored on a deflection at the 13:41 mark. It’s the fifth of the season for Stange, who leads all Badger freshmen in goals scored.
Brock Caufield gave the Badgers a 2-1 lead at 11:58 of the second period on assists to Roman Ahcan and Jesper Peltonen. But the Gophers answered with a pair of goals to head into the locker room for the second intermission with a 3-2 lead.
The Gophers scored a power play goal early in the third to make it 4-2, but Wisconsin’s Cole Caufield made it 4-3 at 4:12 of the third on assists from Ty Pelton-Byce and Linus Weissbach.
The Gophers made it a two-goal lead at 17:43 of the third period and that’s the way the game would end.
Senior goaltender Robbie Beydoun finished with 19 saves in goal in taking the loss.
The Badgers remain home for a two-game series against Arizona State on Jan. 15-16 with both games facing off at 7 p.m. at LaBahn Arena. It’ll be the second meeting between the two teams this season, with the Sun Devils sweeping the Badgers 8-5 and 3-1.