EAST LANSING, Mich. — The Wisconsin men's hockey team had two separate two-goal leads, but Michigan State answered within a minute each time and then tallied the game-winner with 3:13 left in regulation in a 4-3 win over the Badgers at Munn Arena.
 
The Badgers (3-7-5, 0-2-1-0 Big Ten) went up 3-1 more than halfway through Friday's series opener, but the Spartans (5-9-2, 1-2-0-0) tied the game within five minutes, setting them up for the eventual game-winning breakaway goal by Justin Hoomaian in the third period.
 
"We didn't play our A game, but we didn't play terrible," senior captain Eddie Wittchow said. "We had our chances, but in a game like that it can come down to bounces. That's kind of what it came down to."
 
The pivotal bounce came with less than four minutes to go in the third period. After Wisconsin dumped the puck into the offensive zone, Michigan State sent the puck up the far wall. The puck squirted free near the blue line and the Spartans managed to poke it free in the direction of Hoomaian, who got behind the UW defense and beat Matt Jurusik to give MSU the lead for good.
 
The bounces were going Wisconsin's way at the beginning of the game, and helped give it the first-period lead. Defenseman Tim Davison started the Badgers first scoring play when he tried to send the puck into the MSU zone from center ice. Freshman Matthew Freytag deflected the dump attempt high into the air, and the puck landed in between the circles. Fellow freshman Will Johnson beat two MSU players to the bouncing puck and blasted a shot past Spartan netminder Jake Hildebrand to make it 1-0 UW at the 10:57 mark. 
 
"I was trying to just bat it into the zone when I saw it fly up," Freytag said. "And Johnson came in with speed and the goalie was not expecting that at all. It was a great play by those guys. We got the bounce, so it was nice to get the bounce for once."
 
A little more than five minutes later Wisconsin upped its lead to two on a gorgeous three-on-one rush into the Michigan State zone. It was defenseman Jake Linhart who jump-started the rush, and Linhart who eventually finished it. Linhart shoved the puck up the far wall out into the neutral zone where he tracked it down as he raced over the MSU line. Linhart fed Seamus Malone in the high slot, and Malone sent it right back to Linhart in the right circle, where he launched a shot past Hildebrand.
 
But just 31 seconds later the Spartans would get back within one. On a two-on-one rush into the offensive zone, Matt DeBlouw set up Brennan Sanford just to the right of the goal mouth and Sanford beat Jurusik glove side to make it 2-1.
 
Neither team scored again until halfway through the second period when Wisconsin pushed its lead back to two goals. Just moments after the Badgers' first power play of the game expired, Freytag tipped home Linhart's shot from the right point, giving UW a 3-1 lead at the 11:07 mark of the period. 
 
"We've been working on that, just getting shots to the net," Freytag said. "[Linhart] had a great shot, got it through two guys. It was a big goal for us, got us momentum."
 
Michigan State had another immediate response though. The Spartans climbed back within one only 48 seconds later. MSU would then tie the game 4:12 later on Michael Ferrantino's rebound goal.
 
Ferrantino would take a five-minute major penalty for boarding just a minute and two seconds later, but Wisconsin couldn't capitalize on the ensuing man advantage, which carried over into the third period. The power play was interrupted after the Badgers were called for interference in the offensive zone.
 
In the third period, Wisconsin outshot MSU 10-6, but couldn't find the back of the net. 
 
Wittchow was adamant about UW learning from its mistakes and surrendering multiple goal leads.
 
"It's happened enough now that we're fed up with and we're gonna change this and flip the script," Wittchow said.
 
Wisconsin has a short turnaround and will go for the series split with the Spartans at 1:30 p.m. CT on Saturday afternoon.