MADISON, Wis. – Sophomore forward Dan Labosky scored three points on the night, tallying UW's opening goal and adding two assists to lead the Wisconsin men's hockey team (2-2-0, 0-0-0-0 Big Ten) to a 4-3 exhibition win over the United States Under-18 Team (2-8-1, 0-5-0 NCAA) on Friday night at the Kohl Center.

Max Zimmer, Will Johnson and Luke Kunin also scored goals for the Badgers.

UW's special teams units were also strong in the game as the Badger power play went 2-for-4 while the penalty killing unit was a perfect 7-for-7.

"I thought some of our penalty killers got a little bit of extra time on penalty kill that they might not have in a regular game that could be regular penalty killers now," head coach Tony Granato said. "Lots of positives from guys that didn't get as much ice time earlier stepped up tonight and did a really good job."

Labosky netted UW's first goal of the game on the power play with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.

"We had a good forecheck, Coach has been on us all week… stressing that compete level and being aggressive and causing turnovers," Labosky said. "I just went in on the forecheck hard and caused a turnover, it was a great play by Trent (Frederic) to get it over to Max (Zimmer)."

The U.S. Under-18s fired back with two goals of their own in less than two minutes, however, giving them a 2-1 advantage heading into the first intermission.

Early in the second period, freshman forward Max Zimmer knotted the game up at 2-2 after the Badgers were able to capitalize on a turnover in the U.S. defensive zone. Trent Frederic fed Zimmer on the 2-on-1 opportunity which he coolly one-timed home to tie the game.

Will Johnson scored the Badgers' second power-play goal of the game about half way through the frame after he received a smooth pass from Cameron Hughes, who was standing behind the goal line. The power-play marker gave UW a 3-2 lead after two periods.

"I think it took our group a little bit to get going. I thought we definitely got better as the game went on, but that's hockey," Kunin said. "Some nights you're going to have slow starts and it's just how you react to that and how you come back. I thought we did a good job in the second and third and we got the win, so that's all that matters."

Freshman goalie Jack Berry replaced starter Matt Jurusik to start the third period and was quickly given a boost by the UW offense after Kunin scored after some tic-tac-toe passing. Dan Labosky started the play by feeding Ryan Wagner who quickly dished it to Kunin for an easy tap in to make the score 4-2.

USA scored goal halfway through the period to cut their deficit to one, but it proved to be too little, too late for them. Berry shut the door for the remainder of regulation as the Badgers emerged victorious.

"Two years ago I was sitting in their shoes and playing here at Wisconsin," Kunin said. "It's exciting, they're fun games. Being 17(-years-old) and playing college guys, not many guys are doing that at their age. We knew they were going to come out strong, they're a great team and great players on that team."    

The game featured all but two players dressed for Wisconsin, allowing for head coach Tony Granato to throw out several different line combinations that they have not utilized before.

"I think the Frederic line tonight was probably the most solid line. All of the other lines did have some good shifts as well," Granato said. "We'll mix this week. I'm not sure what we will go with next week when we get back. We're going east, so when we go to Clarkson and St. Lawrence we'll have a week to put some lines together.

The Badgers will head east next weekend as they play two games in upstate New York. They play at St. Lawrence on Friday night, with puck drop set for 6 p.m. CT, which can be heard on WIBA-AM 1310. The team will then travel about 11 miles up the road for a tilt with Clarkson on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m., with the radio broadcast available on WTSO-AM 1070.

"Every week and every day you just want to improve as a team so we'll focus on a few things this week that we need to do to get ready for next weekend," Granato said.