MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin men's hockey team battled back time and time again to forge a 4-4 tie with No. 6 Michigan on Saturday night at the Kohl Center.

Wisconsin (6-13-7, 1-8-3-1 Big Ten) rallied four times through the contest, with freshman Luke Kunin scoring the final tally with 27 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime with the Wolverines (18-4-5, 9-2-3-2 Big Ten). Michigan won the shootout, 1-0, to grab an extra point in the Big Ten standings.

On the way to the tie, the Badgers' top line of Luke Kunin (2 goals), Cameron Hughes (2 assists) and Grant Besse (1 goal, 2 assists) posted seven points (3 goals, 4 assists) to outscore Michigan's CCM Line (3 goals, 2 assists), the top scoring line in the country.

"I think the challenge that was there for Hughes and Besse and Luke and they met that challenge today, they exceed at it I think," UW head coach Mike Eaves said of the production. "They wanted to step up and play against one of the best college lines and show that they could play with them and they did that tonight and gave us a chance to win this game."

With 27 seconds to play, Wisconsin pulled Jurusik for an extra attacker, a move that payed dividends. Kunin notched his 12th goal of the season, finishing off a nifty stick-handle and back-handed saucer pass by Hughes.

"It was a great play by him (Hughes)," Kunin said. "All the guys on the ice there were keeping the puck in late in the game. So he just fed it over to me and I just had to get it on net. It was a good play by him."

Kunin nearly won it in overtime with a breakaway, but was slashed on the play and drew a penalty. Wisconsin finished with a 3-2 edge in the overtime, but were unable to score.

Freshman net minder Matt Jurusik collected 29 saves in the contest. 

"You're disappointed. You put your heart and soul out there and you don't get that ultimate reward of getting a victory so it's solemn in there," Eaves said of his team. "Playing well, not getting the result you wanted, this is when you're gonna find out what kind of mettle you have inside. We've been using a term this week about forging ourselves and the type of team, well this is gonna help forge us—not getting the victory that we wanted or the result that we wanted, but coming back with that 'you know what? Darn it, we're getting back to work Monday and we're gonna keep moving forward'"

Tyler Motte opened up the scoring late in the first period, giving UM the 1-0 lead with his short-handed tally. Despite outshooting the Wolverines 13-9, the Badgers couldn't capitalize during the frame.

Wisconsin didn't let Michigan take that momentum through the game, as Kunin tied the game 1-1 just 53 seconds into the second period.

Kyle Connor would again put the Wolverines on top midway through the second period, but the Badgers would take momentum into the intermission after Besse's snipe with 13 seconds left in the period tied the squads, 2-2.

JT Compher scored a go-ahead goal just 15 seconds into the the third period, but the lead did not last long once Ryan Wagner hit the ice. The Badgers collected the goal and the power play, as Wagner was hooked on his breakaway but scored anyway to make the game 3-3 just 29 seconds later. The goal marked Wagner's 10th goal of the season, and his fourth against Michigan.

Dexter Dancs would score Michigan's final goal, putting away a rebound during a delayed UW penalty to give the Wolverines a 4-3 lead that would hold through until Kunin's late-minute goal. 

"Obviously it's disappointing. To tie it up with [27] seconds left, and we had some chances in overtime where we could've won it, but to lose in a shootout, we're disappointed in the outcome," Besse explained. "But we can look back at this game and pull out a lot of positives that we can take in and move forward from and achieve two better outcomes next weekend."

UW wraps up its homestand next weekend by welcoming Michigan State for a Friday-Saturday series at the Kohl Center. Both games are set for an 8 p.m. start.