MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin men's hockey team's top line of Luke Kunin, Grant Besse and Cameron Hughes has come into its own of late.
 
After the trio combined for seven points last Saturday night, they put up six more points on Friday in the series opener against Michigan State. But it wasn't enough as the Badgers (6-14-7, 1-9-3-1 Big Ten) fell to the Spartans 4-3 at the Kohl Center.
 
"We talked about the flow of offense and they're feeling that flow right now," head coach Mike Eaves said of the top line. "They've got good chemistry and they're feeding off of what each other is doing and getting good looks and finishing."
 
UW dominated nearly every facet of the game, and answered a two-goal deficit to knot the game less than two minutes into the third period. But despite outshooting the Spartans (8-20-3, 4-10-1-0) by 16, including a 25-13 edge in the final two periods, UW couldn't overcome the Spartans' final goal, which came with less than six minutes remaining in regulation.
 
"If you were just to take a look at the pure numbers of the game, 37-21 (shots on goal), 1-for-4 (power play), 3-for-3 (penalty kill) in the special teams, you'd say that's a pretty good recipe for creating a victory," Eaves said. "But they scored on their chances and we didn't bury more of the chances that we had. That's what it came down to."
 
Wisconsin got started in a flash, as Kunin opened the scoring on a gorgeous passing sequence just 45 seconds into the game. After Hughes created a turnover behind the MSU goal, he fed Kunin in the low left circle. Kunin found Besse point blank at the side of the net, and Besse sent the puck right back to Kunin, who blasted it past MSU goaltender Jake Hildebrand to make it a 1-0 lead.
 
Michigan State would tie the game at the 9:59 mark of the first period, and then add a pair of goals within the first three minutes of the second period to take a 3-1 lead.
 
But less than two minutes after the Spartans went up by two, the power play jump-started the Badgers' rally. Following a couple of good looks on UW's first man advantage of the night, Will Johnson banged home a rebound from the left circle to cut the deficit to one at the 4:44 mark of the second period.
 
Wisconsin outshot MSU 13-7 in the middle period, but it headed to the second intermission still trailing by a goal. But UW came out of the locker room strong for the final frame and completed the rally with another brilliant array of passing from the top line.
 
Grant Besse started that play with a long stretch pass to Hughes, who eventually chased the puck down behind the Michigan State net. Hughes circled behind to the right faceoff circle, dropped a pass to the goal line for Kunin, who immediately returned the puck to Hughes. Hughes then ripped a one-timer from the slot past the glove hand of Hildebrand just 1:46 into the third.
 
Michigan State had one more goal left in it though, and Matt DeBlouw netted his sixth of the season with 5:38 left in regulation to put the Spartans back on top for good.
 
"The fact that they're right there, I don't look at it as any more disappointing," Eaves said of losing to the team right in front of the Badgers in the Big Ten standings. "I feel bad for our kids, that they didn't get the reward that their effort deemed that they should get."
 
Cameron Hughes had a goal and an assist for UW, giving him multi-point efforts in three of his last four games.
 
UW goaltender Matt Jurusik finished with 17 saves.
 
Wisconsin will go for the series split tomorrow night at 8 p.m.