MADISON, Wis. –  Despite the No. 7 Wisconsin men's hockey team holding a lead early in the contest, the Badgers fell, 3-2, to fourth-ranked North Dakota (6-2-1, 1-1-0 NCHC) on Friday night at the Kohl Center.
 
The Badgers (6-4-0, 1-1-0 Big Ten) outshot the Fighting Hawks 38-32 through the game and saw a two-goal performance from junior Matthew Freytag, but a late UND goal on the man-advantage sealed the series opener.
 
Freytag put the Badgers up 1-0 midway through the first, his wrister from the circle slipping under UND goaltender Peter Thome. Freshman Sean Dhooghe recorded the primary assist on the goal, earning his first career point.
 
The Fighting Hawks responded to tie the game at 7:41 when Collin Adams sent a shot through traffic over senior goaltender Kyle Hayton's glove.
 
Freytag tallied his second of the evening nine minutes after his first, giving Wisconsin a 2-1 lead at the 15:57 mark of the first. Freshman Tarek Baker swung around the UND slot and dropped the puck for Freytag, who shelfed the puck over Thome's left shoulder.
 
The lead would hold into the intermission, but North Dakota would knot the game up 1:25 into the second frame on a goal from Austin Poganski.
 
UND would score the eventual winning goal midway through the third stanza on a power-play opportunity, tipping a shot from the point under Hayton.
 
Hayton recorded 29 saves in the defeat.
 
Notes to Know

• Matthew Freytag scored his second and third goals of the season in the first period. The game marks his second two-goal game of his career.
• Freshman forward Sean Dhooghe recorded his first two career assists.
• UW outshot UND 38-32 in the game, including a season period-high 19 shots in third frame.

 
Straight From the Rink
Head Coach Tony Granato
On the game:
"I know it's a good team. It's as good of a team as I thought coming into the game. I've watched Denver a lot and I know what they have, and after watching the last five games of North Dakota, I can say that they are as close to being good as Denver. They have four balanced lines, they come after you, they play an NHL style where they forecheck and make it hard on your 'D'.  It was a good hockey game; I think we can play better tomorrow. Two really good teams, and every inch of ice out there is a battle. You have to be prepared to play it like a playoff game and I thought that is the way most of the game was tonight."
 
On trying to capitalize on rebounds:
"They do a good job defensively of boxing out and being physical around their net. That is a strength of their team. We have to find ways to be better at it. We got a lot of shots at them. There were a lot of chances there were loose pucks were around the net on rebounds and they did a really good job on clearing. It's something that we will have to be better at tomorrow or at least conscious of making sure we are in putting ourselves in positions to get those rebounds. "
 
On the players he picked with the goalie pulled:
"Your best players give you the best chance to score. I thought their team did a good job of checking our big guys tonight. But those are the money guys you want in that situation. You also want to make sure they are fresh, too. You are going with your best players. We had a really good play right off that one faceoff, we had another good look from Linus on the slot play right after that. We did generate a couple of good chances with the goalie pulled, but obviously we didn't do enough."
 
On the game flow:
"They did a really good job in the neutral zone. Their 'D' stand up and protect their line really well, they make it difficult coming through the neutral zone. So I think that is an area that we can be a little better at tomorrow, supporting that. When we did get in the offensive zone, we had some good shifts, especially in the third period. I thought early in the game, I thought they got to their game quicker than we did. I know we had the lead after the first period, but I think they felt pretty good for their first period on the road. We battled to get back in the game and the power play is the difference in the game. Our power play had a couple of chances and they made the most of a faceoff win on their power play and that's the difference in the game."
 
On Freytag and his line:
"He's a goal scorer, he can shoot the puck. I thought their line with Baker, the energy he provides and the pressure that he puts on the other team on the forecheck creates space for him. When you can jump on pucks like Freytag did and those goals, I think that's a tribute to his linemates and how hard they played to give him some space. We will give them another chance to go after them tomorrow."
 
Freshman Sean Dhooghe
On his line's performance:
"We had a lot of pop, we stuck to our gameplan and it was working for us."
 
Senior Cameron Hughes
On the Badgers' gameplan:
"Our gameplan was that their 'D' step up a lot, so we wanted to get behind them and have speed to support and play our game in the offensive zone. To be honest, I don't think we did it enough. We had too many turnovers in the neutral zone and played in our zone too long."

On closing out games:
"Do the things that we are doing to get that lead. It's pretty simple, you are in that position for a reason. You do those things that make your team successful and you continue those things. It's a long process, games are pretty long and a team like that is going to come back and have a response of their own. It's continuing the things to get in the spot you are in."
 
On being "the hunter" tonight and if rankings mattered:
"I don't think so, it was two teams going at it. The rankings are there, they are nice. At the end of the day, its two good teams going at it and they had a response and we fell short at the end."
 
Matthew Freytag
On his first goal:
"I just saw the puck come to me and I got it as fast as I could and shot it. Luckily he was kind of out of position."
 
On the play of the UND goaltender:
"I think he made a couple of good saves, but as a team we need to take his eyes away and not let him see those pucks come through. As a team, we know we can do that better tomorrow."
 
Up Next
Wisconsin will finish out the series with North Dakota Saturday night at the Kohl Center. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised on Fox Sports Wisconsin and broadcast on 1310 WIBA.