MADISON, Wis. — Thanks to an explosive effort in the attacking zone, the No. 14 Wisconsin men's hockey team rebounded from a difficult Friday-night loss to Michigan Tech, hammering the Huskies, 6-2, to split the series Saturday night at the Kohl Center. 

In the opening minutes of the period, junior winger Max Zimmer gave the Badgers (4-2-0, 0-0-0-0 Big Ten) a 1-0 lead after burying a loose rebound from the hash marks past Michigan Tech (1-3-0, 0-0-0-0 WCHA) goaltender Matthew Jurusik. 

The goal marked the first of three power-play tallies for Wisconsin in tonight's victory. 

Michigan Tech responded with a pair of goals to make it a 2-1 game in favor of the Huskies late in the first period, but sophomore defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk sent a bullet from the middle of the attacking zone through traffic to end the period with a 2-2 tie. 

In a dominant middle frame, freshman forward Roman Ahcan gave the Badgers a 3-2 lead after knocking home a short-handed goal off a centering pass from sophomore forward Tarek Baker. 

Senior Seamus Malone added his second goal of the weekend at the 9:22 mark of the second period to stretch the Badgers lead to 4-2. 

Sophomore Linus Weissbach rounded out the second-period scoring with UW's third power-play goal of the night to make it 5-2. 

Zimmer capped off the Badgers' explosive comeback with his second goal of the night to lead Wisconsin to a decisive 6-2 victory. 

In his first start at the Kohl Center, freshman goaltender Daniel Lebedeff made 24 saves. 

Notes to know: 

• The Badgers tallied their first short-handed goal of the season in tonight's victory. The last time UW tallied a short-handed goal was on Jan. 27 when the Badgers faced Penn State. 
• After tallying his fourth goal of the season in tonight's win, sophomore Wyatt Kalynuk has a five-game point streak dating back to the Badgers' second game against Boston College in October. Kalynuk has four goals and nine points in the stretch. 
• Wisconsin outshot Michigan Tech, 40-26 

Straight from the Rink
Head Coach Tony Granato
On the first period:
"We are trying to be as disciplined as we can but you also need to be aggressive. We are going to have to sort through and find the balance of being aggressive and physical and intense without taking so many penalties because that gave them their chances last night, obviously with their five power point goals and two majors. Tonight, once we settled into the game and skated like we did in the second period, we got flow and we got four lines over, shift after shift. I thought that was the hard team that has played most of the six games this year and I thought we took the game over. I thought all four lines contributed in one way, shape or form. We were able to bounce back. Last night at the end of the game you said what kind of response are we going to get tomorrow and I was pretty confident that we would come out and play this way. Lebedeff gave us the big save when he needed to and I thought it was a big game for us.
 
On Max Zimmer scoring:
"Max Zimmer has got great skill. He still can be an effective player without scoring, but our team needs him to score. Seamus Malone, the last three games, pointwise and production wise, he is starting to come alive. It was nice to see him get rewarded because he crashes and bangs and sticks his nose in there as hard as anybody and its starting to go in for him a little bit too. It's nice to see. I thought [Will Johnson] was much better tonight as well. Last night, there were some guys that we thought needed to step up and make a bigger impact on the game tonight, Johnny was one of them and he did that. His net presence on a couple of goals tonight was outstanding.
 
On Roman Ahcan:
"You're never going to have to worry about Roman Ahcan playing hard, that's a fact. That is one of the things that I bragged up about our freshman group. They all are made of the same kind of cloth, background, gritty mentality. Dominick Mersch went through the board in the first period and didn't miss a shift. All of those kids have that mentality. Roman is playing a game after losing his grandfather less than 24 hours. He was emotional and it was hard for him. The best thing you could do in his situation was go out and make his grandpa proud and that was what he was able to do. It was nice to see him get a goal. He was energized for sure, emotional with everything going on, he got into a little debate with the entire Michigan Tech players, staff, trainers, whatever and whoever was around. There was something going on there. His contribution to our team after only six games is pretty obvious to anyone that has been watching. He wears his heart on his sleeve and it was nice to see him get two goals in two games. He had a really solid weekend.
 
On Daniel Lebedeff:
"I thought he gave up that one power-play goal that snuck up on him on the short side. You never know because he is still relatively young into his hockey career how he was going to respond to that. And it didn't bother him one bit. So I think it was a new challenge for him. It was his first home game here. It is playing a game after our team lost we needed a big performance out of him, and he stood tall. I thought his rebound control was outstanding and I thought he fought through screens. I thought when we were in trouble, he found a way to get a whistle for us by controlling his rebounds. It was a really solid performance for him.

Senior Forward Seamus Malone
On tonight's improved performance:
"We came out with a much tougher mindset tonight. If we can bring that energy next weekend, I think it will give us a chance for a sweep."
 
Freshman Forward Roman Achan
On second period scoring:
"Getting ahead early in the second period helped us out a lot. I think it really got us going and back on our feet."
 
On tonight's renewed energy: 
"We played more as a team tonight. It was good to see everyone working together and supporting one another. Everyone found their place."
 
Junior Forward Max Zimmer
On the season going forward:
"It's all about consistency and sticking to the game plan. That all starts Monday at practice."

Up Next: 
The Badgers head to Grand Forks next weekend, Nov. 2-3, to face No. North Dakota. Puck drop for Friday's tilt is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. (CT) while Saturday's contest begins at 7 p.m. (CT).