MADISON, Wis. — After going down 5-3 in the second period, the Wisconsin men's hockey team tallied five unanswered goals, including four in the third frame, to rally for an 8-5 victory over No. 6 Penn State on Saturday night at the Kohl Center.

The Badgers grabbed a 3-1 lead early in the second, but gave up the next four goals to fall behind, 5-3. 

Will Johnson's power-play goal at 18:45 of the second period gave the Badgers back their footing and momentum heading into what became a four-goal third period.

The night started when senior forward Matthew Freytag started the Badgers (6-7-3, 2-3-3-1 B1G) off on the right foot, scoring just over two minutes into the first period to give Wisconsin a 1-0 lead. 

The Nittany Lions (10-4-1, 2-3-1-1 B1G) responded 20 seconds later to even the score on a goal from junior Liam Folkes, but freshman winger Jack Gorniak slotted a pass to senior forward Will Johnson, who sent a laser past PSU netminder Peyton Jones at the 18:49 mark of the frame to give the Badgers a 2-1 lead heading into intermission. 

In the opening minute of the second period, sophomore blue-liner Wyatt Kalynuk banked the puck off the back of Jones and into the net to stretch the Badgers' lead to 3-1, but the Nittany Lions scored four consecutive goals to take a 5-3 lead with five minutes to play in the middle frame. 

The Badgers hopped on a five-goal scoring run that began with Johnson's late second-period goal.. 

With under 10 minutes to go in regulation, junior winger Max Zimmer collected the puck from freshman defenseman K'Andre Miller's whiff shot and quickly fired it past Jones to knot the game up at 5-5, before Miller grabbed a goal of his own after hammering a cross-ice feed from Zimmer into the net to tally the game-winner. 

Sophomore forward Tarek Baker poked home a loose puck at the crease two-and-a-half minutes later to put the game out of reach, and senior captain Peter Tischke scored an empty-net insurance goal at the 18:05 mark of the third frame to seal the 8-5 victory over the Nittany Lions. 

Freshman goaltender Daniel Lebedeff recorded 14 saves, while junior netminder Jack Berry made six saves in a relief appearance for the victory. 

Notes to Know: 

• Upperclassmen combined for five goals in the win tonight, with senior forward Will Johnson tallying two. Before tonight's game, Wisconsin's junior and senior classes had combined for nine goals through the first 15 games this season. 
• Tonight's game marked the most goals scored in a game by the Badgers since Nov. 2, 2013, when UW defeated Lake Superior State, 8-1.
• The victory also marked the first time the Badgers have come back to win after trailing by two goals since Wisconsin battled back to defeat Michigan, 7-4, on Dec. 9, 2016. 

Straight from the Rink: 
Head Coach Tony Granato
On winning close games:
"I like it now that it is all done with. Some of the players had battled and played hard and hadn't scored. Matthew Freytag didn't play a lot last night. Will Johnson, he has played extremely hard the last five games and he got rewarded with a couple of goals. And then Max Zimmer scores a goal and offensively it hasn't gone perfect for him. He is a guy we are going to have to count on. Lots of different ways. We fell behind, and then regain the lead. You look up at the clock and you are trailing by two. The response after that was outstanding. The kids all played good. The freshman played good. Daniel got pulled because there were bounces around our net that went in and we needed a momentum change. To see Jack Berry come off the bench in the third, after not starting the last two games. His last performance and being ready to play was outstanding. He was just calm and steady for us, and he was able to give us a chance to get back in the game."

On the result:
"We are young and we are still learning the game. But you look at the opponents we have played this month, they play defensively and have great goaltending. We created a lot of chances in a lot of those games. Michigan game last weekend, we probably had 25 scoring chances. Sooner or later, if you keep staying with it, you will eventually get something. Tonight, we paid a price at the net for sure, our d jumped into play at appropriate times, and we just kept coming after it."

Junior forward Max Zimmer
On how the game flips:
"We had a tough November. We didn't really get a whole lot of bounces, especially lately. I think part of it was getting a couple of bounces. I think on my goal, Ke'Andre shot it and it just popped out to me in the slot. There were a couple of other ones that obviously bounced our way. We stuck to our game plan and it obviously paid off."
 
Freshman defenseman K'Andre Miller
On the ups and downs of the game:
"We just had to stick to our game. Coach has been preaching that all year, just stick to your game and it will come our way. I think we definitely has the ice tilted our way in the third period and that helped our momentum to help finish the game off strong."
 
On his goal:
"It all happened too fast, to be honest. I saw the puck come up and I tried to grab it and get it down as fast as I could and get it in the net. Just getting shots on the net you just never know what's going to go in and what's not. I think that was another big part of our game tonight was getting shots on net. Just testing the goalie and getting in his head."
 
Senior forward Will Johnson
On the team's mood during the game:
"I think the biggest part of the game for us was coming back. That is one thing we've been preaching is getting down and not coming back and losing our focus. So I think that was the biggest thing for us. We were so happy because all that hard work was finally paying off. Having the lead and losing it is tough, so coming back and getting that win is huge for our conference and it's really helpful."
 
On how they finished the game:
"Not to keep saying the same things over and over again, but it is just sticking to our game plan. That has been our biggest thing. Honestly since I was a freshman here, it was playing 60 minutes. Being able to play 60 minutes is pretty tough but I think we proved that today. We played hard all three periods, that's all it is. We've just got to stick to our game plan and it will all work out for us."

Up Next: The Badgers continue their home stand next weekend when they host Michigan State in a Friday-Saturday series. Both contests are scheduled for 7 p.m. starts (CT). Saturday's game is the UW Teddy Toss, presented by BMO Harris.