COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Wisconsin men's hockey team fell in its regular-season finale, faltering in the second period of the 4-0 contest with No. 6 Ohio State on Saturday night at Value City Arena.
 
Wisconsin (14-17-4, 8-13-3-1 Big Ten) skated to a draw through 20 minutes with the Buckeyes (21-8-5, 14-8-2-1 Big Ten), but the second period proved to be the difference maker as OSU scored three tallies in the frame.
 
Ohio State scored at the 6:43 mark of the second, later widened it's lead to 3-0 in a 1:10 span, scoring short-handed before tallying a third on a breakaway once the penalty expired.
 
Wisconsin battled through with several chances on net that bounced the wrong way, unable to break the scoring barrier.
 
OSU tacked on an empty net goal in the final minute of play when Wisconsin defenseman Peter Tischke threw his stick to deflect a shot heading towards the empty Badger net.
 
Sophomore goaltender Jack Berry finished the night with 27 saves.
 
Notes to Know
-Shots were an even 31-31 through the contest while Wisconsin narrowly outblocked OSU, 15-13
-Matthew Freytag and Trent Frederic led the Badgers with four shots apiece
-Wisconsin ends the regular season ranked sixth in the Big Ten Conference and will travel to third-seeded Michigan for a first-round, best-of-three series to open the Big Ten Tournament
 
Straight From the Rink
Associate Head Coach Mark Osiecki
On takeaways heading into playoffs
"In our opinion, there were a lot of good things done this weekend. Scores don't reflect it at all. We played as a group of five, there was a lot of offense generated and movement coming up the ice."
 
On the score not reflecting the effort
"That (second) period, it was a bad one minute, a bad power play."
 
Senior defenseman Tim Davison
On building towards the playoffs
"I think, obviously it wasn't the outcome that we wanted this weekend. But I think the two first periods last night we played well, we played the way we wanted to play. And tonight, besides the two-minute stretch there where we gave up a few goals That's not our type of hockey, that's not what we want. But in the third period, even though we lost, we were trying to play for next weekend. Next weekend starts a new season. We just have to have a good week of practice next weekend and get ready to play next weekend."
 
 On the energy and effort tonight
"I thought it was a good bounce-back after last night. I thought there were a lot of positives from tonight's game, especially the first period and third period. We kind of got snake bit and couldn't score a goal. I think there are things we can build off of and work towards for next weekend."
 
Senior forward Cameron Hughes
On finding positives
"I think we finished the game the right way, we had the two-minute span there on the power play where we shot ourselves in the foot and got in a hole, we were chasing from there. There are a lot of good things we did, stuff we can build on. We're looking forward to Friday."
 
On heading into the playoffs with this loss
"You can be negative about it. Or you can look at it and say it's a new season. That's what we're going to do. We're not going to dwell on it, no one is feeling sorry for us. At the end of the day we're confident in ourselves and we don't really care if anyone else is. It's our team. We're going to get the job done and that's what we're looking forward to doing."
 
On the energy and effort tonight
"No one is giving up. It's pretty hard, it's frustrating at times. But we're sticking together and working together and that's all we can do at this point."
 
 
 
Up Next
Wisconsin will travel to Michigan for the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Puck drop for all games of the best-of-three series will be at 6:30 p.m. CT.