The Wisconsin Badgers (0-1-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) opened this year’s season with a 5-1 loss to Troy, N.Y.’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in the second game of the Ice Breaker Invitational held at the Kohl Center.
Wisconsin’s lone goal was scored by Frosh defender Tom Gilbert at 5:05 of the first period. John Eichelberger passed the puck up to Pete Talafous who fed the puck to Gilbert high in the slot to tally his first Badger career goal.
Mikael Hammarstrom tied it up for the Engineers 1-1 at 7:54 of the first period off a feed from Scott Basiuk. RPI never looked back, and before the close of the first period RPI’s Ben Barr scored the game-winning goal.
In the second period, the Engineers continued to extend their lead with goals from Nick Economakos and Vic Pereira, bringing the score to 4-1.
Scott Basiuk, who assisted on two goals earlier in the night, scored the final goal of the game on the power play for the final score of 5-1.
Bruckler made 20 saves in the game.
Tomorrow night Wisconsin will face Northern Michigan in the third place game of the Ice Breaker tournament at 4:00 p.m. at the Kohl Center. Earlier in the day Northern Michigan tied Boston University 4-4 in regulation, but lost 4-3 in a shootout.
Mike Eaves got his first win at Wisconsin this afternoon as the Badgers scored twice late in the game to defeat Northern Michigan 4-3 in the third-place game of the Ice Breaker Invitational at the Kohl Center.
Rene Bourque’s wrist shot got past Northern Michigan goaltender Craig Kowalski for the game-winning goal with 1:16 to go in the game. Defenseman Mark Jackson tied the game at 3-3 for the Badgers two minutes earlier when he got the rebound from a Bourque shot and fired it past Kowalski.
Northern Michigan opened up the scoring at 3:13 of the first period on a power-play goal from Bryce Cockburn. Wisconsin answered NMU’s goal with a power-play goal from freshman Ryan MacMurchy. Alex Leavitt and Jackson assisted on MacMurchy’s first career goal. Cockburn scored again for the Wildcats before the close of the first period to put them ahead 2-1.
Badger senior wing Brad Winchester opened scoring in the second stanza with a power-play goal. Winchester went top shelf on Kowalski on a rebound from Leavitt’s shot to make it a 2-2 game.
The Wildcats took a 3-2 lead when defensman Juha Alen slipped one by UW goalie Scott Kabotoff with 12:35 to go in the game, but that was all the Badgers allowed.
Wisconsin’s Scott Kabotoff made 20 saves toward the win. Leavitt finished with a career-high three assists in the game.
Wisconsin will continue its homestand when it hosts Alabama-Huntsville next Friday and Saturday. Friday night’s game is scheduled for 7:35 p.m. and Saturday night the puck will drop at 8:05 p.m.
—compiled from staff reports
