[media-credit name=’AJ Maclean’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The Wisconsin men’s hockey team (5-1-0, 3-1-0 in WCHA) split its weekend series at home with defending national champion Denver (4-3-0, 3-1-0 in WCHA), winning 6-3 Friday night before falling 5-3 Saturday.

“This is our building, our ice; we don’t want to give up anything, and we gave up two points,” Wisconsin captain Adam Burish said. “So, are we happy with the split? Absolutely not.”

Denver jumped out to an early lead in the second game, with left-winger Jeff Drummond scoring on an odd-man rush just 23 seconds into the first period. Wisconsin answered with 9:39 remaining in the period on a wrist shot by freshman defenseman Davis Drewiske, his first collegiate goal.

The Pioneers retook the lead just 1:56 later when Luke Fulghum beat Badger goalie Bernd Brückler to the stick side from just inside the blue line.

“I think [Bernd] would tell you that that second goal, that long shot, he’d want back; but he was outstanding in that second period,” head coach Mike Eaves said. “He made some outstanding saves.”

In a second period, in which Denver out shot Wisconsin 19-5, the two teams traded goals. Wisconsin scored with 4:54 expired on a power play one-timer goal from right-winger Ryan MacMurchy. Denver responded on another odd-man rush to take a 3-2 lead on Gabe Gauthier’s third goal of the season.

The Badgers would not go away, however, and once again evened things up on a power play goal from Jake Dowell. Denver continued to put pressure on Brückler and the Wisconsin defense, and with just 1:43 remaining in the period, the Pioneers finally capitalized on a power play situation. Drummond redirected a Matt Carle shot from the point to give Denver a 4-3 lead heading into the third period.

“I guess you could say tonight we weren’t ready,” defenseman Tom Gilbert said. “I don’t know if we were a little overconfident on a 5-0 beginning to the regular season, but we just weren’t ready. The first period they came out, and they were flying; they hit us, and they outworked us, and we got tired. It showed in the second and third period.”

The Pioneers refused to let up in the third, adding to their lead after just 3:36 on freshman Paul Stastny’s first career goal. Wisconsin failed to capitalize on a 12-5 shot advantage, and lost freshman Matt Auffrey to an arm injury.

“Well I think it was a lack of sharpness and readiness and aggressiveness; you could use all those adjectives, right from the beginning of the game,” Eaves said. “It was a classic case of one team getting beat, their pride getting perked up, and the other team trying to deal with success.”

Friday’s game was very different, though Denver took an early lead after a turnover deep in the zone by Badger defenseman Jeff Likens. Likens tried to pass across the ice, but the puck rolled off of his stick and right to Fulghum, who scored to give the Pioneers a 1-0 lead with 12:22 remaining in the first period. Wisconsin tied things up on Burish’s second goal of the season, a rebound after a Robbie Earl shot.

“I thought we were very good in the first ten minutes,” Eaves said. “I thought we did exactly the things we wanted to do from a forecheck standpoint, and up to the time that we turned the puck over, and they scored, we had looked pretty good. But again, the maturity of the team is such that they did score, and the response on the bench was, ‘Let’s respond and continue playing.'”

Wisconsin took the lead just 36 seconds into the second period on a power play goal from freshman Joe Pavelski, the first of his two goals in the game. Denver responded on a Jon Foster power play goal, and appeared to take the lead on a Fulghum shot, but the goal was not counted. After the Badgers jumped ahead on a power play goal from Ross Carlson, the Pioneers evened the score on Geoff Paukovich’s rebound goal with 5:04 remaining in the period.

“The most interesting thing about this game was in the second period it was kind of like fire wagon hockey,” Eaves said. “And the third period was about let’s step back a little bit and mature, play with poise and confidence, and do the things we want to do from systems.”

Once again, the third period proved to be the decisive period for Wisconsin. The Badgers scored three unanswered goals to turn a close game into a rout, with Carlson, Pavelski, and Earl doing the honors. Wisconsin’s conditioning carried the team through the final period, something that has quickly become a theme.

“We talked about that right after the game: their hard work has paid off again,” Eaves said. “Sometimes the guys, getting up at 7:15 on a Monday morning, lift and the practices, the skating … I think when you win, and you do these things, it sells itself.”

After suffering its first loss of the season, Wisconsin will look to turn things around next weekend on the road in Minnesota.

“Now we as a team have to come back on Monday, put a good week of practice together, and then go on the road … and we just have to do our best and get back to work and do the things that we can do well in Minnesota,” Brückler said.