[media-credit name=’AJ Maclean’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Linemates Adam Burish and Robbie Earl each scored a pair of goals over the weekend to help the No. 4 ranked Wisconsin men’s hockey team (12-4-0, 9-3-0 WCHA) sweep the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs (7-7-2, 5-5-0 WCHA) in a crucial Western Collegiate Hockey Association matchup at the Kohl Center.

Despite not playing their best hockey, the Badgers earned the two wins pushing themselves into sole possession of first place in the WCHA. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs were left looking for more answers as they muddle along after being picked as the preseason favorites to win the league.

Wisconsin scored twice on the power play and held Duluth to 0-6 with the man-advantage — including a stretch in the second period where the Bulldogs went 0-3 while being on the power play for nearly six minutes straight — in earning a 3-2 victory Saturday night.

“They got two power-play goals and we didn’t’ get any,” Minnesota-Duluth head coach Scott Sandelin said. “There’s your difference.”

Wisconsin would capitalize twice on the power play as it scored the game’s first goal and last goal with the man-advantage.

Earl notched the game-winning goal 1:50 into the third period after Duluth’s Todd Smith took a cross-checking penalty. Kyle Klubertanz attempted a one-timer from the point, but had his shot blocked by defenders in front of the net. The puck deflected to Earl, who quickly wristed the puck past Bulldog netminder Isaac Reichmuth.

UW controlled much of the play after Earl’s goal, and only faced increased pressure in the waning seconds of the period as UMD tried desperately to knot the score.

Duluth, however, had every opportunity to wrest a victory away from Wisconsin long before the third period, but never quite got over the hump. According to Badger head coach Mike Eaves, his team was fortunate to even have the opportunity to score the game winning goal.

“[Minnesota-Duluth] picked it up,” Eaves said. “It was exactly the response that Scotty Sandelin wanted from his guys. We weren’t ready to match them and what they did, and we were lucky to be 2-2 at the end of one [period].”

While the Badgers may have been lucky to end the first period tied, they started out with the lead as freshman Matt Ford scored the first goal of his career eight minutes into the contest.

Ford, who had been out of action until last weekend due to a knee injury, took a pass from Jake Dowell and tapped it into the net for the power-play goal.

“Tonight, my goal, usually the first one is the hardest, but Dowell and [Andrew] Joudrey made it easy for me,” Ford said.

After Ford’s goal however, it was Duluth who would take control of the game. Goals from T.J. Caig and Marco Peluso just 1:09 apart midway through the period swung any momentum Wisconsin might have had the other way.

While the Badgers appeared flat, they were able to tie the score with just one second left in the period when Burish finished off a well executed 3-on-2 rush. The play started as Joe Pavelski carried the puck across the blueline and then dropped it off for Earl who cut across the middle off the offensive zone. Earl pushed the puck to Burish who deked the goalie and snuck the puck inside of the near post.

Despite the tied score, Duluth out-shot Wisconsin 8-5 in the first period. It only got worse for the Badgers in the second period, as they were out-shot 11-4 — though four of the shots did come during the Bulldogs’ three power-play chances. Wisconsin was able to kill off the penalties largely thanks to some timely saves by senior Bernd Brückler and survive the second period with the score still knotted at two.

“Your goaltender has to be your best penalty-killer, but the guys blocked some shots,” Eaves said of the game-saving penalty-killing his team did in the second period. “At times I wish they could have made smaller plays to get the puck out, but they did a nice job.”

The Badgers scored a goal in each of the three periods Friday night, and were able to fight through some flat play as they started the weekend off with a 3-2 victory.

“I think if you ask the boys they would tell you, and we as coaches would agree, we weren’t at our best tonight,” Eaves said after the game.

While not at its best, Wisconsin was able to tally the game’s first goal, as Earl managed to sneak the puck past Duluth goaltender Josh Johnson from a tough angle off a pass from Joudrey, who was behind the net.

The Badgers held onto the lead until 19:59 of the first period, when Tim Stapleton blasted a shot from the blueline that beat Brückler and the final buzzer. The power-play goal sent the teams to their locker rooms tied at one.

“The first period was tough. Passes weren’t getting connected; we weren’t getting pucks in deep; we weren’t finishing hits,” Burish, the Badgers’ captain, said. “We had to figure out a way to get it done, get back to our systems and get back to simple things, and we did.”

Wisconsin was able to steal back the momentum when it killed off a penalty to start the second period and then scored shortly thereafter.

Dowell was credited with his eighth goal of the year when he skated out from behind the net and tried to center the puck only to have it hit Neil Petruic’s stick and go into the goal.

The Badgers got the eventual game-winning goal at 7:12 of the third period as Burish finished off a great end-to-end 3-on-2 break with a little backhanded shot that flipped over Johnson.

“The game-winning goal was absolutely everybody on the ice touched the puck,” Eaves said. “We went goal-line to goal-line and it was in the net.”

Duluth’s Nick Anderson cut Wisconsin’s lead to 3-2 just two minutes later, but that was as close as the Bulldogs would come to winning.

“I didn’t think they did anything better than us,” Sandelin said after the disappointing loss. “We had some chances and we just couldn’t score. They capitalized on their chances.”