The Wisconsin men’s hockey team suffered its second defeat in consecutive nights to Penn State Saturday, losing the final game of the two-game set at the Kohl Center 4-2.

“We are going through a tough stretch right now and we might not understand the lessons that we’re going to get from this time until we’re past,” Badgers head coach Mike Eaves said after the game. “But what we can control right now is keeping our effort at a high level and coming back on Monday purposely ready to get better. Those are the things that we can control and that was the message to the kids as they left the rink.”

Both teams had chances to go ahead in the first period, but Wisconsin (1-10-1, 0-2 Big Ten) and Penn State (9-4-2, 3-1 Big Ten) both were scoreless after one period of play.

Two and half minutes into the second period, Wisconsin junior defensemen Kevin Schulze gave the Badgers their first lead of the series by scoring his first goal of the season. Schulze attributed the goal to the work his teammates did getting the puck off the boards.

Unfortunately for Wisconsin, their lead over Penn State was short-lived. The Nittany Lions went on to score four unanswered goals, including three in the second period, which allowed them to take a commanding 4-1 lead over the Badgers.

According to Eaves, the momentum really shifted in Penn State’s favor as soon as they quickly tied the game following Schulze’s goal, and the bad bounces the Badgers kept getting did not help.

“The tide kind of turned, and we really felt the second and third goals,” Eaves said.  “… Head coaches in hockey talk about the bounces of the puck and we didn’t have much puck luck there.”

Redshirt sophomore forward Morgan Zulinick added a late third period goal for the Badgers to make it 4-2 with five minutes of play, but they were unable to come any closer to stopping Penn State from coming away with their second straight win in the Kohl Center.

Even though Wisconsin was unable to get the win, Zulinick felt like the Badgers played better Saturday night than their 5-2 loss to Penn State Friday night, adding that he still believes they can build on Saturday night’s game.

“I thought we played a lot better than last night, and we’re going to keep moving forward, building on this,” Zulinick said. “The biggest thing is just moving forward, keep building.”