After jumping out to a 4-1 lead against the Michigan Wolverines Friday night, the Wisconsin men’s hockey was unable to hold on to the win, surrendering six straight goals to give No. 16 Michigan a 7-4 victory.

Wisconsin forward Grant Besse, who scored twice for Wisconsin (2-14-3, 0-4-1 Big Ten), said the loss to the Wolverines was especially painful because he believes Wisconsin gave the game away as opposed to the Michigan seizing it.

“Giving up six unanswered is unacceptable,” Besse said. “As a team we kind of coughed that one up ourselves rather than them taking it.”

Wisconsin was without junior defenseman Eddie Wittchow, who was suspended for the game. The absence of Wittchow proved to be a tough blow considering defensive woes played a costly role in the loss.

“In our own zone, we were not doing the things we needed to to shut them down,” Eaves said.

The Badgers made good use of their power play to propel them to their hot start and opened up the scoring just three minutes into the game when forward Joseph LaBate tapped in a power play goal.

After Michigan (14-7-0, 6-1-0 Big Ten) tied the game at one on a power play of their own, Besse regained the lead for Wisconsin less than a minute later with a sensational wrist shot perfectly slotted in the top right corner that dinged off the post and into the net.

With less than four minutes to play in the opening period, Michigan forward Tony Calderone received a five-minute major after sending Badger defensemen Tim Davison headfirst into the boards with a dangerous hit from behind. Besse was quick to take advantage of the long power play, scoring his second goal of the night. The goal was Besse’s fifth in three games and gave Wisconsin a 3-1 lead heading into the second period.

However, following an early third period power play goal by Wisconsin’s Jedd Soleway to make it 4-1 Badgers, the rest of the game would be all Michigan.

A minute later, Justin Selman scored his second goal of the night to bring the Wolverines within two. Michigan went on to dominate the rest of the 20 minutes after they limited Wisconsin to only two shots in the second period.

Wisconsin co-captain Chase Drake said his team might have gotten too comfortable once they got up three goals.

“When we had that 4-1 lead, maybe we were a little too overconfident,” Drake said. “Maybe got a little bit back on our heels.”

Michigan put in another goal fourteen minutes into the second period and even though Wisconsin went into the second intermission with a one-goal lead, it was the Wolverines who seemed to have all the momentum.

Wisconsin held their own for the first half of the final twenty minutes, but midway into the third period, things got ugly very for the Badgers. With ten minutes to play, Michigan erupted for three goals in just over two minutes to give them a 6-4 advantage. The three-goal rampage started with another goal by Selman, giving the Michigan forward a hat trick.

A Michigan empty-netter with just over a minute to play made it a 7-4 final and allowed Michigan to finish the game with six unanswered goals, leaving the Badgers still in search of their first Big Ten win.

The Badgers and Wolverines will finish their two-game series at the Kohl Center Saturday night. The puck will drop at 7 p.m.