MADISON, Wis.-- The No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes (18-5-4, 11-3-3-2 Big Ten) came from behind to beat the Wisconsin Badgers (9-13-5, 5-7-5-2 Big Ten) late in overtime 2-1 in game one of a two-game weekend series inside the Kohl Center Friday night, marking six-straight wins for the Buckeyes.
Ohio State senior forward John Wiitala scored the proximate goal in the third period before junior defenseman Matt Miller potted the game-winning goal late in the extra frame to win it for the Buckeyes. Wisconsin freshman forward Mick Messner had the only goal for the Badgers with his sixth goal of the season in the loss.
Miller extended his point streak to six games with a goal tonight, adding three goals, five assists and eight points over that stretch of games, while freshman forward Quinn Preston had the primary assists on both of the Buckeye goals extending his point streak to three games with four assists over that span.
Even in the loss, Wisconsin freshman goaltender Daniel Lebedeff was outstanding for the Badgers who made numerous grade-A saves while stopping 24-of-26 shots faced. Ohio State redshirt senior goaltender Sean Romeo had another solid game letting in just one goal on 21 shots earning his eighth win of the season in 14 starts.
The lineup for the Buckeyes remained vacant of some important players with the likes of senior defenseman Sasha Larocque, junior forward Tanner Laczynski and freshman forward Gustaf Westlund all out with injury and have been for the last 2-to-3 games for Ohio State head coach Steve Rohlik.
The opening period started with a stalemate in the neutral zone with both teams checking well and not letting the opposing team get their offense set up in each other's defensive zone.
Sparks eventually started to fly when Ohio State senior forward Dakota Joshua drilled Badger sophomore defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk into the corner, which resulted in a major scuffle that concluded with Joshua getting a five-minute major and a game misconduct for head contact on the hit, ending the night for the 6-foot-3, 200-pound center.
On his way to the box initially before being sent to the locker room, the visibly frustrated Joshua exchanged words with the referee over the call and was assessed an additional game misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct, putting his status for game two of the weekend series against Wisconsin on Saturday into question.
The Buckeyes and Badgers remained scoreless at the end of the opening frame with the shot total favoring the Badgers by a 5-3 margin.
With just 2:28 into the second period, Badger freshman forward Brock Caufield gathered the puck along the wall and fired it through a maze of players in front of the net and bounced right to freshman forward Messner at the far post who slid the puck past an outstretched Romeo that gave the Badgers a 1-0 lead.
Wisconsin had numerous chances in the middle frame to double its lead, but couldn't capitalize, one most notably came on a 2-on-0 rush for sophomore forwards Sean Dhooghe and Linus Weissbach that ended with a shot going wide of the net, keeping the Buckeyes a shot away from tying the game.
At the end of the second period, the Buckeyes managed to only get seven shots through two periods of play trailing the Badgers in total shots 14-7.
Throughout the first ten minutes of the third period, the Buckeyes had Lebedeff swimming in the crease with the amount of rubber being thrown at the net but Lebedeff stayed strong making some key saves at key times to keep the Badgers in front approaching the middle of the final frame.
After an interference penalty called on Badger sophomore defenseman Josh Ess sending the Buckeyes to the power play, Preston threw the puck to the net and after a lengthy net-front scrabble, the puck popped out to Wiitala in the high slot who made no mistake beating Lebedeff for his fifth goal of the season to tie the game with 11:12 left in the third period.
Ohio State blitzed the Wisconsin net with a 15-6 shot advantage in the third period and had overtaken the lead on the shot total at the end of regulation with 22-20 heading to overtime.
After eventual end-to-end action in overtime, Preston retrieved the puck below the goal line and fed it out in front to Miller who pulled the puck to his backhand and lifted it over Lebedeff with 9.5 seconds remaining to seal a 2-1 overtime victory for Ohio State, their sixth-straight win.
The Buckeyes will look to make it seven straight wins and in the process sweep the weekend and season series against the Wisconsin Badgers when they reconvene for game two of the weekend series back in Kohl Center for puck drop set Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.
