Badgers men’s hockey lets two-goal lead slip away in loss to no. 3 Minnesota

The Badgers men’s hockey team saw a two-goal lead slip away in a 3-2 loss to third-ranked Minnesota on Friday night in the first of a two-game weekend series at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

Jimmy Snuggerud scored twice for the Gophers (8-1-0), including the go-ahead goal 12 minutes, 45 seconds into the third period. Minnesota got on the board first on Ryan Chesley’s shorthanded goal at 9:46 of the second period.

The Badgers (2-7-0) got off to a great start, getting on the board first when Quinn Finley scored a power-play goal 13 minutes, 44 seconds into the first period. Kyle Kukkonen scored 1:21 into the second period for a two-goal lead.

But then Wisconsin gave up three unanswered goals.

William Gramme stopped 28 of 31 Minnesota shots, while Gophers goalie Nathan Airey had 28 saves on 30 shots.

The Badgers meet their border rivals for the series finale at 6:00pm on Saturday at the Kohl Center.