MADISON, Wis. — They are small steps, but when you’ve won just three games by the second half of February, they’re important steps.
After failing to close out games with a one-goal lead twice at home in January, Wisconsin got to the final horn Friday for a 2-1 victory over Michigan State at the Kohl Center.
It gave the Badgers their first back-to-back victories of the season, following a win at Ohio State last Saturday.
“By getting a couple wins in a row, getting our first win on the road,” Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves said, “those are all indicators that we’re moving in the right direction.”
Defensemen Chase Drake and Kevin Schulze scored second-period goals for the Badgers, who won a second straight one-goal game.
Last month, Wisconsin wasn’t able to finish despite holding one-goal leads in the final three seconds against Boston University and Minnesota. Those games ended up as frustrating ties for a win-starved team.
Wisconsin held off Ohio State 3-2 last Saturday after scoring late, and things got hectic around goaltender Joel Rumpel (32 saves) in the final minutes Friday before the Badgers were able to celebrate.
“There was a little sigh of relief, to be honest,” Drake said. “I think we’ve learned our lessons from the past games and I think that showed tonight. We shut it down finally.”
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Joe Cox scored a power-play goal early in the third period for the Spartans (12-13-2, 6-5-2-2), who missed a chance to move into second place and stay two points behind first-place Minnesota in the Big Ten.
Michigan State started a four-game road swing on a down note despite outshooting Wisconsin 33-18 and attempting 65 shots to the Badgers’ 40.
“Our performance wasn’t good enough tonight,” Spartans coach Tom Anastos said. “I didn’t think we had everybody going. We’re not a good enough team to win games against anybody if you don’t have 20 guys going every night. We left too much on the table tonight. We weren’t able to score when we needed to score and as a result we got what we deserved.
“We’ve been talking about it all week that this team is very capable of beating us. We’re playing on the road. Apparently, we didn’t get that message through and as a result we learned it the hard way.”
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Wisconsin improved to 9-1-1 in its last 11 games against Michigan State, evening the all-time series at 46-46-3.
Drake put the Badgers ahead 6:16 into the second period after Morgan Zulinick won a faceoff back to the defenseman at the blue line. Drake, the Badgers’ co-captain, moved slightly to change the shooting angle, and the puck got through traffic and past Jake Hildebrand (16 saves).
Eaves said Badgers assistant coach Matt Walsh worked with the team’s defensemen this week on avoiding block attempts.
“I think that Chase has done a real good job of keeping the ship together,” Eaves said, “and he was rewarded tonight on a nice goal by what he did this week in practice.”
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Wisconsin’s Grant Besse set up Schulze’s goal with 27.1 seconds left in the second period, working the puck around the back of the net and feeding the defenseman in the left circle.
“It’s an awful goal” to give up in the final minute of the period, Anastos said. “Now they get all this momentum going into the dressing room and you’re kind of reeling.”
The Spartans, however, struck on their third power play of the game 2:11 into the third period when Ryan Keller fed an unmarked Cox in front of the net.
But Rumpel stopped the final 12 shots he faced to give Wisconsin its first victory on a Friday this season.
“Everybody collapsed and helped him out around the net,” Eaves said. “He was big in there. We’ve lost some games in the last seconds so it was good to get that one.”
