Badgers’ struggles continue in 5-3 loss to Michigan

The Wisconsin Badgers came up short yet again Saturday night in a 5-3 loss to conference rival Michigan for their fifth consecutive loss.

The Badgers drop to 10-17-1 overall and 5-14-1-1 in the Big Ten.

Linus Weissbach and K’Andre Miller scored for the Badgers in the third period to pull Wisconsin within one goal at 4-3. With 30 seconds to play, a potential game-tying shot from senior Max Zimmer was stopped by Michigan goaltender Strauss Mann, and the Wolverines went on to pad their lead with an empty-net goal in the closing seconds.

“I’m alright,” head coach Tony Granato said after the game. “I’ve learned a lot about the guys on our team this weekend that I wasn’t so sure about and the fight that we had through this weekend was all i wanted to see. We will be ready for playoffs. We will finish the season the right way to get ready for it. This is a game that easily could have been won. We didn’t get saves. There we’re a couple I would have liked to have seen saved that took the breath out of us for a little while, but we kept coming.”

Sophomore goalie Daniel Lebedeff logged 33 saves between the pipes for Wisconsin.

The Badgers return to the ice next weekend for a two-game set against Penn State from the Kohl Center.