No. 13 Wisconsin broke a 1-1 tie with two power-play goals in just over a span of two minutes late in the third period and defeated the Michigan State hockey team, 4-1, on Saturday at LaBahn Arena.

"Guys battled tremendously hard. As short of a lineup as we had, guys jumped in and we had it 1-1 with eight minutes to go," MSU head coach Danton Cole said. "We just played a really gutsy game. Drew was good in the net and the guys battled and took away a lot of time and space."

With Wisconsin (11-7, 9-5-0-0-1-0) holding on to a 1-0 lead, Mitchell Lewandowski tied the game 3:42 into the third period. Nash Nienhuis got the puck to Dennis Cesana in the MSU end and he pushed it up ice to Lewandowski. Lewandowski gained the UW zone along the left side and let go a snap shot from the left circle that found the top far corner of the net to even the game.

Both teams had chances as the period progressed, but a major penalty to the Spartans' Aiden Gallacher for checking from behind gave Wisconsin a 5-minute power play with 8:36 to go in the third period. Ty Pelton-Byce was able to reclaim the lead for the Badgers on a one-timer from the left circle that got between the pads of goaltender Drew DeRidder.

Just over two minutes later, Cole Caufield extended the Badger lead to 3-1, scoring from the left circle.

MSU (6-10-2, 5-10-1-2-1-0) pulled DeRidder for the extra attacker with 1:30 to go in an attempt to pull closer, but Caufield got an empty-netter with 34.3 seconds on the clock to put the game away.

"It was an unfortunate penalty at unfortunate time, and we weren't able to kill the whole five minutes," Cole said. "But we'll take some positives out of that, we have a little time to heal and hopefully we get some guys back."

The Spartans played on Saturday without Charlie Combs, Nico Muller, Cole Krygier and Jagger Joshua (suspension) who were all unavailable.

Wisconsin took a 1-0 lead 7:05 into the second period on a goal by Linus Weissbach. Off a turnover, Caufield was able to pick up the puck in the Badger end and race up ice 2-on-1 with Linus Weissbach. From the right side, Caufield was able to get the puck across to Weissbach, who collected it and snapped it into the net.

MSU was 0-for-2 on the power play, while Wisconsin was 2-for-4.

DeRidder made 37 stops for the Spartans, while UW goaltender Cameron Rowe made 17 saves.

Michigan State will be off next weekend and returns to action Tuesday, Feb. 9 at Michigan.