With two minutes left in the first period, the game was knotted at one and it looked like Team Wisconsin and the Minnesota Senior All-Stars would go into their locker rooms with a tie game after 18 minutes.

MN's Charlie Sampair had other ideas. He came down the right side, made a nifty toe-drag move and went glove side high on TW goalie Scott Sibik to bump the lead to 2-1.

Once again, TW had to play from behind and did so very well, carrying play for the most part in the final two periods, but took a tough 3-2 loss Friday evening at Plymouth Ice Center.

MN got on the board early on a goal by Jared Thomas just 1:19 into the first period. Defenseman Dillon Eichstadt took a shot from the left point and it was re-directed perfectly by Jared Thomas, with the puck sailing over Sibik's right shoulder and into the net.

"That was a great tip and Scotty really couldn't do anything in the net," said Ebner. "It was a good goal."

TW tied the score at the 12:35 mark on a nice goal by Drew Otto, who picked up the puck in the high slot, made a couple dekes on MN goalie John Scheuer, and slid it past the goalie's right skate for the unassisted tally.

Sampair's late goal deflated the sails of TW, but not for long. MN held a 13-9 shot advantage in the period.

The second period was scoreless until midway through, when a muffed TW line change gave MN a clean rush at the net. Sampair broke free, made a deke, and ripped the puck over the goalie's blocker to make it 3-1 at 7:40 of the period.

"We got caught on a bad line change and they ended up with the odd-man rush," noted Ebner.

TW was able to take advantage of the second of a pair of MN penalties when Jason Ford showed patience and then showed his skill.

He took a pass and set off down the left side, waiting until he had a clean shot and zipped it past MN goalie Jon Narverud's blocker to cut the lead to 3-2 at 12:25 for the power play goal.

"I came down after Kyle (Lee) got it to me," said Ford. "I saw blocker side high and I fired it and it just went in."

TW outshot MN 9-5 in the period.

The third period saw TW hold a slight 11-9 shot edge, but was unable to score as the horn sounded on a disappointing 3-2 loss. 

"We pretty much had the third period," said Ebner. "I think we dominated the play and had better chances, but we weren't able to get the puck in the net."

Scheuer (14) and Narverud (13) totaled 27 saves, while Sibik stopped 24 shots on his end.

"Scotty played very well tonight, he looked very comfortable," said Ebner. "One shift, I think he took two off the face mask and made those saves."

TW will have a quick turnaround, as they face Michigan at 10:15am Saturday morning.

"We'll have our work cut out for us," noted Ebner. "We've got a huge challenge in front of us tomorrow."

The team showed confidence after the game, in spite of the one-goal defeat.

"Today we played a complete game, which is awesome to see," said Ford. "Everybody is on the same page now."