DENVER — You almost could smell the frustration on their breath, see the rage in their eyes and hear the irritation in their voices.

Make no mistake, there was a lot of emotion roiling inside the University of Wisconsin men's hockey team's dressing room Saturday night at Magness Arena.

Getting ripped off will do that to you. UW channeled all that energy into a resounding 7-2 Western Collegiate Hockey Association romp over third-ranked Denver before 6,089 onlookers.

The 17th-ranked Badgers recorded their first road win this season — and their most one-sided league victory since a 5-0 rout of Michigan Tech in February 2006 — and moved from eighth place into a tie for sixth in large part because of what happened to them during Friday night's 3-2 loss.

A last-second, game-tying goal by senior right winger Matthew Ford was wrongly disallowed — WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod acknowledged a mistake by referee Randy Schmidt and issued an apology 2 hours before the series finale — leaving UW players and coaches to do a slow emotional burn.

"You could run the gamut starting with anger, frustration," coach Mike Eaves said.

"We didn't feel right about the way the game ended (Friday) night," freshman right winger Podge Turnbull added.

"It put a fire under our rear ends," senior defenseman and assistant captain Kyle Klubertanz said.

After a night of self-inflicted torture, watching the tainted replay over and over again on YouTube, it took a team meeting to put the moment in focus.

"We had to let it go," Ford said. "For a while, everybody here — coaching staff and players — we knew it just didn't go our way (Friday) night and we couldn't hang our heads."

Heads up and spirits fully engaged, the Badgers (9-10-3 overall, 5-8-1 WCHA) responded with the kind of victory that has been known to right wayward vessels.

Four freshmen produced five goals — including two by center Kyle Turris, and one each by Turnbull, right winger Patrick Johnson and defenseman Ryan McDonagh — to spark the attack.

Junior center and assistant captain Ben Street and sophomore left winger Michael Davies also scored for UW, while junior goaltender Shane Connelly was a major force en route to 32 saves.

The game seemingly was marred by the fact that Schmidt was allowed to serve as arbiter. Eaves was outspoken on his pregame radio show, saying it was unfair to Schmidt and the teams.

"It puts him in a real tough spot, a real difficult situation to come back and referee a game after the league and he admittedly didn't handle the situation correctly," Eaves said.

Eaves had a private moment with Schmidt before the game in which an apology was offered.

"Randy Schmidt is a good man," Eaves said.

Denver coach George Gwozdecky said he was told Saturday — he declined to say who he talked to — that if a league review of Schmidt's work found an error, another referee would be brought in to work the game.

"I apologize on behalf of our league office for doing that because that wasn't right," Gwozdecky said after his second-place team fell to 17-5 overall, 12-4 in the WCHA. Multiple telephone calls placed to McLeod were not returned.

The game was tied at 1 when Turnbull scored a first-period goal that illustrated why it might not have been a good idea to have Schmidt working the game.

Turnbull took a shot from the right point that handcuffed Pioneers goaltender Peter Mannino, putting him on his back in the crease with the puck at his side.

While Turnbull followed his shot, Schmidt, trailing well behind the play, blew his whistle because he obviously lost sight of the puck.

The whistle clearly came before Turnbull knocked the puck into the net, but after reviewing the play on video, Schmidt inexplicably ruled it was a goal.

"Him going to a review like that was probably a direct result of what happened (Friday night)," Eaves said. Gwozdecky graciously refused to focus on that sequence, saying it detracted from the fact the Badgers were the better team this night.

Ford said the Badgers felt "cheated" in way after the opener. After their performance this night, they felt energized.

"I think we wanted to show what we're capable of," he said "There are some things that are out of your hands, as you can see. But tonight I thought we did a really good job controlling what we could."