He was smack in the middle of three scoring sequences.

He took a penalty that triggered a prolonged glare from his coach and nearly morphed into serious trouble.

And on a night when a major injury occurred, he darn near took out one of his own.

So how best to sum up the way sophomore left winger Blake Geoffrion performed Friday night on behalf of the University of Wisconsin men's hockey team?

The fact UW registered a 3-1 Western Collegiate Hockey Association victory over Minnesota-Duluth before a crowd of 15,004 at the Kohl Center surely carries a lot of weight in the analysis.

The decision meant the 11th-ranked Badgers have sole possession of fourth place and will take a season-best six-game unbeaten streak (4-0-2) into the series finale tonight.

Geoffrion scored the deciding goal on the power play and assisted on conversions by sophomore defenseman Jamie McBain and junior center and assistant captain Ben Street (empty net).

UW junior goaltender Shane Connelly made that work stand up with 29 saves -- 15 in the final period -- in a theatrical duel with Duluth counterpart Alex Stalock (30 saves).

"Even though I got some points tonight, it doesn't mean I was happy with my game," Geoffrion said.

Foremost on the debit side was a holding penalty Geoffrion took at the end of the second period. Not only did it negate a power play -- the Badgers were clinging to a 2-1 lead at the time -- it evolved into a 5-on-3 man-advantage for the 12th-ranked Bulldogs early in the third.

"The referee could have called holding about two times before he actually put up his hand," UW coach Mike Eaves said of the sequence.

Then there was that moment with just over 8 minutes left in the game when Geoffrion spun in the neutral zone and squeezed off a slapper intended as a dump-in. The puck caught freshman center Kyle Turris -- he leads the Badgers in scoring and was roughly 10 feet away -- flush in the back of the right calf where there is no padding.

Turris limped to the bench, but didn 't miss a shift. That's more that can be said for defenseman Jason Garrison, one of Duluth's top scorers, who suffered an apparent broken right ankle when he went awkwardly into the dasher boards in the first period.

Turris, who showed up for the postgame news conference with an ice bag on his calf, said Geoffrion apologized when the two got to the bench and again in the dressing room afterward.

"I don't fault him for it at all," Turris said. "If anything, I shouldn't have cut in front of him."

Eaves said Geoffrion epitomized the way the Badgers (12-10-5 overall, 8-8-3 with 19 points in the WCHA) played this night.

"At moments we did some good things," Eaves said. "At moments I'm scratching my head saying, 'What are we doing?' "

The fifth-place Bulldogs (10-9-6, 6-8-5, 17 points) came into the series with the worst power play in the WCHA, but they converted early in the second period when defenseman Travis Gawryletz beat Connelly on a backdoor play.

"I thought it was one of our better efforts for 60 minutes," Duluth coach Scott Sandelin said. "We just didn't finish."

The Badgers got back into it via a broken play in the slot involving Geoffrion and freshman right winger Patrick Johnson. The puck found its way just above the hash marks when McBain swooped in and beat Stalock.

"I've played with (Stalock) before and I know if there's a scrum in front he's just going to go down," McBain said. "I just tried to follow up the play. The puck kind of came loose and I put it upstairs. Fortunately for me, it went in."

UW took the lead when its power play converted against the top penalty-killing unit in the nation.

Stalock denied a shot from the left circle by senior defenseman and assistant captain Kyle Klubertanz, but Geoffrion was at the doorstep to bang home the rebound.

Referee Marco Hunt reviewed the sequence on replay and apparently decided that, while Geoffrion clearly had a skate in the crease, he wasn't impeding Stalock.

"Good teams find ways to win when they don't have their 'A' game," Eaves said. "I think tonight was an example of that. We were all over the map."