ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- Anytime you can reduce the level of emotional stress in your life, it's a good thing.

Members of the University of Wisconsin men's hockey team were incapable of seizing such an opportunity Saturday night, inviting turbulence and uncertainty into their postseason lives.

The 13th-ranked Badgers absorbed a 3-2 loss to St. Cloud State before a crowd of 6,076 at the National Hockey Center, a decision that will force them to spend the last week of the regular season fretting and fidgeting.

"It's out of our control," UW coach Mike Eaves said, mindful of the upcoming bye week. "So we sit and watch now."

The Badgers (15-14-7 overall, 11-12-5 with 27 points in league play) continue to hold down sole possession of fourth place -- which means a home-ice berth for the first round of the WCHA playoffs -- but still could find themselves on the road when the postseason begins March 14.

It's possible UW could tumble to sixth place because St. Cloud (12-12-2, 26 points) and Minnesota State-Mankato (11-11-4, 26 points) are in position to pass them on the final weekend of the regular season.

"We'll just see where we end up now," senior defenseman and captain Davis Drewiske said. "We still could be at home. Who knows?"

Sophomore right wingers Ben Grotting and Michael Davies (power play) accounted for the goals for the Badgers, while junior goaltender Shane Connelly was credited with 23 saves.

The entertaining, highly emotional affair -- which ended without a customary postgame handshake because of a bench-clearing scuffle between UW sophomore left winger Blake Geoffrion and defenseman Matt Stephenson -- was decided at two critical junctures.

The biggest of those came in the final 1 minute, 28 seconds of the second period when the 12th-ranked Huskies made full use of a 5-on-3 power play to erase a one-goal deficit.

The top power-play unit in the WCHA got a conversion from center Garrett Roe during the two-man advantage, then one from right winger Matt Hartman 35 seconds later.

"Our power play was large when it had to be," St. Cloud coach Bob Motzko said after his club ended a 14-game winless streak against the Badgers (0-11-3).

Perhaps the most frustrating thing for UW was it performed so well during the 5-on-3. Connelly made one save on left winger Andreas Nodl and Geoffrion blocked three shots.

One problem: The last of those blocks deflected the puck right to Roe in the right circle and he had an empty net to shoot at.

Eaves was not happy with the calls referee Derek Shepherd made on Drewiske (interference) and senior defenseman Josh Engel (hooking) that led to the 5-on-3.

"If you're going to put us down 5-on-3, in my book, it better be a hell of a call," Eaves said.

Citing the disparity in power plays -- St. Cloud had seven, including two 5-on-3s, to four for the Badgers -- Eaves said the game came down to special teams.

"Quite frankly, I disagree with a lot of the calls," he said. "That's about as far as I can get into it."

The other critical moment as far as UW was concerned came just over 7 minutes into the third when a quick whistle by Shepherd negated a potential tying conversion by sophomore left winger Andy Bohmbach.

It appeared Shepherd, stationed above the right circle, blew his whistle anticipating that Weslosky would be able to glove an airborne rebound. That didn't happen.

"I don't think he worked hard enough on that," Eaves said of Shepherd, who was working his third UW series in the last six weeks.

"The issue about that is where is the referee when he makes the call? Refereeing is a tough job, I understand that. But, to me, I thought he was an awful long way from the net when he blew the whistle."

An important difference from the opener to the series finale is the Huskies, who were held to 15 shots in the opener, did a better job of dictating the pace.

"They were more on their toes," Eaves said.

"They do their game plan better than we do ours most of the time," Motzko said. "We had to shut them down and try to create our offense."

Now comes a long week of waiting and wondering while the postseason picture develops.

"It does kind of suck that it's out of our hands," UW senior defenseman and assistant captain Kyle Klubertanz said, "but we try to control the things we can control."