MADISON, Wis. – The way things have gone, North Dakota's opponents may want to consider declining their power-play opportunities.

Senior forward Michael Parks scored UND's sixth short-handed goal in eight games, a breakaway effort with 7:37 left in the third period, to give second-ranked UND a 4-2 lead in an eventual 4-3 victory over Wisconsin.

The win, UND's second in a row in which it trailed after two periods, improved the team's record to 7-1-1 and pushed its unbeaten streak to seven games (7-0-1).

It is UND's best start to open a season since 2009-10.

"It was a good win for our team,” said UND head coach Dave Hakstol. “I thought we just stayed with it. We played our game. After two periods, I thought we were doing a lot of things right. A turnover at the end of the second period put us behind by one but I thought overall our guys went to the locker room and re-set and went out and played a good period.”

Much like last Saturday's 3-2 overtime win over Air Force, UND found itself trailing after 40 minutes despite a 29-17 edge in shots on goal.

The Badgers' Jedd Soleway took advantage of a neutral-zone turnover late in the second period and beat UND goalie Zane McIntyre with a snapshot from the faceoff dot, giving winless Wisconsin a 2-1 lead heading into the third.

But UND erupted for three straight goals in the final 20 minutes to nab its first victory at the Kohl Center since Nov. 2010.

“The Air Force game, we were playing bad and tonight I thought we played good the whole way through,” said senior Connor Gaarder, whose second-period power-play goal tied the game 1-1. “But I guess the third looked a lot like Air Force where we needed to push and push hard and we came out with the victory tonight too.”

Junior forward Colten St. Clair knotted the game just 3:12 into the second period, taking advantage of a Stephane Pattyn screen and beating UW netminder Joel Rumpel 5-hole from the dot.

Five minutes later, Parks gave UND its first lead of the night while on the power play. The St. Louis, Mo., native stationed himself in the slot and converted a Jordan Schmaltz centering feed for his first of two goals.

Just four minutes after that, this time short-handed, Parks scooped up a loose puck at his own blueline and beat Rumpel high glove side on a breakaway for what would prove to be the game-winner. For Parks, it was his ninth point in the last six games, with four of those points coming short-handed.

It was also UND's NCAA-leading sixth short-handed goal of the season.

“It's just our aggressive mentality to see loose pucks and to jump on them,” said Parks. “I find that a lot of power plays get sleepy at times and we try to take advantage of that with our aggressive play.”

Added Hakstol: “I think it's a little bit of good fortune and taking advantages of opportunities. We're killing penalties with good energy. On the Parks goal we had probably three or four changes by our forwards before he got that goal. I don't think there is any magic to it, just working hard and doing things the right way. I think we've gotten a few bounces.”

The Badgers made it interesting on Chase Drake's second goal of the game – a point shot through traffic – with just 18.1 seconds left on the clock, but UND was able to hang for its first 4-0-0 road start since 2002-03.

“It was a rivalry game. It was a tough battle out there,” said St. Clair. “We're a veteran team so I think all of us know what it's going to take and I think that helped us out a little bit. Once we started getting some shots on the net we knew we would starting getting some to fall and we were fortunate to do so tonight.”

Drake had opened the scoring at 3:36 of the second period during a UW man advantage, only to have Gaarder answer three minutes later with a power-play tally of his own.

Rumpel finished with 39 saves in a losing effort while McIntyre stopped 17 shots to improve to 6-1-1.

In addition to the key short-handed goal, UND also finished 2-for-6 on the power play and killed four of five Wisconsin tries on the man advantage.

Parks, who has seven goals in eight games against the Badgers, was one of only two UND players in the lineup to have previously played in the Kohl Center.

“What sticks out to me is that we got swept here my freshman year wearing blacks (jerseys) both nights and I didn't score either of those games,” said Parks. “It's pretty cool. This building is so big with three decks and the students get really into and rowdy and their chants get you fired up and that's what college hockey is all about.”

The two teams will close out the series Saturday night at 7 p.m., wrapping up a 5-game non-conference stretch for UND.

Notes: It was the first time in the Hakstol era (since 2004-05) that UND has won back-to-back games after trailing both entering the third period … Sophomore defenseman Paul LaDue led all players with seven shots on goal … Sophomore forward Luke Johnson extended his team-best point streak to four games with an assist on St. Clair's goal … Attendance was 10,605 in UND's first visit to the Kohl Center since 2011-12.