MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Barry Alvarez's voice was ringing in John Palermo's ears, and his videotaped pep talk was fresh in his players' minds.

With their coach watching from a hospital room 75 miles away, the 20th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers edged Minnesota 20-17 on Vitaly Pisetsky's 31-yard field goal in overtime Saturday.

	Minnesota was in command early when Arland Bruce caugh a 24-yard TD pass on the game's opening drive.

"I didn't feel any frustration (in his voice). I imagine the people at Mayo were ready to throw him out," said John Palermo, Wisconsin's defensive line coach who guided the Badgers with his boss stuck at the Mayo Clinic, where he's awaiting a knee transplant.

The 52-year-old coach watched the game on a big-screen TV and talked to his coaches by telephone from his hospital room.

"I felt like Barry was there every day this week in practice," Palermo said. "I'd look over and expect to see him on the sideline in his golf cart. "Inspirationally, he was there for us every day."

And he was there on the small screen Friday night.

"He just gave us the message like he does every week," center Casey Rabach said. "It was just like he was there. I don't think coach really wanted it to be inspirational, but a lot of us took it that way."

The Badgers won the toss and elected to defend the goal line in overtime.

Minnesota (unranked ESPN/USA Today, No. 25 AP) went backward thanks to two flags, two overthrows in the end zone and a pass play that lost 5 more yards. Then, on fourth-and-30 from the 45, Jamar Fletcher intercepted Billy Cockerham's pass at the 5.

"We've never been in that situation before," Cockerham explained.

The Badgers hadn't, either, but their offense went right to work, ending Minnesota's four-game winning streak that had produced their first ranking in 14 years.

"It was a four-quarter fist fight," Wisconsin offensive coordinator Brian White said.

With the overtime, it was even more than that.

"I don't know what the big deal is about overtime," Gophers coach Glen Mason said. "You get the ball at the 25-yard line. That's what we call 'red zone.' You work on red zone all the time."

The Badgers (4-2, 2-1 Big Ten) and Gophers (4-1, 1-1) met as AP-ranked teams for just the third time in their 109-year rivalry and for the first time since 1962.

Thomas Hamner, who rushed 27 times for 144 yards and caught seven passes for 92 more, including a 49-yard TD, said the Gophers proved they belonged among the nation's elite.

"We know we can play with anybody," he said. "That's no secret. We just came up short."

Dan Nystrom, who was wide left on a 27-yard field goal as the first half ended, connected from 37 yards out early in the fourth quarter for a 17-14 Gophers lead. The Badgers tied it on Pisetsky's 36-yarder with 2:59 left.

Wisconsin tied it 14-14 in the first half when quarterback Brooks Bollinger and Nick Davis hooked up on an 81-yard pass play, third-longest in school history. Davis burned cornerback Jimmy Wyrick and outraced safety Delvin Jones for the score.

Chris Chambers' incredible 32-yard reception set up the Badgers' other first-half TD, a 3-yard run by Ron Dayne, who rushed 25 times for 80 yards and sat out several series after jamming his right shoulder in the first half.

Chambers was hammered by cornerback Willie Middlebrooks and made the catch while sprawled out on the turf at the Minnesota 14.

The Badgers stopped the Gophers on their next drive, but Tim Rosga knocked down punter Ryan Rindels and two plays later, Cockerham hit Hamner sprinting down the right sideline for a 49-yard score that put the Gophers on top 14-7.

The Gophers covered 86 yards in just six plays on the game's opening drive, which Cockerham capped with a 24-yard TD toss to Arland Bruce.

The game for Paul Bunyan's Axe drew 63,108 mostly red-clad Badgers fans to the Metrodome and they made it tough for the home team to hear Cockerham.

It might have been just the edge the Badgers needed.

"I've always wanted to play an overtime game," an exhausted Fletcher said. "But I don't ever want to play one again."