Win and advance. That is the mentality the No. 2 seeded and No. 6 Wisconsin women’s hockey team needed to possess in its WCHA first-round matchup with St. Cloud State this past weekend, and it did just that. The Badgers took both contests by scores of 5-0 and 4-1. The victories extended Wisconsin’s winning streak against the Huskies to 16 games.
In game one of the series, Wisconsin was on the offensive early and often, as it got the puck deep into the St. Cloud State defensive zone. While the Badgers owned the shots-on-goal advantage 13-6 during the first period of play, they were only able to tab one past Huskies sophomore goaltender Julie Friend. With just under two minutes remaining in the period, senior forward Brianna Decker got a backhanded shot on net, which Friend deflected away, but the rebound was cleaned up by sophomore forward Karly Sylvester to take the early 1-0 lead. In the process of scoring the game’s first goal, Wisconsin increased their record to 19-0-0 when doing so.
From that point forward, goals for the red and white would continue to pour in. Midway through the second period, Decker utilized some shifty stick handling, weaving through a St. Cloud State defender, to double the Badgers’ lead. Sylvester would get Wisconsin on the scoreboard again—this time on the power play—as she received a precise pass through defenders from junior forward Madison Packer and tapped it in.
The fireworks weren’t over for the LaBahn crowd, as the Badgers would add insult to injury in the final period of play with two more goals from freshman forward Erika Sowchuk and senior defenseman Jordan Brickner.
“Obviously, when you score some goals, it creates energy and the atmosphere was good [Friday]. So I think the players fed off that a little bit,” head coach Mark Johnson said. “[I was] very pleased with the overall effort.”
The Badgers wrapped up the first-round sweep Saturday night, propelling themselves to a 4-1 win with three third-period goals. After being soundly beaten Friday, the Huskies came out strong, holding Wisconsin to one goal through two periods. Sophomore forward Katy Josephs netted the only goal for Wisconsin in the first period, while St. Cloud State senior forward Alex Nelson was able to put away the tying score during a 5-on-3 power play in the second period.
Nelson’s goal in the second period was part of a rough 20 minutes of play for Johnson’s bunch, as Wisconsin committed four of five of its penalties in the period.
“We had some adversity there in the second period, but we were fortunate to get out of there 1-1,” Johnson said. “If we stayed out of the penalty box and played with a little bit more discipline, eventually we were going to create enough scoring chances that hopefully one would get by.”
The Badgers would not be denied in the third, though, with another Josephs goal moments into the final period that put Wisconsin back on top. UW doubled its lead just two minutes later, this time via a scramble in which Packer was able to find the back of the net. Decker finished off the win, scoring her 29th goal of the season to put up the final tally of the evening.
With the series win Wisconsin moves on to yet another WCHA Final Face-Off in Minneapolis March 8, where it will match up against No. 3 seed North Dakota. Puck is scheduled to drop at 4 p.m.
