For the first time in over a month, No. 2 Wisconsin was unable to complete a weekend sweep over its opponent, coming away with a tie and a win against conference opponent No. 4 North Dakota in Grand Forks, N.D.
The Badgers (7-2-1 WCHA, 11-2-1 overall) were on the road once again after traveling to Vail, Colorado on Nov. 15 and 16 to face a UND team (7-3-2, 9-3-2) coming off its biggest win of the year against No. 1 Minnesota. The Fighting Sioux’s win against Minnesota snapped the Gophers’ long-standing 62-game win streak.
The series opened up Friday night with a 0-0 tie, but the Badgers would ultimately prevail in a shootout to gain two points in the conference standings.
Senior Alex Rigsby was stellar in goal, stopping all 34 shots she faced, including 23 in the second and third periods. In addition, Rigsby stopped all three shootout attempts.
With her third shutout of the year, Rigsby now has 26 career shutouts, the second most in school history.
"Alex played well, they had a couple of opportunities in the first period and late in the second period," head coach Mark Johnson said. "She was able to keep us in the game from that standpoint. It was coming down to who was going to make a play and who was going to find a way to get the puck in the net, and fortunately for us Alex did that."
The first period was even, as UND had 9 shots on goal to 8 shots on goal for the Badgers. The second period was all North Dakota, outshooting UW 12-1 but ultimately never getting one past Rigsby. The third period was more in favor of Wisconsin, who outshot UND 11-6 despite being on the penalty kill for a majority of the remaining three minutes of the period.
The score would remain 0-0 heading into a shootout, after neither team was able to score a game-winning goal in the five-minute overtime period. Junior forward Blayre Turnbull beat UND goaltender Shelby Amsley-Benzie during the third round of the shootout to help UW claim the shootout point and take two of three points from North Dakota.
Saturday’s game featured two powerplay goals from the Badgers, defeating The Fighting Sioux 3-1. Senior forward Madison Packer, junior forward Karley Sylvester and redshirt forward junior Brittany Ammerman all netted goals for Wisconsin in the final two periods of the game to earn the team’s 11th win of the season, putting the Badgers on a 10-game unbeaten streak.
Alex Rigsby made 20 saves to record her 91st career win, tying the school record set by former Badger Jessie Vetter.
“I thought tonight we came out and we competed much harder than we did last night,” UW head coach Mark Johnson said. “We came out played a very strong game, we took a lot of shooting angles and didn’t give them many opportunities, and when we got our opportunities in the third period we took advantage of it.”
Sylvester was the first to put either team on the board, chasing down a loose puck and firing it past Shaw during a UND power play 6:43 into the second period to net the first short-handed goal of her career. North Dakota retaliated less than a minute later when senior forward Michelle Karvinen slipped the puck past Rigsby during the same UND power play to tie the score at 1-1.
Next to score for the Badgers was Packer, who lit the lamp off a rebound shot after Ammerman sent the puck off Shaw’s pads during a UW power play early in the third period.
Ammerman later sent a wrister to the upper shelf, tallying her 10th goal of the season and earning the Badgers a 3-1 advantage they would end the game with.
