As conference-tournament play began in Madison, the Wisconsin women’s hockey team (21-5-2 WCHA, 27-6-2 overall) defeated the Minnesota State Mavericks (7-20-1, 13-23-1) 2-1 in a best-of-three series.
In game one on Thursday night, the Badgers easily handled Minnesota State, gaining a 4-0 victory.
Freshman Sarah Nurse and senior Madison Packer each tallied a goal and an assist in the win, while redshirt junior Brittany Ammerman and junior Blayre Turnbull added two assists apiece in the balanced Badger attack. Freshman Sydney McKibbon and junior Katy Josephs also lit the lamp for the Cardinal and White.
Senior Alex Rigsby guarded the net for UW, recording 26 saves to mark her 98th career win and 29th career shutout.
Wisconsin dominated on the offensive front, outshooting Minnesota State 43-26.
“It was a good effort,” UW head coach Mark Johnson said. “We got the power play early on and to capitalize on that probably relaxed some of our players. But overall it was a good effort, especially in the second half of the game.”
Game two would have a different outcome. The Mavericks were able to even the series at one, as they defeated the Badgers 3-0. Despite outshooting MSU 51-22, Wisconsin was unable to find the back of the net. Rigsby made 16 saves in the losing effort, bringing her season record to 15-5-2.
The Mavericks were strong out of the gate, punching in a rebound within the first two minutes of the game. Wisconsin outshot the Mavericks 17-5 and saw multiple scoring opportunities in the first period, but some heroics in the MSU crease held the Badgers scoreless heading into the middle frame.
“The big thing is to recover and understand that tomorrow’s game, if you are able to win, then you move on, and if you don’t you are done,” Johnson said. “We had a good opportunity today and we didn’t capitalize on it. We gave them a little bit of life but tomorrow we have to establish ourselves.”
In a do-or-die situation on Sunday afternoon, UW was able to advance to the WCHA Final Faceoff by defeating the Mavericks 2-0.
After a scoreless first period, junior Blayre Turnbull was able to light the lamp for her 17th goal of the season, five minutes into the second period. The assists were given to Ammerman and Josephs.
“In the three games we saw, the team that scored first ended up winning by a shutout,” Johnson said. “We were obviously excited when we scored a goal. It was just a matter of doing a lot of little things over the course of the next 20, 25 minutes.”
The Badgers were able to add to their lead in the third period on an even-strength goal by Courtney Burke for her fifth goal of the season with the assists coming from Rachel Jones and Natalie Berg.
Wisconsin would never surrender their lead as they held on for a 2-0 victory.
“I think it said a lot about our character today -- the fact that we were able to redeem ourselves and battle back,” Rigsby said. “It was a grind. We definitely gave it our all the entire sixty minutes. It was huge.”
Wisconsin will now travel to Bemidji, Minn. on March 7 for the WCHA Final Faceoff. They will be playing one game for the right to go the finals of the conference tournament.
