Despite missing several of their top players this weekend, the No. 2/3 Badgers earned a win and a tie on the road against a Top 10 opponent.
The Badgers (7-2-1-0 WCHA, 9-2-1 overall) were without forwards Blayre Turnbull, a senior, and Emily Clark, a freshman, in the series against North Dakota as the two prepared for the annual 4 Nations Cup between the United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland, taking place this week.
Freshman forward Annie Pankowski also missed Saturday’s game for 4 Nations Cup practice, and senior forward Karley Sylvester was unavailable for most of the weekend after leaving Friday night’s game in the first period with an undisclosed injury.
Despite these absences, Wisconsin still took four of a possible six points from No. 10 North Dakota (3-4-1-1, 4-5-1).
UND appeared to be on its way to a victory Friday night after junior forward Becca Kohler scored early in the third period to give her team a 3-2 lead. Kohler’s goal gave North Dakota its first lead of the night after the Badgers scored the first two goals of the game.
However, with sophomore goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens pulled out of the UW net, redshirt senior forward Brittany Ammerman lit the lamp to tie the game with 39.3 seconds remaining in regulation.
Neither team scored in overtime, and UND won 1-0 in a shootout to secure the extra point in the WCHA standings.
Though the Badgers didn’t get the win, despite outshooting North Dakota 40-21, head coach Mark Johnson was still pleased with his team’s overall performance.
“We played very well tonight. We had a lot of grade-A quality scoring opportunities the entire game,” Johnson said. “Their goalie played well. We were down 3-2 and it’s late in the game and we’re able to pull our goalie and get the equalizer.”
UND jumped out to a 1-0 lead Saturday when junior forward Leah Jensen found the back of the net with 10:39 to go in the second period.
Wisconsin responded by scoring the next three goals of the game, courtesy of Ammerman, junior defenseman Courtney Burke and sophomore forward Sarah Nurse. With her two goals in the series, Ammerman is now tied for fourth in the country with eight goals on the year.
Junior forward Meghan Dufault scored with 38 seconds left in the third period to cut the UND deficit to one, but the Badgers held on to pick up the win.
Wisconsin will have next weekend off, before welcoming Minnesota State to LaBahn Arena for games Thursday and Friday the following week, when the Badgers will be at full strength again.
“With the situation at hand, other kids got opportunities. They made the most of it and played well,” Johnson said. “Collectively it was a very good effort without some of our key players, but again you give kids opportunities and they make the most of it, certainly bodes well for the next couple weeks to continue to build.”
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
