On the day the 2005-’06 National Championship team was honored in between periods, the No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers (19-1-1 WCHA, 25-1-1 overall) continued their own winning ways, defeating the St. Cloud State Huskies (7-11-3, 11-12-3) 3-0 Saturday.
Playing a team they outscored by a combined 7-0 on the road early in the season, the Badgers got on the board quickly as sophomore forward Emily Clark put a nice move on a defender by the right circle and took a shot which deflected through the legs of the Huskies’ netminder Katie Fitzgerald to give the Badgers the lead.
Despite getting scored on early, Fitzgerald was determined to keep Wisconsin out of the back of her net, and she did an incredible job. The Badgers were dominant the entire first period and had a lot of opportunities, but couldn’t find the back of the net. Junior forward Sarah Nurse outskated a St. Cloud State defender and got in on goal, but sent her shot high. Junior defender Jenny Ryan later got a great chance in front of the net that Fitzgerald saved, and then Fitzgerald also saved Ryan’s rebound opportunity. Wisconsin outshot the Huskies 18-3 in the first period, but only came away with the lone goal.
The second period was much the same story as the first. The Badgers began the period on the power play and immediately had four point-blank chances that were turned away by Fitzgerald. They weren’t able to capitalize on the power play or any other chances during the second period despite outshooting SCSU 17-6.
Although Wisconsin was in complete control the first two periods, St. Cloud State was just one shot away from pulling even, something head coach Mark Johnson touched on after the game.
“When St. Cloud State is looking at the scoreboard and see that they are only down 1-0, they know it takes one lucky bounce and it’s a tied game,” Johnson said.
It’s hard to not be frustrated with so many chances being turned away, but freshman Sam Cogan described how the Badgers didn’t let it get to them.
“I think it’s just a matter of being positive on the bench,” Cogan said. “Yes, we are getting a lot of shots and the goalie is playing on her head, she’s doing a great job, but we still need to stay positive and keep firing because one of them is going to go in eventually.”
The Badgers eventually did get another one to go in, and it came through Cogan, who fought through her own exhaustion to collect the puck at center ice, maneuver past a defender and backhand a shot past Fitzgerald.
“[Sophomore foward] Annie Pankowski tipped it up and I was actually going to get off the ice because I was tired, but I stayed and took it in,” Cogan said.
The defense remained as steady as they have been all game, limiting the Huskies to just six shots despite their added pressure late in the game. St. Cloud State pulled its goalie with two minutes left, which eventually led to Nurse coming up the right side and slotting a shot into the open net to end any hope SCSU had for a comeback.
The shutout was junior goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens’ 13th of the season, and 30th of her career, which is now tied for the third most in NCAA history. Desbiens was quick to place the credit with her teammates instead of herself.
“It’s great, it’s not something I expected when I came here,” Desbiens said of her shutouts. “I’ve been lucky to have some great players in front of me the past three years, and we spend a lot of time in the offensive zone so that makes my job a lot easier.”
With the second game of the series set to start at noon Sunday, Desbiens thinks both herself and the rest of the team could improve their play in the next game.
”I need to communicate more with my defense to let them know when they have more time,” Desbiens said. “And collectively we have to just make sure we put more pucks in the net.”
