Thanks to a high-octane offense and solid goaltending, No. 1 Wisconsin swept Cornell 3-0 and 5-2 this weekend at LaBahn Arena.
Friday’s game began as a defensive battle, with both teams going the first 51 minutes without scoring. The Badgers (10-1-1 WCHA, 14-1-1 overall) were finally able to break through late in the third period. Junior forward Baylee Wellhausen received the puck from freshman forward Abby Roque and knocked it past Cornell goalie Paula Voorheis for a 1-0 lead.
Four minutes later, UW senior forward Sarah Nurse raced down the ice and powered the puck past Voorheis for her 12th goal of the season. Nurse’s goal moved her into sole possession of 10th place on the Badger all-time goal scoring list with 63.
Junior forward Annie Pankowski sealed the UW victory with a final minute empty-netter.
Freshman goalie Nikki Cece, starting again for injured All-American Ann-Renée Desbiens, recorded her first career shutout, after stopping all 11 shots that came her way.
"She didn't get tested a lot," head coach Mark Johnson told UWBadgers.com. "But when you have the three power plays they had and anytime you get that situation, teams get excited because they know they have a chance to score.”
"I was happy for her because it was the first time she's played at home in front of a sold-out crowd. Her parents were in the crowd and those things give her experience to come back and hopefully put in another good solid effort."
The Badgers outshot the Big Red 54-11, but were only able to score two contested goals. However, Nurse is confident that the shots will start to find the back of the net.
"I guess the biggest thing for us is not to get frustrated," Nurse said. "We're a good team and we know that. When we come out in games and the puck's not going in the net, we know it's going to go in eventually. To not get too frustrated on the ice is really important."
The shots found the back of the net at a high level in game two, with four goals being scored in the first 16 minutes of the game.
UW struck first as sophomore defenseman Maddie Rolfes scored her first career goal, slapping a rebound past Cornell’s Marlène Boissonnault, just over a minute into the game.
Cornell (6-4-1 overall) would tie the game at one after Lenka Serdar slipped the puck past Cece. Pankowski would give the Badgers another short-lived lead, as she took the pass from sophomore forward Sam Cogan and tipped it past Boissonnault. Cornell would even things up again with a power-play goal. Pankowski, however, could not be stopped, giving Wisconsin the lead for good after she stole the puck and slapped it past Boissonnault’s head for a 3-2 lead in the second period. Pankowski has now scored six goals in the last seven periods.
"It definitely feels good to score goals like that," Pankowski said. "I think it just comes down to hard work for my linemates and I can't thank them enough for all they do. I think it was a great all-around team effort."
Cogan later added an insurance goal for UW, as she buried a rebound for her fifth goal of the season. Senior captain Sydney McKibbon added a goal, her 92nd career point, to close out Wisconsin’s 5-2 victory.
Cece stopped 12 of the Big Red’s 14 shots to earn her third career win.
Wisconsin hosts border rival No. 2 Minnesota next weekend at LaBahn Arena for a critical WCHA series.
"It'll be a fun weekend for both groups, easy games to get up for," Johnson said. "It's nice to have that extra day to get ourselves organized. We'll have big crowds. For the last decade we've had great games against each other so Saturday and Sunday I'm sure we'll see two more."
The puck drops Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report
