In its final away series of the regular season, No. 2 Wisconsin (18-4-0 WCHA, 28-4-0 overall) swept University of Minnesota-Duluth ( 9-11-2, 13-15-2) on the shores of Lake Superior. Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, the Badgers lead the WCHA with 54 points, just ahead of No. 1 Minnesota’s 52.
The Badgers now hold a 12-game unbeaten winning streak against the Bulldogs, including a sweep on Oct. 13-14 in Madison earlier this year. Wisconsin’s star senior duo of Annie Pankowski — 14 goals and 14 assists against the Bulldogs — and Emily Clark — nine goals and 11 assists— continued their career-long dominance against Duluth.
Wisconsin jumped out to a commanding early lead over the Bulldogs in Friday’s opener, with Clark scoring just three minutes into the game to start a four-goal run for the Badgers before Duluth forward Gabbie Hughes assisted freshman defenseman Kailee Skinner to get the Bulldogs on the board in the third period.
"I thought from start to finish it was one of our stronger games,” head coach Mark Johnson said to UWBadgers.com. “Talk about getting off to a good start, Clarky scored and gave us a bunch of energy in almost every area. It was a good solid game especially with being on the road against a good opponent."
Minutes into the second period, junior forward Presley Norby doubled Wisconsin’s lead with an assist from senior forward and captain Sophia Shaver. Later in the period, Pankowski assisted Clark in her second goal of the day, marking the third game she’s scored twice in this year. Pankowski later followed suit and scored after a breakaway.
"Every year I have been here they've been such a great team and they play hard and they have a lot of skills,” Clark said to UWBadgers.com. “It's just a fun, competitive game anytime we get to play them, and I had ten seconds to play against them last time we played them so it was fun to get the full game in."
In the final period, after UMD scored, freshman forward and Saskatchewan native Sophie Shirley captured her 18th goal of the year, and senior forward Sam Cogan finished out the game with a redirected shot from Shirley to seal the final 6-1 scoreline.
"It's really exciting especially as the season winds down here, you want to keep getting those bounces and everyone gets a little bit of confidence from a game like today,” Pankowski said to UWBadgers.com. “It's just really exciting that it happened against a good team."
In their rematch on Saturday afternoon, the Bulldogs took another beating from the Badgers as redshirt junior goalkeeper Kristen Campbell saved 24 shots on goal and earned her seventh shutout of the year. Despite a scoreless first period, Wisconsin beat the Bulldogs 3-0 to complete the sweep.
Junior forward and Wisconsin native Alexis Mauermann gave the Badgers the kick they need to get started with a goal in the second period. Clark scored her third of the weekend against Rooney to stretch the score to a 2-0 lead for the Badgers before Cogan scored off an assist from senior defenseman Mikaela Gardner in the third period to finish out the away-series.
"We knew that Minnesota Duluth was going to come back today and push, they're a great program and had a really strong year this year,” Campbell said to UWBadgers.com. “Just sticking to the simple keys that we need to execute really helped us all out today and everyone played great out in front of me."
The Badgers now look to their final series of the year next weekend against No. 10 Ohio State with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday night and a rematch set for Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. at LaBahn Arena. Both games are sold out.
“It's going to be an emotional weekend for our seniors,” Johnson said to UWBadgers.com. “It's going to be a fun series, you work hard and long and you get to the last weekend and have a chance to do something and we're looking forward to it."
