The No. 1 Wisconsin women’s hockey team swept the St. Thomas Tommies in dominant fashion this past weekend, winning 6-1 on Saturday and 11-1 on Sunday. Junior forward Laila Edwards scored five goals over the weekend, logging the Badgers’ first hat trick of the season.
Badgers shoot like there’s no tomorrow, win by five on Saturday
Sophomore goaltender Ava McNaughton had an eventful first game of the series, and the Tommies didn’t wait to test her. St. Thomas forward Rylee Bartz logged the first high-danger chance of the game, but McNaughton went halfway across her crease, blocking the puck out of play.
Then, the Badgers nearly opened the scoring five minutes into the game, but sophomore forward Kelly Gorbatenko and redshirt senior forward Lacey Eden couldn’t connect on a cross-crease pass, and a few seconds later, Wisconsin went on their first power play of the weekend.
The Badgers passed the puck extremely well on the advantage, but in the end it was the failed ones that mattered. A St. Thomas defender blocked forward Casey O’Brien’s cross-ice pass,but she managed to put the rebound in the back of the net for her 50th point of the season.
St. Thomas would soon go on a power play of their own as Wisconsin forward Claire Enright headed to the penalty box on a two-minute body checking minor. The advantage would allow senior Lauren Stenslie to sneak a shot just under the outstretched right pad of McNaughton to even it up at one a piece with less than seven minutes left in the opening period.
The only thing Wisconsin loves more than when their all-time assists leader passes is when she scores. Seconds after allowing the tying goal, O’Brien found the back of the net following a pass from Kirsten Simms for her second goal of the game to give Wisconsin a lead they would never relinquish.
St. Thomas goaltender Dani Strom stood on her head during a Badgers power play, and, despite multiple high-danger chances, the Badgers couldn’t convert on a late power play and entered the first break up by one.
Wisconsin didn’t wait too long to get going in the second as both sophomore forward Cassie Hall and sophomore defender Ava Murphy scored within the first five minutes of the second period.
Hall’s goal had to stand up to an official review into a potential penalty committed by Wisconsin just before the score, but the referees deemed it a good goal.
The Tommies killed a penalty late in the first, and the Badgers left the second period up 4-1.
Just over halfway through the final period, Hall went end to end and scored her second of the night, and a late goal from WCHA goals leader Edwards led to the final score of 6-1
Wisconsin’s offense was on fire Saturday. The Badgers scored six goals on a blistering 39 shots, and the red brick wall known as McNaughton stopped 25 of the 26 shots she saw en route to her 22nd win of the season.
200-foot domination leads to Badger blowout on Sunday
The Tommies held their own early in the first period in the second game of the series, doing well to keep the puck out of their defensive zone for the first five minutes of the opening frame. But a St. Thomas hooking minor penalty from forward Cara Sajevic put the Badgers on the attack with just over 15 minutes left to go in the period.
This didn’t immediately lead to results, but with 11:30 left in the first, Edwards took a shot from just behind the faceoff circle, and the puck made its way through the St. Thomas goaltender for the first goal of what would end up being an eventful afternoon.
With just over seven minutes left in the first period and only nine seconds into the Badgers’ second power play of the game, Edwards took an O’Brien pass down low and potted a goal over the St. Thomas goalie’s right arm for her second, extending the Badgers’ lead to 2-0.
With just four minutes remaining in the first, O’Brien raced across St. Thomas’ zone and sent the puck across the crease to Edwards, who tapped the puck into the net. Edwards finished the first period with a hat trick with Wisconsin up three.
The first period, in which Wisconsin outshot St. Thomas 9-6, set the tone for the rest of the game.
After killing a cross-checking minor early in the second by junior defender Caroline Harvey, Wisconsin’s Sarah Wozniewicz and O’Brien found the back of the net less than 40 seconds apart, extending the Badgers’ lead to five.
Just after the midway point in the game, Harvey took a missed shot from redshirt junior forward Marianne Picard and wrapped it around the goal, scoring the Badgers’ sixth of the game. This goal seems to have chased St. Thomas’s Maggie Malecha out of her crease, as she was pulled shortly after.
The goalie switch-up didn’t change St. Thomas’ fortunes, and Wozniewicz scored her second of the game on a power play goal from the top of the circle with under five minutes left in the second period.
This time, St. Thomas answered back, as captain Maddy Clough ripped one from the high slot that beat McNaughton for the Tommies’ only goal of the game.
Early in the third, Wisconsin piled on as Hall scored on the last second of a power play that came in the last second of the second. Soon after, Enright and Hall scored her second of the period.
Between Enright’s and Hall’s second, head coach Mark Johnson elected to relieve McNaughton of her goaltending duties and brought Chloe Baker off the bench. McNaughton had stopped 13 of 14 shots.
After successful penalty kills from both WCHA sides, Edwards redirected a pass from Simms to score the final goal of the game and the Olympic star’s fourth.
The Badgers would kill off a late Maggie Scannell cross-checking minor and win the game 11-1, improving to 23-1-1 on the year.
Edwards’ four-goal effort represented the first hat trick for the Badgers this season and the first natural hat trick since 2021.
