MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin women’s hockey team returned the ice after a five-week break for exams and the holidays, but they didn’t seem to miss a stride. They extended their home unbeaten streak to 23 games with a 6-0 win over Minnesota State.
On a weekend where numerous ranked teams were upset, the Badgers cruised to an easy victory over their conference foe. The Badgers have now won 20 consecutive games over the Mavericks. Over the course of that streak, they’ve outscored MSU 104-9. The last loss was March 1, 2014, in a WCHA first-round conference tournament game.
Sam Cogan put the Badgers on the board first with a power-play goal. She took the puck in to the post and was able to slide it past Mankato goalie Katie Bidulka.
Heading into Saturday afternoon’s game, the Badgers hadn’t scored a power-play goal over their last 25 attempts. Cogan’s goal was their first power-play goal since Alexis Mauermann netted one on November 10.
Despite wanting to improve on special teams, Wisconsin captain Claudia Kepler also found some positives in the situation.
“When you’re not converting on the power play, yeah there’s frustration, but you also have to look at it as hey, we made a really good run in the first half without much of our power play being useful, so,” she said.
The Badgers hadn’t played a game since December 9 and taking that much time off the ice was a concern for the coaching staff. But the positive outcome of today’s game was proof positive that the work the players put in was worth it, said coach Mark Johnson.
The game was dominated by Wisconsin from start to finish. They outshot the Mavericks 42-16.
Brette Pettet doubled the lead with a nifty little goal from between the circles. Baylee Wellhausen fed her the puck while Pettet had her back to the ice. Pettet used her position on the defender as a screen and just lifted the puck up and over Bidulka’s shoulder on the backhand.
Claudia Kepler extended the Badgers’ lead in the second period with a power-play goal of her own. Maddie Rowe took a shot from the near faceoff dot that was deflected and then rebounded out to Kepler, buried the puck to give Wisconsin a 3-0 lead. It was her 50th career goal; she leads the team with 12 goals on the season.
Wellhausen made it 4-0 on what looked like it might be a busted play as a defender pushed Caitlin Schneider out toward the boards. Schneider found Wellhausen as she crashed toward the net, and Bidulka wasn’t able to recover and get in position enough to stop Wellhausen, who slid it through the five-hole to make it a four-goal lead for Wisconsin.
Rowe upped the lead to 5-0 on a little wrister from the far circle, and Alexis Mauermann scored the only goal in the third to make it a 6-0 shutout win.
It was the Badgers’ third straight shutout win. They take the ice against Mankato Sunday at 1 p.m.
Wisconsin will be working to build on Saturday’s win and work toward the postseason. It was the first step.
“Every shift that you go on, you can’t take anybody lightly. You gotta give it your all. As long as you’re giving 100 percent, you’re going to get better,” said Sam Cogan.
