Senior forward Sarah Nurse scored four goals to help top-ranked Wisconsin (5-0-1 WCHA, 7-0-1 overall) defeat No. 9 North Dakota (3-3, 4-3-1) by a score of 5-2 Sunday afternoon.
"You don't see somebody score four goals very often in a game," head coach Mark Johnson told uwbadgers.com. "She's been a good player for us for over three years, and she came up big today when we needed somebody to step up."
Nurse gave the Badgers a 1-0 lead with 13:39 remaining in the first period. The senior, however, was just getting warmed up. With under two minutes left in the period, Nurse slapped a ricocheting puck in for her second goal of the period and a 2-0 UW lead. Wisconsin outshot North Dakota 14-6 in the period.
After a quiet start to the second period, North Dakota added a goal by senior defenseman Jordan Hampton with 6:09 remaining in the period. UW, however would respond. Junior defenseman Lauren Williams scored her first goal of the season to extend the Badgers lead to 3-1 with 2:30 left in the period. Wisconsin had one last power play opportunity before the period ended, but the Fighting Hawks killed it off.
Just seconds into the third period, Nurse struck again, knocking in a rebound for the senior’s first career hat trick. UND added a goal with just over seven minutes left to cut the Badgers' lead to 4-2. The Fighting Hawks pulled their goalie with under a minute remaining and Nurse added on to her impressive day by lighting the lamp for the fourth time.
"That was just a really complete effort by the whole team," Nurse said. "Out of all the weekends that we've played so far, that was a full weekend. We played a really complete game and came out fast, I think we ended it on a really good note."
Nurse tallied five goals in the series, and now has 12 career goals against North Dakota. Senior goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens stopped 12 of 14 UND shots, and freshman Presley Norby led the team with four assists. The Badgers outshot the Fighting Hawks 29-14.
Wisconsin finishes up its long road stretch next weekend with a series against Minnesota State.
