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Friday, March 29, 2024
Annie Pankowski

Badgers split weekend series with Bulldogs as freshman Cece starts in place of Desbiens

Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, and for the Wisconsin women’s hockey team (10-1-1 WCHA, 12-1-1 overall) this weekend, what they were missing this weekend was their superstar goaltender.

Playing their first game without senior goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens, who was sidelined with an upper body injury, the Badgers fell to No. 3 Minnesota-Duluth (7-3-2, 8-3-3) by a score of 4-1 on Friday for their first regulation loss of the season.

Starting in Desbiens’ place, freshman Nikki Cece made 26 saves, but her performance was not enough on a night where the offense struggled to convert on numerous early chances. The Badgers outshot UMD 20-3 in the first period, but after 20 minutes the score remained knotted at 0-0.

“Nikki gave us an opportunity; she had 26 saves, and that’s a good way to start a career,” head coach Mark Johnson told UWBadgers.com. “If we come out and score some goals, it’s a different momentum.”

Instead, the momentum in the final two periods was decidedly in favor of the Bulldogs, who scored once in the second and twice early in the third to take a 3-0 lead. Freshman Maddie Rowe provided the lone bright spot in the game as she notched her first career goal with just under eight minutes remaining in the game, but UMD’s Ashleigh Brykaliuk scored just a minute later to restore the three-goal lead.

“Overall, we didn’t play poorly,” Johnson said. “I thought Minnesota Duluth’s goaltender played very well … We’ve just got to figure out how to get the puck to the net.”

Junior forward Annie Pankowski took that message to heart, as she scored her third-career hat trick to flip the script and lead the Badgers to a 4-1 victory in Saturday’s rematch. Pankowski, who was Wisconsin’s leading scorer last year with 22 goals, had yet to light the lamp through nine games this season.

“I think it was a long time coming and it feels good to get that monkey off your back,” Pankowski said. “All the credit to my linemates that made those goals happen.”

In particular it was the play of Pankowski’s linemate Emily Clark, who assisted on all four of the Badgers’ goals in the game.

Making the second start of her career, Cece turned in an improved performance, stopping 19 of UMD’s 20 shots to record her first-career win in a Wisconsin uniform.

“It definitely felt amazing,” Cece said. “I had a lot of help from the defense on my team and that made me feel a lot more comfortable.”

Wisconsin now takes a break from conference play to take on Cornell next Friday and Saturday at LaBahn Arena. The puck drops for both games at 7 p.m.

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