The No. 10 Badger women's hockey team (12-5-1 Western Collegiate Hockey Association, 16-9-2 overall) swept unranked St. Cloud State at the Kohl Center this weekend.
The first game resulted in a win for the Badgers, 4-1. This came after last weekend's loss to Providence, ending the Badgers' seven- game winning streak.
Assistant Coach Tracey Cornell was pleased with the Badgers' performance Saturday.
\I think we really got better,"" Cornell said. ""We had a couple of defensive weak points in the first period, but then we held them.""
In the first six minutes of the game, sophomore forward Meghan Hunter scored the first goal. Junior forward Kendra Antony assisted Hunter on the goal against the Huskies. Four minutes later, the second goal for the Badgers came from outside the blue line unassisted from junior captain Sis Paulsen.
The first goal for the Huskies came after 15 minutes of play in the first period. SCSU's Roxanne Stang took advantage of the Huskies' power play by scoring with the assistance of sophomore defenseman Kobi Kawamoto and junior forward Abby Cooper.
With less than two minutes left in the first period, sophomore forward Steph Millar, scored with the help of freshman defense Carla MacLeod and sophomore forward Meghan Hunter.
A minute later, MacLeod made her second assist of the game to freshman forward Jackie Friesen, bringing the game score to 4-1 at the end of the first period.
The second and third periods went scoreless despite the four power play opportunities the Badgers had.
The Badgers outshot the Huskies 43-13.
The momentum from Saturday's game carried the Badgers to a 7-2 win on Sunday.
Assistant Coach Dan Koch said he felt the team played well from the beginning of the Sunday's game.
""We came out very strong and played really well for 60 minutes,"" Koch said. ""We won a lot of the races to the pucks. And we played strong defensively with no shots [on goal] in the first period.""
After 12 minutes of scoreless play in the first period, Badger freshman forward Amy Vermeulen made an unassisted goal.
The Badgers came out strong for the second and third period. In the first three minutes of the second period, forwards Steph Boeckman and Kelly Kegley assisted Millar on her second goal of the weekend.
Minutes later, the Badgers took advantage of a power-play opportunity. Hunter, with the help of MacLeod, gave the team its third goal of the game.
With five minutes left of the second period, the Huskies' Kawanoto made an unassisted goal.
The Badgers did not let the goal phase them and kept the aggressive momentum.
""We were more hungry [this game],"" said Koch. ""We had a quicker step in our legs tonight and I think that showed going to the corners and getting the puck.""
The Badger's Kegley then scored with a minute remaining in the period. MacLeod and Beockman assisted Kegley on the goal.
At the end of the second period, the score was 4-1.
The Badgers replaced goaltender Jackie MacMillan with Jennifer Neary at the beginning of the third period.
Four minutes into the period, Hunter made her second goal with assists from MacLeod and Antony.
Fourteen seconds later, Millar came in for her second goal of the game with the help of Hunter and Antony. Freshman defenseman Molly Engstrom made the seventh goal for the Badgers three minutes later. Boeckman and sophomore forward Karen Rickard made the assists.
With 5:30 remaining in the game, Huskies' defenseman Katy Battis scored SCSU's second and final goal of the game.
The Badgers once again outshot the Huskies, 36-7.
Coming off of their weekend sweep against the Huskies, the Badgers have a week to rest before they face the border rival Minnesota Golden Gophers.
""We have a tough schedule coming up, six conference games coming up,"" Koch said. ""We need to work on playing solid defense as a team.""
