The Wisconsin women's hockey team was at Bemidji State this weekend, winning 7-0 Friday and tying 0-0 Saturday against the Beavers.
Senior forward Jinelle Zaugg scored the first goal of the game 32 seconds into action as the Badgers jumped out 1-0. She scored again in the second period for her eighth goal of the season.
Junior defenseman Alycia Matthews scored minutes later on the power play for her third goal of the season.
Freshmen forwards Hilary Knight and Kelly Nash both scored goals for Wisconsin, and junior forward Erika Lawler and freshman forward Meghan Duggan both added to the total to complete the 7-0 shutout.
In goal, junior Jessie Vetter made 13 saves for her sixth shutout of the season.
Saturday, head coach Mark Johnson elected to go with sophomore goalie Alannah McCready. The move did not backfire, but McCready could not get her second career win as Wisconsin failed to score despite 50 shots on net.
Senior goalie Emily Brookshaw recorded the shutout for Bemidji State one night after allowing seven Badger goals on 44 Wisconsin shots.
Wisconsin held Bemidji State to 14 shots, and McCready stopped them all. She has yet to give up a goal in the limited playing time she has seen.
The scoreless tie was the first in Wisconsin women's hockey history.
Next weekend, Wisconsin hosts Minnesota-Duluth in a rematch of last season's NCAA championship game.
Analysis
Everything went to plan for Wisconsin on Friday as they outshot and outscored lowly Bemidji State, which entered the weekend looking for its first conference victory of the season.
On Saturday however, UW put even more shots on Brookshaw but could not score once. This has been about a once-per-season occurrence with this Wisconsin team, getting a ton of shot on net but still having troubles scoring. This season however, it has happened multiple times.
At St. Cloud State earlier this season, Wisconsin outshot the Huskies 36-19 but still lost 2-1 ending the Badgers' 32-game unbeaten streak.
In a 2-2 tie against Ohio State this season, Wisconsin recorded 32 shots on goal to Ohio State's 19, but it was a game in which UW head coach Mark Johnson felt his team had a good amount of scoring chances but could not capitalize.
In 2005-06 and 2006-07, the same epidemic occurred against St. Cloud State each season, one resulting in a 1-0 loss and one a 2-1 overtime win.
The Saturday Bemidji State game can be simply interpreted as bad luck. If Wisconsin did not completely outplay the Beavers, then there would be reason for concern. But in hockey a goalie can spoil a good offensive performance, and that's what happened to Wisconsin this weekend.
The Minnesota-Duluth series this weekend will provide yet another challenge for Wisconsin, which is now 1-2-1 in its last four games.
