Another weekend, another four points for the ladies in red.
The Wisconsin women's hockey team earned its fifth-straight weekend sweep, downing North Dakota in the Kohl Center, 6-1 on Saturday and 5-2 on Sunday. They still sit eight points behind Minnesota-Duluth, their opponent next weekend.
The Badgers got off to a quick start Saturday, netting two goals in the first period. Junior forward Kyla Sanders opened the scoring when she went top shelf and the puck hit the bottom of the crossbar and sailed into the goal.
Freshman forward Hilary Knight redirected an Emily Morris power play shot for the second goal.
In the second period, Knight scored again on the power play after putting a nifty move on Sioux goalie Michelle Sauer.
Really, I was just falling and I was hoping I could get it off,"" Knight said. ""[Angie] Keseley gave me a nice pass going over the blue line and we caught them off guard on their line change or whatnot and I just got a back-hand in.""
UND got their lone goal on a 5-on-3 when head coach Brian Idalski pulled his goalie to send out a sixth skater. The gamble paid off as Nikki Herbert got the puck past Badger goalie Jessie Vetter and made the score 3-1.
The third period, however, belonged to Wisconsin. Knight recorded her first career hat trick when she buried a loose puck in the net during a 5-on-3.
Sanders got her second goal of the day by putting back a rebound.
Knight almost added a fourth goal, but Angie Keseley tipped in her shot and was credited with the final goal. Although North Dakota tried to trap the puck for much of the weekend to slow the Badger offense, the tactic produced little success for the Sioux.
""There were times we were pretty good at [beating the trap] and there were other times that we weren't,"" head coach Mark Johnson said. ""It's all a learning process but the big thing is not to get frustrated with what's going on.""
Wisconsin scored early on Sunday, putting the puck in the net just 100 seconds into the game. Sophomore forward Meghan Duggan tipped in a Keseley one-timer that was blocked on an early power play.
Duggan scored again with nine minutes left in the first period when Jinelle Zaugg fed her the puck just feet from the goal.
The Badgers had a number of 2-on-1's and breakaways early in the second frame but could never quite connect. North Dakota made the Badgers pay when junior wing Melissa Jaques fired a shot from the blue line and junior center Casie Hanson tipped it past Vetter.
With less than six minutes left in the second period, Zaugg committed a body check. But North Dakota nullified that advantage by committing its own penalty one minute later. In the next two minutes two more Badgers would commit checking penalties, leaving their teammates to play for 1:40 down two players.
""Teams get carried away when they get down by goals and they try to take bodies. So they were kind of throwing it in our face,"" Duggan said. ""It was just a rough game. North Dakota's kind of a tough team to play against in that aspect.""
With the 5-on-3, the Sioux again pulled their goalie for a sixth skater. This time, however, the move backfired, as UW freshman defender Malee Windmeier took a shot from her own blue line which slid across two zones and found its way into the UND goal.
Duggan registered the Badger's second hat trick in as many days when she scored early in the third. Wisconsin closed their scoring on an odd man rush where junior wing Tia Hanson assisted Knight.
UND got a second goal from Hanson on a late power play.
