Badgers give fans a good show overtaking Huskies 6-2
December 06, 2008 | Women's Hockey
In front of a vocal student crowd, the Badgers surmounted St. Cloud State 6-2 Saturday afternoon at the Kohl Center in a solid team performance. The six goals were all scored by different players with two power play goals and one shorthanded. Winning both games of the series, Wisconsin moves to 18-0-2, 12-0-2 in conference to remain unbeaten through the entire first half of the season on a 20-game streak. St. Cloud State falls to 9-6-3 overall, 6-6-2 in the WCHA.
With the win, Wisconsin goaltender Jesse Vetter earned her 75th career victory to tie Jackie MacMillan's school record for career victories. Vetter now owns two career school records, career shutoutsand victories.
The Badgers struck first, scoring just 3:23 into the first period. On the power play, Meghan Duggan received a pass from Erika Lawler and took a massive slap shot from the top of the near circle. Angie Keseley hastily tipped Duggan's shot past Husky keeper Ashley Nixon from in between the two circles. Duggan and Lawler were attributed with the assists.
In a bizarre series of events, Lawler scored Wisconsin's second goal while not even on the ice. Defending against St. Cloud's power play, Lawler cleared the puck from the top of Wisconsin's crease. St. Cloud then passed the puck back towards St. Cloud's offensive zone, and cleared it back to their keeper Nixon. The puck bounced off of Nixon's pads and slid into the goal at 6:54. By the time the puck went in, Lawler had already gone to the bench on a line change.
St. Cloud scored their first goal of the night with three minutes remaining in the period. Brittany Toor put the puck in from the front of the right circle off of an assist by Michelle Moen.
In a defensive second period, Wisconsin attempted 18 shots while St. Cloud only took two. The Badgers were unable to put it past Nixon until the 17th minute of the period when Anne Dronen scored her first goal of the season from outside of the left circle. Assisted by Kesley and Brittany Haverstock, Dronen's goal put the Badgers up 3-1.
The third period was a high-scoring affair as Wisconsin notched three more goals to St. Cloud State's one. The Badgers continued their scoring streak just two minutes into the third period as Ammerman scored her 20th goal of the season from the left circle off of assists from Haverstock and Prevost. Just 30 seconds later, Knight scored from the right side of the crease off of assists from Lawler and Keseley.Knight leads the nation with 22 goals on the season.
The Huskies second goal came at the 13:51 mark in the third. Caitlin Hogan put it in from the front of the crease off of a pass from Megan McCarthy and Diana Karouzos.
The last goal of the game came from Jasmine Giles just one minute after the Huskies scored. On the power play, Giles scored from outside the left circle. Lawler and Knight contributed the assists.
Duggan extended her point streak to eight games as she contributed an assist, and Ammerman extended her point streak to nine games with her goal. Wisconsin has now won 13 of their 20 games by at least four goals, outscoring opponents 106-19 on the season.
Overall, the Badgers took 40 shots to the Huskies' 13 and went 2-4 on the power play while the Huskies remained 0-7.
After taking a short winter break, the Badgers will be back at the Kohl Center to play the U.S. Select team in an exhibition game Jan. 2 at 2 p.m.
