 | | |  | 2 Wisconsin 3, St. Cloud State 1
Herb Brooks Center • St. Cloud, Minn. • Attendance: 195
Box Score | Box Score  |  | |
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | Wisconsin
| 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | St. Cloud State
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1
| | | Scoring Summary | | 1st | 9:42 | WIS | Ammerman (Turnbull) | | 3rd | 1:25 | SCSU | Gilbert | | 3rd | 5:19 | WIS | Jones (Nurse, McKibbon) | | 3rd | 19:24 | WIS | Josephs | | | Goaltender Summary | Min | GA | Sv | | WIS | Desbiens (7-0-0) | 60:00 | 1 | 22 | | SCSU | Friend (2-9-2) | 59:25 | 2 | 37 | | Statistical Comparison
| WIS | SCSU | | Shots on Goal | 40 | 23 | | Power Plays | 0-3 | 0-1 | | Penalties-Minutes | 1-2 | 3-6 | | |
Jan. 3, 2014
ST. CLOUD, Minn. --The No. 2 Wisconsin women’s hockey team scored two unanswered goals in the third period to skate past St. Cloud State, 3-1, Friday, at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
The Badgers (15-2-2, 11-2-2 WCHA) extended their nation-leading unbeaten streak to 15 games and their winning streak against the Huskies (3-15-3, 2-11-2 WCHA) to 19 meetings.
| Fast Facts | | • Wisconsin outshot St. Cloud State 40-23 | | • Jones scored her first goal of the year to give UW a 2-1 lead | | • Desbiens improved to 7-0-0 on the season | |
“The nice thing is we won the hockey game,” UW head coach Mark Johnson said. “We have a game under our belt and I think as we come back and prepare for tomorrow we should be better. It takes a little bit of time to get back into game shape. It was a good game for a lot of reasons, most importantly winning it, but to getting back into game speed and playing on a bigger ice sheet creates some more challenges, but it was good.”
Junior Brittany Ammerman opened up the scoring for the Badgers with a breakaway goal in the first period to give UW a 1-0 lead off of a nice pass by fellow junior Blayre Turnbull.
The two teams battled in the second period, and despite outshooting St. Cloud State 19-9, the Badgers couldn’t extend their lead.
St. Cloud State answered early in the third frame, as Julia Gilbert snuck the puck past UW netminder Ann-Renée Desbiens to even the score at one with 18 minutes to go.
The Badgers struck back minutes later as Rachel Jones gave UW a lead it would never relinquish scoring her first goal of the year on a breakaway to propel the Badgers to a 2-1 advantage.
“We created a turnover, and the next thing you know Rachel is on a breakaway,” Johnson said. “She played a good 60 minutes. It is certainly exciting for her to get her first goal of the season, and to get a game-winning goal makes it big for the team.”
After St. Cloud State pulled goaltender Julie Friend with just over a minute to go, junior Katy Josephs tacked on an empty net goal with 36 seconds remaining to seal the game for the Badgers.
“I think the first period for both teams, not playing for three and a half weeks, it wasn’t going to be pretty, but for us we were able to get a goal and get back to competing at game level was good,” Johnson said. “In the second, we played well, we created a few scoring opportunities and weren’t able to capitalize. We gave up a soft goal to begin the third period, but we responded well.”
Desbiens improved to 7-0-0 on the season and made 22 saves, while Friend made 37 saves in a losing effort.
“Ann played very well,” Johnson said. “She got tested early when they were on the power play in the first period and was solid. On the goal, it’s tough to fault her as turned the puck over in a bad spot, and they capitalized on the mistake. Again, she played solid, and for her again it is good to get her an opportunity to play and get into a game and do well. That should boost her confidence.”
The Badgers outshot the Huskies 40-23. Both teams struggled on the power play, as UW went 0-3 with a man advantage while St. Cloud State was 0-1 on the power play.
The two teams wrap up their series on Saturday at 3 p.m.
