ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Thanks to senior netminder Megan Miller's first shutout as a Badger, the No. 2 Wisconsin women's hockey team recorded its fourth-straight shutout with a 2-0 win against St. Cloud State on Saturday at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
 
Miller, who spent two years at Boston College before transferring to Wisconsin last season, stopped all 14 shots she faced to lead the Badgers (6-0-0, 4-0-0-0 WCHA) to their third-straight sweep of the season.
 
"It was a great performance by Megan," UW head coach Mark Johnson said. "You're looking for opportunities to play people and it's certainly what we looked at today in giving Megan a chance. It was a tight game and I'm happy for her, it certainly builds her confidence as we go through the rest of the season."
 
The game marked UW's closest of the season, as Wisconsin had outscored its opponents 33-2 in its previous five contests.
 
After a scoreless first period, Erika Sowchuk scored her first goal of the year off a feed from captain Courtney Burke two minutes into the second frame to give Wisconsin a 1-0 lead.
 
In the third period with St. Cloud State (2-4-0, 0-4-0-0 WCHA) goaltender Katie Fitzgerald pulled, sophomore Annie Pankowski scored her eighth goal of the season with 21 seconds remaining. Burke and junior defenseman Jenny Ryan assisted Pankowski's empty-net goal that put the game out of reach.
 
"It was a tight game. St. Cloud did a great job of defending the scoring area," Johnson said. "If you look at the whole game, we had the puck most of it and tried to create some scoring opportunities. They blocked I don't know how many shots, but they blocked quite a few and the goaltender played well. The one thing about our game, probably the hardest thing to do is to score goals and Sowchuk got a nice goal in the middle part of the second period to give up a 1-0 lead.
 
"But then you're one shot away from being tied or you're one shot away from being up two goals. We played well in the third period, we didn't give them too many chances. It was a hard-fought victory and different than the way we've had to play the last several games with multiple goals and big leads. Today we had to figure out how to win."
 
Wisconsin has not allowed a goal since the first period of the Badgers' 8-1 win over Providence on Oct. 3, a stretch of 281 minutes, 45 seconds.
 
The Badgers return home next weekend to face No. 8 Bemidji State in a WCHA clash at LaBahn Arena. Faceoff on Friday is set for 7 p.m. CT, while Saturday's contest starts at 3 p.m.