No. 2 Badgers grind out 2-1 victory over Ohio State

Friday, February 5

Columbus, Ohio

6 p.m.

Wisconsin Badgers

27-1-1 (21-1-1WCHA)

Ohio State

9-19-1 (5-17-1WCHA)

Wisconsin

Ohio State

No. 2 Badgers grind out 2-1 victory over Ohio State

February 05, 2016 | Women's Hockey

Box Score

Ryan, Pankowski score to extend Wisconsin’s winning streak to nine

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 2 Wisconsin women's hockey team showed its grit on Friday night, grinding out a 2-1 win over Ohio State at the OSU Ice Rink to extend the Badgers' winning streak to nine games.

Jenny Ryan scored late in the first period and Annie Pankowski tallied her 18th goal of the year in the third to lift the Badgers (27-1-1, 21-1-1-1 WCHA) to victory over the Buckeyes (9-19-1, 5-17-1-1 WCHA).

"I thought we played really well, especially without the puck," UW head coach Mark Johnson said. "We eliminated a lot of scoring opportunities, which can be challenging on the smaller rink that we played on tonight especially in the second half of the game. In the third period, we didn't give them too many opportunities and kept their shots down. Certainly the two 5-on-3's that were against us, we did a great job of killing those penalties.

"You put all that together and that's a good solid win by our club."

"I think we're all really proud of each other for battling through that one," Ryan said. "We faced some adversity there with the rink size and how that game was played compared to how we normally play. I think we adjusted really well after the first period and we battled really hard to get the win."

On UW's second power play chance of the night, Ryan launched a rocket from above the left circle that found its way into the back of the net at the 18:20 mark of the first period. It marked the junior defenseman's sixth-goal of the year and her 10th career tally. Mellissa Channell and Erika Sowchuk earned assists on the power-play strike.

"We have been working on our power play," Ryan said. "(Erika) Sowchuk and Sam (Cogan) did a nice little cycle there and Sowchuk gave it to me up top, and I wound up for a slap shot when I saw an open lane."

UW created 11 shots on goal in the second, including a Sarah Nurse breakaway, but were unable to double the advantage.

In the third, Pankowski doubled the UW lead, sniping the puck into the top left corner off feeds from Emily Clark and Cogan just four minutes into the frame.

However, OSU would counter, as Claudia Kepler scored on a Buckeye rush midway through the third to cut the UW lead in half on Ohio State's first shot on goal in the period.

The Badgers survived a late push by the Buckeyes as OSU went on the power play with under 20 seconds remaining, but a Buckeye infraction with under 10 seconds to go ended the Ohio State power play opportunity.

Junior goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped 13 of the 14 shots she faced to improve to 25-1-1 on the season.

"I think we can do a better job of capitalizing on some of the opportunities that we had today if we get those again especially in the early part of the game," Johnson said. "If we can get ourselves a couple goals it makes it a little bit easier to play better.

"I liked the effort, we played three solid periods, and hopefully we'll come back tomorrow and do the same thing."

The two teams wrap up their WCHA series on Saturday with a 3 p.m. CT clash.