CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. – The top-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team scored twice in the final 12 minutes to earn a 3-1 win over Robert Morris in the team's opening game of the Battle at the Burgh Tournament at the UPMC Lemieux Center in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.
Junior sensation
Daryl Watts put the Badgers (19-1-1, 10-1-1-0 WCHA) on the board just 88 seconds in as she tallied her first shorthanded goal as a Badger off assists from senior
Mekenzie Steffen and
Grace Bowlby. It marked Watts' 50th point of the season and at Wisconsin.
However, RMU (10-7-2, 5-1-0 CHA) tied the game at 1-1 early on in the second with a 5-on-3 power play.
Wisconsin struck twice in the third period to record its first win of the new decade.
Junior
Brette Pettet scored her second game-winning goal of the year at the eight minute mark off a feed from senior
Alexis Mauermann just before sophomore
Sophie Shirley tipped in a Steffen shot to round out the scoring for UW.
Senior
Kristen Campbell stopped 20 of the 21 shots she faced to improve to 18-1-1 in net this year as her 18 wins lead the country.
Three Notes of the Game:
- Daryl Watts became the second-fastest Badger to reach 50 points as only Meghan Hunter got to 50 points quicker than Watts. She now has 51 points off 19 goals and 32 assists.
- UW outshot RMU 43-21, marking the 21st time this year Wisconsin has outshot its opponent.
- The Badgers improved their winning streak to nine games and their unbeaten streak to 10 games.
Straight from the Rink:
Head coach Mark Johnson
On the game:
"Well we haven't played in a month, so I thought the first period, with such a long layover, I thought it was pretty good. And then we got ourselves into some penalty trouble in the second period, but I thought the third period -- we started to get our legs a little bit. We started to move around trying to create opportunities. They were blocking shots and they're goalie was playing well. We got a couple nice late goals, and now we get a chance to play for a trophy tomorrow. So overall it was good. At times it looked like we hadn't played in a month, but it was a good way to start.
On Watts' 50 points:
"It was a great way to start the game here killing the penalty, and we ended up getting a short-handed on it, and I feel pretty good about that. She's been consistent and played pretty well in all our games, and hats off to her. She's a big reason why we're in the position we are. So they're line plays well, brings up big goals in big time and hopefully they'll continue to get better and better.
On playing Northeastern on Sunday:
"It'll be good. We've got Bemidji State next weekend and a weekend off before we play Minnesota. We normally don't see these teams, and when you play in this tournament, you get an opportunity. Northeastern is going to be good. They've got some skilled players, so we're going to need to be aware of that and they're goaltender's good. It should be a good game."
Junior Daryl Watts
On her 50th point:
"It's humbling and all the credit to my teammates, specifically my linemates Abby and Sophie. They've been really great to play with and they're so talented. We've been really successful together, so it's been a great start.
On the third period:
"We just wore them down. We outshot them by quite a bit, and they're goalie played really well. Into the third period, we finally scored two more goals which was a good result.
Junior Brette Pettet:
On her line with Britta Curl and Alexis Mauermann:
"I think we started talking a lot more on the ice and going over more things off the ice. Even Alexis just said, it makes it a lot easier when your linemates are out there talking to you. So I think that now we have a lot more games under our belt, and we're familiar with how we play, we kind of know where each other are on the ice which is a huge help.
On Sunday's game
"I expect another good game, definitely a tough battle. I think all of us are looking forward to playing them, and it's a good opportunity to play a team that's out of our conference, so I think we're definitely ready for it, and we're going to bring everything."
Up Next:
UW will face No. 3 Northeastern Sunday in a 4 p.m. CT game at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in the title game of the Battle at the Burgh. The game will be free on YouTube.
