No. 4 Badgers top St. Cloud State 5-0 

Fueled by a balanced scoring attack, the No. 4 Wisconsin women’s hockey team earned a 5-0 victory over St. Cloud State on Sunday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd of 2,273 fans at LaBahn Arena.
Five different Badgers lit the lamp in Wisconsin’s final regular season game before entering postseason play next weekend.
“The girls played hard for 60 minutes and it showed, especially in the third period,” UW assistant coach Jackie Friesen said. “We were really happy with the effort. As we move forward into playoffs that’s a good way to end the regular season.”
 
“I thought it was a good way to end the regular season,” UW captain Blayre Turnbull said. “Coming back from a loss on Friday, we came out with a lot of energy and created a lot of good chances for ourselves and we were able to capitalize today.”
Sophomore Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped the 10 shots she faced as the Badgers (24-6-4 overall, 19-6-3-1 WCHA) shut out St. Cloud State (8-26-1, 5-22-1-1 WCHA), splitting the weekend series. Desbiens earned her 13th shutout of the season, which ranks second nationally and second in program history. Wisconsin finished the game with a 44-10 shots on goal advantage.
“She’s becoming more consistent as a goaltender and obviously she showed that today,” Friesen said. “She’s becoming more patient in the net, especially in games like these where she doesn’t face a ton of shots. It’s important for her to stay with it and stay in the game. So when St. Cloud did come down on the net she was prepared and ready for a shot after going through stretches of not facing a shot.”
The Badgers went up 2-0 after the first period behind goals from sophomore Sarah Nurse and Turnbull. Nurse put the Badgers on the board first, four minutes into the period, firing a laser past SCSU goaltender Katie Fitzgerald to earn her 10th goal of the season.
Turnbull lit the lamp with just over three minutes remaining in the period, going top shelf to notch her sixth goal in the past five games. The Badgers’ captain now has 14 goals on the season, which are the second-most on the team.
In the second, Brittany Ammerman followed up her first-period assist with a goal of her own at the 12:53 mark to give UW a 3-0 edge. Freshman Annie Pankowski then scored her 18th goal of the season with under four minutes to play to give Wisconsin a 4-0 advantage. Pankowski’s 18 goals and 37 points are both team-leading season totals. The Laguna Hills, California, native has lit the lamp nine times for the Badgers in the last nine games.
Clark then pushed the Badgers up 5-0 with under eight minutes remaining in the third period, as she scored off a backhander to earn her 10th goal of the season. The Badgers tallied 16 shots in the third, and they didn’t allow St. Cloud State to get off any in the final period of play, marking the 27th time program history UW held an opponent without a shot in a period.
Penalties didn’t make a difference as the Badgers held the Huskies scoreless on their two power-play chances and UW went 0-for-2 on power play opportunities.
Wisconsin will face St. Cloud State again next weekend as the Badgers host the first round of the WCHA Playoffs at the LaBahn Arena. The best-of-three series begins on Friday with a 7 p.m. contest.
 
“We’re all really looking forward to it,” Turnbull said. “We know that it’s a brand new season. What we just did in the last regular season game is completely irrelevant going into this weekend. Friday night we know what to expect. We need to top their intensity and get ready to win.”
 
“Obviously we’re going to go back and watch the game film from today and Friday,” Friesen said. “We know what they have. They know what we have. I think if we come out and play like we can then we can be successful.”