Badgers Blank Northeastern, 4-0
November 27, 2004 | Women's Hockey
Charged up after the previous day's upset win over Harvard, Wisconsin came out strong against Northeastern Saturday in the second game of the Harvard Shootout at the Bright Hockey Center. The Badgers downed the Huskies 4-0 and improved to 11-3-0 overall. The Huskies skidded to 2-10-1.
Wisconsin was not the only team decidedly ready for the game. Northeastern suffered a nasty 8-1 loss to No. 1 Minnesota Friday and was clearly bent on redemption. Northeastern's tough penalty-kill stopped seven of eight Wisconsin power-play opportunities. Wisconsin disposed of six penalties for the day to keep the Huskies in check.
The first action of the contest came late in the first period with the Badgers on a power-play. Senior assistant captain Molly Engstrom had time to line up her shot as she rocked the puck against the far post and put the Badgers on the board at 14:50. Captain Carla MacLeod and junior Sharon Cole added the helpers.
With three whistles on Wisconsin in the first period the Badger penalty-kill was put to work. In net, Christine Dufour came up with a number of crucial saves. All told, Dufour made seven saves thwarting all Husky attempts at a score and witnessing the least number of shots against the Badgers this season.
The second period brought more of the same with penalty minutes adding up for both teams, but neither converting their chances. Wisconsin had a number of good opportunities, but could not break the impressive goaltending by Northeastern 's Marisa Hourihan. The junior goalie stopped 49 shots in the game.
With just under six minutes to go in the second stanza Lindsay Macy grabbed a rebound, circled to the front of the net and fired a shot from between the circles that sailed neatly over Hourihan's shoulder.
To start the third Meaghan Mikkelson dropped off the puck for Cyndy Kenyon. She crossed to freshman defender Emily Morris who skipped the puck into the net at 4:17. Morris' goal put the Badgers up 3-0 and marked her first collegiate goal. Morris did not stop with one, and tallied another goal at 15:27 in the period. This time Amy Vermeulen and Heidi Kletzien gathered the assists. It was Vermeulen's first point of the season in just her second game on the ice having spent the first portion of the season with the Wisconsin women's soccer team.
Wisconsin will return home next weekend after winding up a lengthy three-series road trip. The Kohl Center ice will be a welcome advantage for the Badgers as they play host to top-ranked Minnesota in a Saturday-Sunday series, Dec. 4-5. Both games are set to begin at 2:05 p.m.
Plenty of media attention will be focused on this top-five match-up. The USCHO will feature a radio broadcast available on USCHO.com while Madison's WIBA will broadcast the game locally and on uwbadgers.com. As always, live stats will also be available on the uwbadgers.com web site along with game summaries and current season statistics.
