BEMIDJI, Minn. -- In a battle featuring two of the nation's top teams and defenses, the No. 2 Wisconsin women's hockey team blanked No. 6 Bemidji State, 1-0, on Friday at the Sanford Center.

Junior goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped all 28 shots she faced to earn her 11th shutout of the season, which leads the NCAA. She leads the country in goals-against average (0.67) and save percentage (.962), while her 19 wins are tied for the most in the nation.

"She was good," UW head coach Mark Johnson said. "They got a six-on-five in the last two minutes of the game and I thought defensively we competed really well. We blocked some shots when we needed to and when they got the puck through us, Ann did a good job of keeping it out of the net so hats off to her and certainly to the entire team. It was a good team effort today."

"I think it went pretty well personally, but I know we gave up a lot of shots today," Desbiens said. "That's not something we're used to. Most of them were outside and the defense made sure that they were easy saves. We didn't allow that many scoring chances so I think that was big."

Junior defenseman Jenny Ryan scored her second goal in as many games for the Badgers (21-1-1, 15-1-1-1 WCHA) while sophomores Annie Pankowski and Emily Clark picked up assists.

"Today looked like a little bit of a playoff game," Johnson said. "There weren't a lot of penalties for either team and it was a matter of who could win some scoring opportunities and get one or two on the board."

Ryan's strike came late in the first period during a sequence of 4-on-4 hockey after UW assistant captain Sydney McKibbon and BSU's Kaitlyn Tougas were both sent to the penalty box on offsetting penalties. 

Pankowski raced into the offensive zone where she fired the puck at BSU netminder Brittni Mowat, who made the initial save. But Ryan fired the loose puck into the net for her third game-winner of the year.

"I didn't really think it would be the game-winner," Ryan said.  "We should have had a few more there, so I'm just glad that that one went in since we had a few unlucky bounces. It felt nice to actually put one of them in."

Wisconsin dominated play in the second, outshooting BSU 15-8, but the Beavers rallied in the third to outshoot UW 8-6.

Following a timeout with 2:15 left, Bemidji State pulled Mowat, but Desbiens made several critical saves to preserve the shutout.

"I thought the second half of the game we did a pretty good job of managing the puck in certain areas on the ice," Johnson said. "I thought we played pretty well on our own end, after last Sunday's game when we made some little mistakes and they created some wide-open opportunities.

"Today we didn't give up too many great scoring chances. It's a tough place to play. They're a good team, they're ranked high in the country, and it was a good hard-fought victory."

The Badgers and Beavers wrap up their conference series on Saturday with a 2 p.m. game.