The No. 2 Wisconsin women's hockey team wraps up its four-game homestand with a clash with St. Cloud State at LaBahn Arena. Faceoff on Saturday is set for 2 p.m., while Sunday's contest starts at Noon. On Saturday, Wisconsin will recognize the 2005-2006 NCAA champion women's hockey team.
Team Notes
UW enters the weekend leading the country in scoring defense with a goals-against average of 0.62. The Cardinal and White also ranks fourth in the country scoring offense averaging 4.04 goals per contest.
The Badgers lead the NCAA in penalty killing with a .946 clip. UW has killed 70 of its 74 penalties, and has scored six short-handed goals in 26 games. Last season, UW set the NCAA record for penalty killing with a .958 clip.
The Cardinal and White are limiting its opponents to 18.23 shots on goal per contest, which ranks third in the NCAA.The Badgers' shot margin of 22.81 is the best mark in the country.
After sweeping North Dakota, Wisconsin clinched home ice for the first round of the WCHA Playoffs by securing a top-four finish in the league.
Player Notes
Annie Pankowski leads the team with 24Â assists and 41Â points this season, and her 17Â goals rank second on the team. Pankowski ranks ninth in the nation for points per game, averaging 1.58 points per contest, while her three short-handed goals are tied for the nations lead.
Sophomore Emily Clark has notched 15 goals and 14 assists this season, averaging 1.21 points per game. She's tallied four game-winning goals this season, tied with Nurse for fourth in the NCAA. Clark has seven points in her last four games for UW.
Junior Sarah Nurse ranks sixth in the country for goals per game, averaging 0.82 goals per contest. Her 18 goals lead all Badgers, as well as ranking third all-WCHA. The Hamilton, Ontario, native also ranks fourth nationally in game-winning goals with four.
Ann-Renée Desbiens leads the nation in save percentage (.964), goals-against average (0.67), and wins (22). She also holds the country's lead in shutouts with 12. Last season the La Malbaie, Quebec, native tied a UW record with 14 shutouts. Desbiens also has 29 career shutouts, which ranks third in program history and is tied for the fifth-best mark in NCAA history.
Junior Jenny Ryan is tied for the second-place rank in the country's defensemen in points per game, averaging 1.00 points per contest. Ryan's 26 points this season are a career high, coming from five goals and 21 assists. She also has tallied three game-winning goals this season.
Senior Courtney Burke is fifth in the country in points among defensemen, averaging 0.88 points per contest. Her 96 career points are the third-most in program history among defensemen. Burke is four points away from becoming the third blue-liner in school history to reach 100 career points.
Number of the week384 -Â Wisconsin head coach
Mark Johnson enters this weekend's series with 384 wins, the third-most in NCAA women's hockey history. With UW's 3-1 win on Sunday, Johnson passed former Minnesota Duluth bench boss Shannon Miller for third on the all-time list.
Parking InformationParking for Saturday's 2 p.m. contest is free for UW fans in Lot 91, which is located on the east side of the Kohl Center.
For Sunday's noon contest, parking will be $5 for Lot 91 and the other lots surrounding the Kohl Center. Parking is valid for the noon women's hockey game and the 3 p.m. UW women's basketball game.  The Series vs. St. Cloud StateThe Badgers lead the all-time series with the Huskies 64-8-2 and UW has won the last five meetings between the two teams.
In Madison, UW leads the all-time series 35-3-0 and UW holds a 9-1-0 against SCSU at LaBahn Arena.
SCSU was the last team to defeat the Badgers at LaBahn Arena, handing UW a 2-1 loss on Feb. 20, 2015.
The Badgers blanked the Huskies back on Oct. 16-17 in St. Cloud. UW earned a 5-0 win on Oct. 16 before coming away with a 2-0 win on Oct. 17.
Desbiens Honored as WCHA Defensive Player of the WeekAfter limiting No. 8 North Dakota to one goal last weekend, Wisconsin women's hockey goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens was named the WCHA Defensive Player of the Week for Jan. 18-24, the league announced Tuesday.
It marks the fourth time that Desbiens has received WCHA Defensive Player of the Week honors this season and the eighth time she's earned it in her career.
The La Malbaie, Quebec, native, was spectacular in goal for the No. 2 Badgers last weekend, shutting out North Dakota, 1-0, on Saturday to record her NCAA-leading 12th shutout of the year. Desbiens stopped all 29 shots she faced, the most saves she's made in a shutout in her career.
On Sunday, Desbiens' only goal given up was on a UND power play as Wisconsin earned a 3-1 win to complete the sweep of the Fighting Hawks. Desbiens stopped 27 of the 28 shots she faced to earn her NCAA-leading 22nd win of the year.
Desbiens leads the NCAA in save percentage with a .964 clip, while her 0.67 goals-against average also paces the country.
During her career, Desbiens has a 59-9-5 record in UW's net with a goals-against average of 0.98 and a save percentage of .951. Her 29 shutouts are tied for the fifth most in NCAA history and she has allowed no more than one goal in 56 of her 73 appearances in the Badgers' net.
Badgers to Honor 2005-06 NCAA Title Team
Wisconsin will recognize the 2005-2006 NCAA champion women's hockey team during the Badgers' home series against St. Cloud State, Jan. 30-31.
The 2005-2006 squad was the first in program history to win a NCAA title and was one of four Badgers teams to win a national title.
Members of the squad will be honored during UW's game against St. Cloud State on Jan. 30 and later that night during Wisconsin's men's hockey game against Alaska.
The Badgers won their first NCAA championship with a 3-0 victory over two-time defending champion Minnesota in the title game at Mariucci Arena on March 26, 2006.
The Badgers got a pair of goals from Jinelle Zaugg, another from Grace Hutchins and a stellar performance from 2006 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, goaltender Jessie Vetter, to knock off the rival-Golden Gophers for a fifth time in the season.
Vetter, who allowed just two goals in her final six appearances and closed out the campaign with a shutout streak of 201 minutes and 4 seconds, was joined on the all-tournament team by Zaugg and defender Bobbi-Jo Slusar.
Last time vs. St. Cloud State: Wisconsin 2, St. Cloud State 0 (Oct. 17, 2015)
Thanks to senior netminder Megan Miller's first shutout as a Badger, the No. 2 Wisconsin women's hockey team recorded its fourth-straight shutout with a 2-0 win against St. Cloud State on Saturday at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
Miller, who spent two years at Boston College before transferring to Wisconsin last season, stopped all 14 shots she faced to lead the Badgers to their third-straight sweep of the season.
"It was a great performance by Megan," UW head coach Mark Johnson said. "You're looking for opportunities to play people and it's certainly what we looked at today in giving Megan a chance. It was a tight game and I'm happy for her, it certainly builds her confidence as we go through the rest of the season."
The game marked UW's closest of the season, as Wisconsin had outscored its opponents 33-2 in its previous five contests.
After a scoreless first period, Erika Sowchuk scored her first goal of the year off a feed from captain Courtney Burke two minutes into the second frame to give Wisconsin a 1-0 lead.
In the third period with St. Cloud State (2-4-0, 0-4-0-0 WCHA) goaltender Katie Fitzgerald pulled, sophomore Annie Pankowski scored her eighth goal of the season with 21 seconds remaining. Burke and junior defenseman Jenny Ryan assisted Pankowski's empty-net goal that put the game out of reach.
"It was a tight game. St. Cloud did a great job of defending the scoring area," Johnson said. "If you look at the whole game, we had the puck most of it and tried to create some scoring opportunities. They blocked I don't know how many shots, but they blocked quite a few and the goaltender played well. The one thing about our game, probably the hardest thing to do is to score goals and Sowchuk got a nice goal in the middle part of the second period to give up a 1-0 lead.
"But then you're one shot away from being tied or you're one shot away from being up two goals. We played well in the third period, we didn't give them too many chances. It was a hard-fought victory and different than the way we've had to play the last several games with multiple goals and big leads. Today we had to figure out how to win."
Last Time Out: Wisconsin 3, North Dakota 1 (Jan. 24, 2016)
In front of another sellout crowd at LaBahn Arena, the No. 2 ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team extended its home-winning streak to 18 games as the Badgers battled to a 3-1 victory over No. 8 North Dakota to complete the series sweep.
Sophomore Emily Clark scored the game-winning goal on a Wisconsin (24-1-1, 18-1-1-1 WCHA) power play with less than 90 seconds remaining and fellow sophomore Annie Pankowski added an empty-net tally with 25 seconds remaining to seal UW's sixth-straight victory.
Junior netminder Ann-Renée Desbiens collected 27 saves on the win, improving her goals-against average to 0.67 and her save percentage to .964. The Badgers continue to lead the nation in scoring defense, allowing only 16 goals in 26 games.
Despite outshooting North Dakota (13-8-1, 10-7-3-1 WCHA) 13-10 in the first frame, neither team was able to capitalize and went into the intermission tied 0-0.
For an extra offensive push with just over a minute to play in period two, Johnson put Nurse on the ice with usual line mates Clark and Pankowski, and it paid dividends. Clark won the face-off to Pankowski, who was able to chip the puck up ice to Nurse. From there, Nurse dangled between two Fighting Hawk defenseman and sent the puck between goaltender Shelby Amsley-Benzie's legs to give Wisconsin the 1-0 lead.
The Fighting Hawks would get their chance early in the third period during a Pankowski penalty. Piling three forward in front of Desbiens proved to be beneficial, as Becca Kohler was able to grab a rebound and throw it past Desbiens to knot the game at 1-1.
Both squads continued to battle through the period, and the game looked as if the Badgers would go into overtime with UND for the second time this season. However, with less than two minutes left in regulation, North Dakota's Kayla Gardner took a kneeing penalty to give the Badgers their third power-play opportunity of the afternoon.
Clark scored the game-winning goal on a textbook power-play setup, taking a pass from Pankowski and sniping the puck over Amsley-Benzie's right shoulder.
North Dakota pulled Amsley-Benzie for an extra attacker in the final minute of play, allowing Pankowski to score the empty-net insurance goal to lift UW to the 3-1 triumph. Pankowski leads the Badgers with 41 points and 24 assists this season.
Koch recognized as AHCA Assistant Coach of the Year
Wisconsin women's hockey associate head coach Dan Koch was named the American Hockey Coaches Association Women's Hockey Assistant Coach of the Year, as announced by the group on Thursday.
A Madison native, Koch is in his fifth season as the Badgers' associate head coach after serving eight years as an assistant coach, amassing a 367-81-35 (.796) record behind the bench. Koch has assisted the Badgers to seven NCAA Frozen Fours and saw the team win three of their four national titles.
Koch oversees the stingy UW defense, which has ranked among the top-three teams nationally for scoring defense in 11 of his 12 seasons with the Badgers. That includes the 2006-07 squad that set the NCAA record with a 0.88 goals-against average. His defensemen have led the NCAA in scoring defense in three different seasons.
This season, Koch helped the Badgers set the NCAA men's and women's shutout record, tallying nine-consecutive shutouts that spanned over 624 minutes between Oct. 3 and Nov. 14. The Badgers have recorded shutouts in 12 of their 22 games this season and have a goals-against average of 0.64 to pace the country.
Koch also plays a part in the team's penalty kill, which has led the NCAA four of his 12 seasons. Last year, the UW penalty kill set the NCAA record with a .958 clip.
Koch will be recognized on April 29 during the 2016 AHCA Convention in Naples, Florida. Read more here.
Badgers sign seven for 2016-17 season
The Wisconsin women's hockey program and head coach Mark Johnson announced the signing of seven student-athletes for the 2016-17 season on Tuesday.
Joining the Badgers next fall are goaltenders Alyson Baldwin (Richmond, Texas) and Nicole Cece (Oakville, Ontario), forwards Alexis Mauermann (Janesville, Wisconsin), Presley Norby (Shorewood, Minnesota) and Abby Roque (Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan) and defensemen Maddie Rowe (River Falls, Wisconsin) and MeKenzie Steffen (Centerville, Minnesota).
"It's a big class," Johnson said. "It's probably one or two players bigger than what we normally have, but with eight seniors graduating we need to fill positions and bring kids in who are capable of playing next year and helping the team. In saying that, you look at the group and whether in net, on the blue line or up front, there's a lot of exciting players and kids who have experienced good things at their respective club and high school teams but also at the national and international level."
Between the seven players, five have represented their respective countries at international events, including Norby, who played earlier this month for the United States National Team at the 2015 Four Nations Cup, helping Team USA win gold.
Learn more about the class here.
Note of the Week
After scoring seven goals against Bemidji State last weekend, the Badgers totalled 101 goals on the season so far. With senior Rachel Jones's third-period score, Wisconsin became the fourth team in the NCAA to score 100 goals this season, joining Minnesota, Boston College, and Northeastern.Â
The Quest for 400
Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson enters this weekend with a 384-72-35Â record in his 13 years on the UW bench. His 384 wins are the third-most in NCAA Division I women's hockey history.
The other three coaches to reach 350 wins at the NCAA Division I level are Katey Stone (Harvard), Michael Sisti (Mercyhurst) and Shannon Miller (Minnesota Duluth).
Johnson passed former UMD bench boss Shannon Miller for third on the NCAA list on Sunday with the team's 3-1 win over North Dakota.
Home, Sweet Home
At LaBahn Arena, the Badgers are tough to beat, as UW is 57-10-3 (.836) at the new barn.The Badgers have outscored their opponents 251-72Â at LaBahn Arena, and have posted 28Â shutouts.
In 14Â home games this year, the Badgers have outscored their opposition 57-8Â at LaBahn Arena.
