MADISON, Wis.—In front of its eighth sellout crowd of the year, the No. 2-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team topped St Cloud State, 3-0, thanks to a pair of points from Emily Clark and Courtney Burke.

The Badgers (25-1-1, 19-1-1-1 WCHA) outshot the Huskies (11-12-3, 7-11-3-3 WCHA) 49-15 on the contest, marking the 15th time the team has taken 40 or more shots in a game.

UW goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens registered her NCAA-leading 13th shutout in the win, the 30th of her career. Desbiens is now in a three-way tie with UW legend Alex Rigsby and New Hampshire's Melissa Bourdon for the third-place spot in NCAA history for career shutouts. Desbiens continues to lead the nation with a 0.65 goal-against average and a .965 save percentage.

"It's actually great. It's not something I expected when I came here at first," Desbiens said of her statistic. "That's definitely something I didn't plan. I've been lucky to have some amazing players in front of me in my three years here so far. They're doing a great job."

The Badgers struck first blood, as Clark walked the puck out from below the right circle and her shot slipped in the net between SCSU netminder Katie Fitzgerald's legs just three minutes into the game. Clark's team-leading fifth game-winning goal of the season gave the Badgers the 1-0 that held until the third period of the contest.

Wisconsin dominated the first period, holding the Huskies to five total shots in the first period, only three of which reached Desbiens.

"We spent a lot of time in the offensive zone so that makes my job easier," Desbiens said. "I think every single game, every team has scoring opportunities so I block shots or my teammates block shots, it's definitely a team effort."

Despite Wisconsin outshooting St. Cloud 17-6 and the Huskies having three power-play opportunities in the second period, neither team was able to light the lamp.

It was not until there were five minutes remaining in the final period that freshman Sam Cogan doubled the Badgers' lead. Cogan snagged a loose puck in the neutral zone and placed her backhand shot behind Fitzgerald to give the Badgers the 2-0 lead.

"When St. Cloud State is looking at the scoreboard and see that they are only down 1-0, they know it only takes one lucky bounce and it's a tied game, " UW head coach Mark Johnson said.  "That changes the dynamics of the game. That's where we have to understand and play accordingly. At times we did a pretty good job of it, other times, no. It's an opportunity to learn. Sam scored a big goal there with under five minutes to go and everybody could take a deep breath."

"Annie Pankowski tipped it up and I was actually going to get off the ice because I was tired, but I stayed and took it in," Cogan admitted. "I backhanded it and got lucky. It's happened before where goalies have played outstanding and stopped everything, but the more you shoot, the more opportunities you're going to get."

St. Cloud State pulled Fitzgerald for a player-advantage, allowing junior Sarah Nurse to tab the empty-net insurance goal. Nurse leads the Badgers with 19 goals this season, and ranks sixth in the NCAA with a 0.83 goals per game average.

The Badgers complete the conference series against St. Cloud State on Sunday. The contest is set for a noon start at LaBahn Arena.