BY AJ HARRISON
UW Athletic Communications

MADISON, Wis. — After splitting a highly-ranked showdown at No. 3 Minnesota-Duluth, the No. 1 Badgers return home this weekend to step out of conference play against Cornell in a weekend series at LaBahn Arena.

UW suffered its first loss of the season at UMD, falling to the Bulldogs 4-1 on Friday, before rebounding with a 4-1 victory on Saturday.

"Well, I think you get a response," UW head coach Mark Johnson said. "What is that response going to be and who is going to jump up amongst your leaders and your younger players? Having lost the first game of the year, it's a learning opportunity, as each game is. What things did we do well, what didn't we do well and the most important question is what do we need to do to get better? That's how I approach each game and Friday was no different than the weekend before."

Wisconsin outshot UMD 46-30, including a 20-3 margin in the first period, during Friday's game before outshooting the Bulldogs 47-20 on Saturday.

"The last two periods Saturday were good," Johnson said. "It was good to see that we started to compete and play and really dominate that last 40 minutes.
"The most important part was finding a way to get the puck in the net."

Annie Pankowski recorded a hat trick for the Badgers in the victory, while linemate Emily Clark assisted on all four goals.

"The biggest takeaway was we need to crash the net and capitalize on more opportunities," Clark said. "Their goalie played very well, but moving forward we need to cause more havoc and traffic in front of the net. The last two periods of Saturday's game were some of our best hockey yet so we are looking to build off of that."

UW takes on Cornell, a member of the ECAC, for the first time in program history. The Big Red have appeared in three Frozen Fours and have made the NCAA tournament five times.

"We're looking forward to the opportunity to go outside our conference and play a couple non-conferences games against a worthy opponent," Johnson said. "A team and a program that if you look at their history, has produced a lot of quality players and certainly has some quality teams, so it'll be a good challenge for us stepping outside of the WCHA for a weekend."

Despite not receiving any votes in the latest USCHO.Com Poll, Cornell enters the weekend with a 6-2-1 record. The Big Red swept 2016 NCAA Tournament participant Mercyhurst to begin the season before tying No. 8 Quinnipiac last weekend.

"We aren't entirely sure what to expect this weekend," Clark said. "But they have been beating some good teams and have a lot skilled players so I'm expecting a tough series this weekend."