COLUMBUS, Ohio – A dominant second period and a balanced attack led the No. 1 Wisconsin women's hockey team to a 5-0 win over Ohio State on Saturday at the OSU Ice Rink.

After five different Badgers (17-2-1, 13-2-1-1 WCHA) lit the lamp on Friday night in UW's 7-0 triumph, five different players tallied goals on Saturday. Freshman Alexis Mauermann, junior Annie Pankowski, junior Baylee Wellhausen, freshman Presley Norby and senior Mikayla Johnson each scored for Wisconsin.

"It's awesome to have such balance," Pankowski said. "We had everyone playing, so everyone had the opportunity to put the puck in the net and that's what makes us so great: that everyone can score and it's not down to one or two lines."

Senior Ann-Renée Desbiens stopped all 11 Ohio State (8-10-2, 4-10-2-0 WCHA) shots she faced to earn her NCAA-leading eighth shutout of the season. The La Malbaie, Quebec, native now has 46 career shutouts in 102 appearances.

"They only got two or three shots in the last two periods, so we played really well as a team," Desbiens said. "We're able to spend most of both games in the offensive zone so that was pretty nice."

After a scoreless first, the Badgers dominated the second period, scoring four goals while outshooting Ohio State 20-1 in the stanza.

Mauermann broke the scoring stalemate, getting Wisconsin on the board early in the second period. The freshman one-timed the puck past OSU netminder Kaylee Remington after receiving a quick pass from Wellhausen during a two-on-one. 

Pankowski doubled the Badgers lead shortly after, earning her third goal of the series and 10th goal in the last six games. Junior Emily Clark gained control of the puck and after a series of nifty moves around OSU defenders, fed the puck to Pankowski in the high slot, who sent a rocket over Remington's shoulder.

"We've been focusing on that in practice all week, just small area passes and threading it through the feet," Pankowski said. "So Em and I got kind of lucky, we got three or four back and forth before I found the back of the net."
Wellhausen joined in on the scoring fun, netting her fourth goal in the last three games after taking a pass from Sophia Shaver and putting it home to increase UW's lead to 3-0. The Williams Bay, Wisconsin, native has scored a goal in each of UW's last three games.

Norby capped off the scoring in the second, scoring her fourth career goal after a rocket from the high slot found the back of the net.

Just minutes into the final frame, Johnson recorded her first goal of the season, punching in a rebound from Pankowski to extend the Badgers lead to 5-0.

The Badgers ultimately outshot Ohio State 45-11, including a 31-4 advantage over the final 40 minutes.

"I think we did really well this weekend," Desbiens said. "We did the little things right and we had a big weekend last weekend so to come back and play a new team in a smaller rink, we did a good job adjusting and making sure we put pucks in the net, driving to the net. Even if we were winning by a lot our players kept up their good habits."

Wisconsin will have the next three weekends off from competition before travelling to Wentzville, Missouri, to take on Lindenwood Jan. 6-7, 2017.