Jan. 27, 2017

MADISON, Wis. — Junior Annie Pankowski continued her hot streak, scoring twice to lead the No. 1 Wisconsin women's hockey team to a 5-0 win over Minnesota State on Friday night in front of a sold-out crowd at LaBahn Arena.

Pankowski was one of four Badgers (23-2-1, 18-2-1-1 WCHA) to light the lamp for the Badgers as the freshman trio of Mekenzie Steffen, Maddie Rowe and Alexis Mauermann also scored. 

"It was nice to have a few practices with the group instead of mixing and matching pairs, but they played pretty well out there," UW head coach Mark Johnson said. "A couple power plays they got mixed up a little bit, but it was a good start to finish game. We had a couple power play goals and it started to feel like normal hockey again after playing over there with two physical games last weekend."

Ann-Renée Desbiens stopped Minnesota State's 15 shots she encountered to collected her 11th shutout of the season and her 49th career blank slate. The senior goaltender sits atop the NCAA in goals-against average (0.71), save percentage (.959), winning percentage (.929) and shutouts (11).

The Badgers opened up scoring over the Mavericks (6-19-3, 3-16-2-0 WCHA) partway through the first period, as Steffen found the back of the net with a power-play goal. 

Pankowski doubled the lead in the second frame, when an MSU turnover in the neutral zone allowed the junior to pick the puck up and skate into the offensive zone. Pankowski's wrist shot from the slot then beat MSU goaltender Brianna Quade five-hole. 

A native of Laguna Hills, California, Pankowski has a nine-game point streak, tallying 20 points during that span with 11 goals and nine assists.

"She got her first goal in Minnesota Duluth early on after we talked about going a number of games without it. It just relaxed her and created opportunities," Johnson said. She's been a goal scorer for a long time and with a little bit of confidence, you've seen what has happened."

Heading into the third period, Wisconsin got into a scoring groove. Rowe tallied her second career goal after deflecting the puck into the net off a shot from sophomore Sophia Shaver. 

Pankowski tallied her second goal of the game just a few minutes later when she took the puck in on a shorthanded rush, beating Quade with a top-shelf backhander to earn her sixth career shorthanded goal. Pankowski now has six career short-handed goals, which is tied for the fifth-most in school history with teammate Sarah Nurse. 

Mauermann earned the game's final goal late in regulation, when she received a pass from Abby Roque on the power play and one-timed it past Quade. 

"We work on it a lot at practice and I think it's really paying off," Steffen said. "We've been capitalizing on our chances a lot more, getting a lot more pucks to the net. Practice makes perfect and we're really showing that out there. We did have a couple switches with our power play and I think we finally found what works, who works well where and it looks really good right now."

UW outshot MSU 47-15 through the contest and has scored a power-play goal in six-straight games.

The Badgers look to complete the sweep of the Mavericks tomorrow afternoon. The series finale is set for 3 p.m. as Wisconsin looks to extend its winning-streak to 10 consecutive games.