MINNEAPOLIS – The Wisconsin women's hockey senior duo of Emily Clark and Maddie Rolfes both scored to lead the top-ranked Badgers to a 2-1 win over No. 2 Minnesota on Friday night at Ridder Arena.

Wisconsin (21-2-0, 11-2-0-0 WCHA) took a 1-0 lead over Minnesota (21-3-1, 11-3-1-0 WCHA) five minutes into first period as Clark scored her seventh of the year on UW's first power play of the game. Nicole LaMantia and Annie Pankowski earned assists on the opening strike. The Badgers controlled play for most of the opening 20 minutes, outshooting Minnesota 8-3

The Golden Gophers answered 18 seconds into the second period to tie the game at one as Nicole Schammel scored on a Minnesota rush.

Rolfes gave UW the lead with just over five minutes to go in the period off assists from Brette Pettet and Delaney Drake.

The third period was close as the Badgers outshot Minnesota 9-8, but junior goaltender Kristen Campbell stopped all eight shots she encountered in the final period to improve to 21-2-0 in net for UW this year.

Play of the Game
Rolfes scored her second goal of the year midway through the second that gave UW a 2-1 advantage. After Minnesota iced the puck, Pettet won the draw to the right of Minnesota's Alex Gulstene and after Drake passed the puck to Rolfes she slotted home her 10th career goal.

Before we start the third, let's look again at Rolfes' second of the year that gave the #Badgers the lead! pic.twitter.com/KB4RPjf10U

— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerWHockey) January 19, 2019

Three Notes to Know
- Wisconsin went 1-for-2 on the power play after Clark's goal in the first period. UW continues to lead the country in the category with a .292 clip (21-of-72).
- The Badgers are now 7-2 against the Golden Gophers in their last nine meetings including a 3-1 record at Ridder Arena.
- Pankowski now has 98 assists and is only two assists from becoming the seventh player in school history to record 100 assists in a career.

Straight from the Rink
UW Head Coach Mark Johnson
On the fourth line winning a big face-off that led to the winning goal:
"We thought we had one before that but they disallowed it and said it was kicked in. To come back a few minutes later and win a face-off and again stay ahead, which is always important in these types of games. I thought in the first period we were good, the second period they were better and then the third period we tightened things up and tried to eliminate a lot of things and I thought we did a pretty good job of that."
 
On doing well at the little things:
"I was really happy with the way we played in the first period. You knew you were going to get a push from them coming back in the second period with the shorter line changes and them wanting to play it better than they did in the first period. I thought the third period we started doing the little things better than the middle intermission." 

Senior Emily Clark
On the power play:
"Obviously we've been working the power play a lot and one of the things we've come to learn is that sometimes you've got to just go with the bounces. I think that was just a case of a scrum in front of the net and the puck bouncing out and getting the goal."

On UW being good  at the "little things" throughout the game:
"I think we have a big focus on getting better every weekend. We showed a lot of character last weekend and worked really hard in practice on the little details. That's the kind of stuff against a great team like Minnesota it comes down to the little details, the little bounces that you've got to capitalize on when you can."

Senior Maddie Rolfes
On Border Battle and change over the last five years for this rivalry:
"I think we come into this rink with an amount of confidence that just takes us through this game and we aren't timid at all. We know we're capable of beating them if we go out and work hard and win 50/50 battles and we did that and it paid off."
 
On expectations for series finale:
"They always come back hard but we usually have a better second game. We traditionally have a good Saturday game, so I think we're going to push back even harder and win as well."
 
Up Next:
The Badgers wrap up their series with Minnesota on Saturday with a 4 p.m. tilt at Ridder Arena. The game can be seen on FloHockey, BTN Plus and can be heard on 100.9 FM.