UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – A night after dropping its season opener, the third-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team bounced back with an emphatic 9-1 win over No. 14 Penn State on Friday night at Pegula Ice Arena. 

After a scoreless first period, the Badgers found themselves down 1-0 early in the second period thanks to a Penn State power-play tally.

UW bounced back, scoring three times in a nine-minute span to take a 3-1 lead into the second intermission. 

Casey O'Brien got things going for UW, scoring her second of the season to knot things up at 1-1.

Six minutes later, Britta Curl got on the board before Lacey Eden scored with three minutes left in the period. 

Sophie Shirley got the third period off on a good note, beating Penn State on a rush just 23 seconds into the period. 

Eden got her second of the night before Laila Edwards, Kirsten Simms and Jesse Compher all recorded their first goals as Badgers as the quartet posted four goals in a span of 2 minutes, 38 seconds.

Shirley got her second of the period to cap off the scoring for the Badgers

Three Notes of the Game

• Wisconsin scored six goals in a period, its most in a period since scoring six on Bemidji State on Nov. 7, 2021. 
• Jane Gervais made her second career start, stopping 22 of the shots she faced. She also became the first UW goalie to pick up an assist since Kristen Campbell earned an assist on March 2, 2019 against St. Cloud State.  
• Wisconsin's nine goals were the most scored in a single game since posting 10 in their second game of the 2021-22 season against Lindenwood on Sept. 25, 2021. 

Straight from the Rink
UW Head Coach Mark Johnson
On what clicked for the Badgers:
"When Casey [O'Brien] scored, you know, it creates that energy and we just built off of it. We started really to move our feet, we were first on pucks, we were winning battles and we did that for an extended period of time and really took the game over."

On Gervais' second career start:
"It was good. I was happy for her, I was happy for the team and it's early and anytime you can build confidence with anybody on your team its going to help us. Certainly Jane played strong when she needed to today."

Forward Sophie Shirley
On playing at LaBahn next series:
"I can hardly wait. I think anytime you get to play in that building with the atmosphere that it has, it's always an exciting time and I'm really excited to start to get things going in LaBahn Arena."

Up Next: UW returns home to face Lindenwood next Thursday and Friday at LaBahn Arena. Puck drop for both games is at 7 p.m. and tickets are still available on UWBadgers.com.