Thanks to Roxanne Stang’s hat trick and a clicking St. Cloud offense, the Huskies administered No. 8 Wisconsin its worst loss of the year, 9-4 on Friday at the National Hockey Center. SCSU scored four goals in both the first and third periods en route to the win.
The Badgers played a defenseless first period and went into the first intermission trailing 4-2. St. Cloud got on the board first with a power-play goal at 1:29. Stang converted a centering pass from the left boards through a pair of opposing players in the slot. Stang took Ricki-Lee Doyle’s pass for the easy score.
Meghan Hunter evened the scored when she worked a give-and-go with Steph Millar, starting from center ice. Hunter gave Millar the puck along the boards before receiving the return pass at the blue line. Hunter skated down the boards, cutting to the net and backhanding a shot past SCSU’s Laura Gieselman in goal at 2:04.
The Huskies regained the lead at 3:45 when Jenny Jones skated uncovered through the slot and took a pass from Briana Munyon before scoring with the backhand. Doyle made it 3-1 after scoring on a rebound of a Fiona McLeod shot at 5:28.
Nicole Uliasz and the Badgers would close to one again when Hunter gave the defenseman the puck her own blue line on a power play. Uliasz rushed along the right boards and past three SCSU defenders before her wrist shot found the net at 10:54.
St. Cloud would add one more before the end of the stanza, its second power-play goal of the period. In almost identical fashion to two of the first three SCSU goals, Stag was left open just right of the goal and took a pass from the left boards before beating Jackie MacMillan for the goal.
The Badgers picked up play in the second period, outshooting the Huskies 19-4. But St. Cloud State tacked on a fifth goal when Kobi Kawamoto scored unassisted, on her own rebound after an end-to-end rush at 3:42.
Michelle Sikich scored her sixth goal of the season at 7:05 to make the game 5-3. Natascha Sherman won the puck along the left boards and passed to Kelly Kegley behind the net, who found Sikich open in the slot.
Kerry Weiland found the net for UW’s second power-play goal of the game at 7:59, beating Gieselman. Antony and Hunter each recorded assists on the play to pull Wisconsin within one at 5-4.
“St. Cloud definitely set the tone early with a power-play goal and we were playing catchup the rest of the way,” said head coach Trina Bourget. “The second period we came out and played a much better period and battled back. We had them on the ropes but we couldn’t make it 5-5 at the end of two.”
Five-four was as close as the Badgers would get as Stang completed her hat trick 1:18 into the third from McLeod and Abby Cooper on the power play. Cooper made it 7-4 on an impressive rebound goal in which she was over the goal line but kicked the puck to her stick and slid it short side. Doyle scored unassisted on a breakaway at 8:47 and Munyon finished the scoring after taking a giveaway in the high slot and scoring past Jen Neary, who replaced MacMillan after the eighth goal.
MacMillan stopped 21 shots and fell to 12-4-2. Neary relieved the starter, making two saves. For SCSU, Gieselman made 36 saves and improved to 8-9-1 on the year.
“I think St. Cloud did the little things right that ultimately win the games,” Bourget said. “Our team, tomorrow, needs to do the same thing. Jackie MacMillan did a great job making the first saves, and the rebound was right there for the St. Cloud player to capitalize on and they did. We need to be more discipined on defense.”
Wisconsin (14-4-2, 8-3-2 WCHA) looks to avenge its first loss against St. Cloud State (10-10-1, 6-6-1) in seven games Saturday at 3:05 p.m.
