MADISON — The Wisconsin women’s hockey team closed out their home opening weekend with a 6-1 win over St. Cloud State.
Daryl Watts opened the scoring for the Badgers as she came around from behind the net, gathered the puck along the boards and carried it into the slot, where she put the puck five-hole on St. Cloud goalie Sanni Ahola to make it 1-0 less than two minutes into the game.
The Huskies responded with a goal midway through the first to tie the game. Taytum Geier put a slap shot on net from the blue line that UW goalie Kennedy Blair blocked, but the rebound bounced right to Allie Cornelius, who deflected it right back into the net.
After starting 3-17 on the power play this season, the Badgers lit the lamp twice in three chances with the player advantage on Sunday. Makenna Webster scored both from similar spots on the ice.
In the first, she crashed the net at the top of the crease and deflected Casey O’Brien’s past past Ahola to make it 2-1. In the second, she scored from her knees, putting away a loose puck that came out from a scrum in front of the net to give Wisconsin a 3-1 lead.
In a move reminiscent of her national-championship-winning OT goal, Watts scored her second of the game from behind the goal line. She picked up a puck as it bounced off the back boards and used the goalie to deflect it back at the net.
O’Brien and Watts combined for a goal that looked much like Webster’s first, this time it was Watts dishing the pass in from the left side and O’Brien deflecting the puck into the net. She leads the country with 10 goals.
Sarah Wozniewicz closed out the scoring with a snipe off a nice tape to tape pass from Grace Bowlby.
Once again, the Badger top line excelled, combining for 12 points. Watts ended the game with five points (2g, 3a) while Webster had four (2g, 2a) and O’Brien (1g, 2a) had three.
Webster and O’Brien played together before coming to Wisconsin, but Watts has slotted into their line seamlessly and the three are playing like one unit.
“It’s so much fun. We all work so well together,” said Watts. “Every time we enter, we’re trying to (have one player) drop in, one kind of pull up high so we can feed that person. We can all finish and then we all pass really well, so it makes it easy.”
“I think this team is really talented, but that doesn’t make us win games. It’s how hard we work,” said Webster.
Badger coach Mark Johnson was happy to be 6-0 after the first three weeks’ games, but knows there is still work to do be done.
“One of the first things we tried to do is establish our work habits and for six games, it’s been pretty consistent. The more time you get to practice it in a competitive atmosphere, the stronger you become. We’re still working on things and it’s young. After next weekend we’ll have some more information. We’ve made strides. We’ve improved. But we still have a ways to go, which is good. That’s just normal,” he said.
St. Cloud’s first-period goal ended goalie Kennedy Blair’s scoreless streak that dated back to the national championship game in March. The streak, which lasted 240:10 was good for 10th longest in Wisconsin history.
