Kerry Weiland scored twice and added an assist, and nine different Badgers recorded points to lead Wisconsin (16-6-5, 10-5-5 WCHA) to a 5-1 win over Minnesota State-Mankato (2-25-2, 0-18-1) at the Midwest Wireless Civic Center on Friday.
“This was definitely an important win for us,” Wisconsin coach Trina Bourget said. “The league is so close with St. Cloud three points behind. It gives us a little more of a cushion. We also want to catch Duluth. Every game is important.”
Meghan Hunter opened the scoring at 5:04 with her 34th goal of the year. The frosh blocked a Maverick shot at the UW blue line and skated the rest of the way before hitting the upper right corner with a wrist shot from the slot.
The game stayed 1-0 until 10:10 of the second when Karen Rickard’s slap shot found Katie Beauduy’s five-hole. Rickard took a pass off the right board from Weiland, who fired from deep in the Wisconsin left corner for the outlet pass. Gretchen Anderson picked up the second assist.
Weiland made it 3-0 just 23 seconds later when Kendra Antony found the defenseman cutting to the goal. Julia Ortenzio also assisted on the play.
At 15:41, Wisconsin scored the lone power-play goal of the contest when Weiland scored her second goal of the game and 11th of the season. The sophomore got the puck at the point, stickhandled around the defense, and scored the goal. Michelle Sikich and Kelly Kegley.
“We came out a little slow,” Bourget said. “Mankato came out and challenged us. The puck started going in for us in the second period and we played better in the second and third periods.”
Steph Millar finished off the Badger scoring at 13:35 of the third period. Millar took a wrist shot that bounced off Beauduy’s glove and dropped behind the goaltender. The score came unassisted.
Tina Serafin scored her first goal at 18:25 to break Jackie MacMillan’s shutout bid. MacMillan made 30 saves in the win and improved to 14-6-5. Beauduy stopped 35 shots but dropped to 1-11-0.
