Brooke Ammerman notched a hat trick and Brianna Decker tallied three points as No. 1 Wisconsin crushed Robert Morris, 7-1, at the RMU Island Sports Center Friday afternoon.
In addition to three-point efforts from Ammerman and Decker, Hilary Knight scored two goals, and sophomore Stefanie McKeough posted two assists. Senior Meghan Duggan had one goal and one assist.
The Badgers jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first period as Ammerman tallied her third-career hat trick in a span of 9:11 during the opening frame. She scored the first goal of the game off assists from Decker and Duggan on a power-play at 7:35.
Knight extended UW’s lead to 2-0, scoring her 13th goal of the season at the 11:21 mark. McKeough fed a pass to freshman Kelly Jaminski (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.), who sent a cross-ice pass to Knight inside the right faceoff circle, and Knight beat RMU goaltender Daneca Butterfield on a high shot.
Ammerman then scored back-to-back goals at 14:44 and 16:47 of the first period, assisted by freshman Madison Packer (Birmingham, Mich.) and sophomore Breann Frykas (East St. Paul, Manitoba), respectively.
Duggan netted the Badgers’ second power-play goal of the game at the 8:56 mark of the second period, extending UW’s lead to 5-0. McKeough and Decker picked up assists on the play.
Wisconsin opened the final stanza with two short-handed goals in 31 seconds. UW started the period on the penalty kill, and Decker tallied an unassisted short-handed goal just 29 seconds into the period. Knight then recorded her second tally of the game off a feed from Prevost at the 50-second mark.
RMU’s Kylie St. Louis scored the final goal of the game, spoiling the Badgers’ shutout with her first career goal with 18:46 remaining. Dayna Newsom and Sara O’Malley assisted on the play.
Freshman goaltender Alex Rigsby made a career-best 26 saves saves, improving to 6-0-0 on the season. RMU goaltender Daneca Butterfield recorded 38 saves for the Colonials and fell to 0-6-0. The Badgers outshot the Colonials, 45-27.
The victory marked the UW women’s hockey program’s 300th win, and the Badgers improved to 6-1-0 all-time against Robert Morris.
Wisconsin and Robert Morris wrap up the nonconference series at 2 p.m. (CT) Saturday afternoon.
