The Wisconsin women’s hockey team (11-3-0, 7-3-0) has struggled at times this season to find the net, despite often taking twice as many shots as their opponents. However, with St. Cloud State (2-8-0, 0-6-0) in town, the Badgers found plenty of goals in a series sweep. Saturday’s 8-1 victory for the Badgers marked not only a breakout for the offense, but also saw senior Meghan Hunter become the most explosive offensive player in the program’s history.

Hunter scored a power-play goal off a give-and-go with Karen Rickard to give the Badgers a 1-0 lead at 12:30 of the first period. The goal gave Hunter 78 in her career to go along with 81 assists for 159 points. The 159 points ties her for the all-time-points mark with former UW standout Kendra Antony. Hunter’s 78 goals is already the top mark in school history.

“It indicates that over the course of three-plus years she’s made a big contribution to the program,” head coach Mark Johnson said of Hunter’s record.

Following the Hunter goal, the floodgates seemed to come open for the Badgers, who scored just 11 seconds later when Jackie Friesen took a nice pass from Amy Vermeulen and snuck it past the Huskies’ goalie, Lauri St. Jacques. Friesen added another goal on the power play midway through the second period. Nikki Burish and Molly Engstrom were awarded assists on Friesen’s second goal.

Steph Millar gave the UW a 3-1 advantage six minutes into the second period when she came up with the first of her two goals on the night. Millar picked up a rebound off a Lindsay Macy shot and slid the puck home. She also scored a power-play goal in the third period with Vermeulen getting her second assist of the game on the play.

Engstrom, who led the Badgers with three points via a goal and two assists, got her goal on a power-play slap shot near the end of the second period. Carla MacLeod got an assist on the play. The goal gave Wisconsin a 5-1 advantage heading into the second intermission.

A Meaghan Mikkelson goal before and a Kathryn Greaves goal after, bracketed Millar’s second goal of the game as the Badgers added three more third-period goals to finish off the Huskies 8-1.

SCSU’s only goal was scored by Carrie Holldorf off a deflection in the first period. Holldorf’s initial shot was sailing wide of the Badger net but hit a defender and bounced into the goal. Christine Dufour, Wisconsin’s net minder, never had a chance to react to the odd bounce.

Wisconsin was able to convert all four of their power-play chances while keeping St. Cloud scoreless on six chances, including a 5-on-3 power play early in the first period.

Eight goals are the most scored by the Badgers this season.

“I’ve been real impressed with our pace and our puck movement,” Johnson said. “The bottom line is we’ve gotten better since when we first started.”

In the first game of the series, the Badgers broke out with a three-goal third period to cap a 4-0 shutout of the Huskies. The hero of the game was sophomore Nikki Burish, who scored the first two Badger goals.

Burish’s first goal came late in the first period when she skated out from behind the net and stuffed the puck past SCSU goalie Ellen Brinkman. Vermeulen and Millar were credited with assists on the play. Burish would also score the first goal of the third period, taking a similar path from behind the net before bouncing the puck off the opposite post and in for a 2-0 lead.

Hunter moved to within one point of the all-time lead with the third goal of the game for the Badgers just 21 seconds after Burish’s goal to all but seal the victory. Vermeulen got her second assist of the night on the goal.

Captain Carla MacLeod scored her first goal of the season late in the third period when she converted a power-play goal off a pass from Sara Bauer. Mikkelson also was credited with an assist on the play.

Wisconsin goaltender Meghan Horras needed to make only 11 saves to record her second shutout of the season.

The sweep puts Wisconsin into a great position heading into a series with three-time defending champion Duluth in two weeks. With the Badger victories, Duluth and Wisconsin will be battling for second place in the WCHA and, more importantly, an early leg up on what could be the fourth and final spot in this year’s NCAA championship.

“They’ve put themselves into position to play a real meaningful series with Duluth,” Johnson said following the sweep of St. Cloud State. “We’ll have a real challenge.”