[media-credit name=’DEREK MONTGOMERY/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]After failing to score more than three goals in any of the season's first four games, the Wisconsin offense came alive in its WCHA home opener, defeating Alaska-Anchorage 6-1 Friday and 5-1 and Saturday night, respectively.

The Badgers set the tone early Friday night, in a weekend that was marked by a balanced attack. Junior forward Andrew Joudrey scored his first goal of the season just over three and a half minutes into the game when he brought the puck into the zone along the right side. As forward Ben Street fell down in front of two defenders, Joudrey skated left and shot the puck over the left shoulder of goaltender John DeCaro.

The Badgers showered 22 shots on goal to the Seawolves' six in the opening period, and, despite a goal from Ross Carlson, the game remained tight at 2-1 going into the first intermission after an Alaska-Anchorage power play goal from Mark Smith.

Wisconsin started to open things up, however, in the second period with a power play goal of its own from sophomore Joe Pavelski, who knocked in a missed Robbie Earl shot to put the Badgers up 3-1.

"The power-play goal was huge because it got us up a leg, and they had to fight even harder to get back in the game. That was a pivotal point," Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said.

After Pavelski's goal, the Badgers continued to dominate the game. They added 11 shots in the second period while allowing only five to the Seawolves. Nick Licari scored perhaps the most finesse goal of the night when he took a puck that UAA defenseman Chad Anderson misplayed in front of the goal, crossed in front of DeCaro, and slid it into an open net.

The most interesting move of the night came when Alaska-Anchorage pulled DeCaro with the score 5-1 and less than a minute remaining in regulation. The Badgers quickly capitalized as Joudrey scored his second goal of the night, finishing off a dominant performance that finally saw everyone in the Wisconsin offense getting involved.

"I think tonight we took it upon ourselves to kind of get ourselves going instead of having coach come in and get on us," Licari said. "We kind of did it ourselves tonight, and I think it worked out and we had a good game."

Saturday night's game saw the debut of instant replay at the Kohl Center and the first goal of sophomore defenseman Joe Piskula's career.

In a much tighter game, the two teams went scoreless for the first period, as Seawolves goalie Nathan Lawson stopped 14 Badger shots in the period to keep the game tied.

Earl opened up the scoring with a goal just under six minutes into the second period. Alaska-Anchorage answered back, though, with a goal by Merit Waldrop that appeared to hit the top of the net behind Badger goalie Brian Elliott and bounced back out. Initially ruled a goal, the referee reviewed the play for the first replay in Kohl Center history and correctly called the shot a goal.

Things appeared close, even as the Badgers shot twice as many times in the second frame as the Seawolves. A shorthanded goal by Licari gave the Badgers some momentum going into the second intermission. Licari and Joudrey moved the puck into the zone in a two-on-two situation, and when Joudrey's shot failed to break through, Licari was there to pound it in.

In the third period Street put the Badgers up two goals with his score, off a missed Carlson shot. Shortly thereafter, Piskula took a shot on Lawson that bounced off the Seawolves goaltender, hit Piskula in the shin pad and went into the net. The referee reviewed the goal to see if Piskula knocked it in with his hands, but replay clearly showed the goal was legitimate.

"It happened so fast," Piskula said of the goal. "I couldn't tell if it hit the shaft of my stick or it was my kneepad. They thought I threw it in, and that definitely wasn't the case."

Later in the period, Street added his second goal of the night to put the game out of reach for the Seawolves.

For the weekend, Wisconsin out-shot UAA 87 to 40, as the Badgers didn't allow more than eight shots in any period. The Badgers also went four for 17 on the power play while killing all but one of the 11 Seawolf power plays.