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A week after losing both its first game and its 11-week stranglehold on the No. 1 ranking, the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team returned to its winning ways this weekend, beating visiting North Dakota, 6-2 and 7-2 on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

The team once again put its offensive depth on display, with eight different players combining on 14 goals. Coach Mark Johnson noted the team is at its best when getting production from different people.

“When everybody’s going, everybody’s chipping in and doing their part, it makes it difficult to hold us back,” Johnson said. “It’s always a good sign when a lot of people make contributions.”

On Saturday afternoon, the Badgers jumped out to an early lead when junior forward Meghan Duggan created a turnover in the North Dakota zone and fired an unassisted shot in front of the crease past the Fighting Sioux goaltender just 2 1/2 minutes into the game.

Later in the period, the Badgers took advantage of errors by the North Dakota power play unit, scoring two shorthanded goals in a less than a minute. First, sophomore center Mallory Deluce received a pass just beyond mid-ice and broke away from the defense to give Wisconsin a 2-0 lead. Duggan and sophomore defenseman Olivia Jakiel registered the assists.

During the same shorthanded situation, junior forward Kyla Sanders intercepted the puck at center ice and skated in for a second breakaway goal. Sanders attributed the shorthanded success to an offensive mindset.

“I think we did really well on the penalty kill because we’re so aggressive,” Sanders said. “We just get the puck up quick and our forwards are just flying down, and we got a couple breakaways. … It was nice that the puck both times was right in the middle.”

In the second period, after North Dakota scored to cut the margin to two, junior forward Jasmine Giles maneuvered around a defender along the left boards and found the net’s upper right corner on a slap shot from the left circle. Less than 50 seconds later, Duggan took a pass from Jakiel and left it in between the circles for freshman forward Carolyne Prevost, who scored her 11th goal of the year. Johnson was impressed with the team’s response to having its lead threatened.

“[North Dakota] had a little bit of energy the next shift, and all of a sudden, same type of thing with the shorthanders in the first period, we went bang-bang,” Johnson said. “All of a sudden it goes from 3-1 to 5-1 in a short period of time — kind of deflates the other team.”

In the final stanza, senior forward Angie Keseley netted her 12th goal of the season on an assist from freshman center Brooke Ammerman, and junior Emily Kranz scored her first goal of the year, on helpers from Sanders and Giles, to put the game out of reach.

Friday night the team got out to an even quicker start when sophomore forward Hilary Knight lit the lamp on the first shift, just 38 seconds into the game. Linemates Keseley and senior center and captain Erika Lawler notched the assists.

Later in the period, Prevost corralled a rebound in front of the net and slipped it to the right of the UND goalie. Duggan and Deluce collected assists. Then, with just over a minute to play, Ammerman skillfully sliced around the defense to the left of the net where she centered to Duggan for the third goal of the period.

Johnson was pleased with the team’s effort in the early going.

“I was looking for some energy today, and obviously when Hilary scores on the first shift that gets you excited,” he said. “Those are the positive things to build on. Coming out after 20 minutes and being up 3-0, that’s what we’re looking for.”

Four minutes into the second period, Keseley and Lawler combined to assist on another Knight goal, her national-best 25th of the year. It was also Lawler’s 25th assist, which tops the country. Knight’s next goal will tie her for third place on the Badgers’ all-time single-season goal scoring list.

Later in the second, Deluce redirected a power play blast into the net to give UW a comfortable 5-0 advantage. Ammerman and senior defenseman Alycia Matthews recorded assists.

In the third, Duggan added her second of the game on Prevost and Deluce assists before the Badgers surrendered two late goals.

The weekend’s two victories helped the Badgers’ cleanse their mouths of the taste of a loss — a loss which Jakiel said motivated their performance.

“No one likes to lose,” Jakiel said. “No one likes to tie or anything like that. So, I think that kind of gave us inspiration, kind of lit a fire under our butt to get out there and win and play our game.”

With its coach back from a leading a gold-medal winning run at the Under-18 World Championships and two resounding victories in their belt, Duggan thinks it’s best the team simply put the Duluth series behind them.

“Everyone is kind of hitting us talking about the loss and everything, but I think right now we just have to put that behind us and just look forward on what we have the next couple series,” Duggan said. “So we just have to kind of put that on the back burner and just forget about it and move on and control what we can control from now on.”