Casey O’Brien reaches milestone as Wisconsin women’s hockey completes sweep of Minnesota State

Friday the Wisconsin women’s hockey team scored its sixth comeback win of the season.

Saturday the Badgers led wire to wire.

Sparked by two goals during the first 2½ minutes, second-ranked Wisconsin defeated Minnesota State, 7-2, at Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center in Mankato, Minnesota.

Wisconsin outshot Minnesota State, 37-18, and seven players scored in the Badgers’ seventh straight win. The victory raised the team’s record to 20-4 overall and 14-4 in the WCHA (43 points).

BOX SCORE: Wisconsin 7, Minnesota State 2

Freshman Cassie Hall scored in her sixth straight game. Meanwhile, senior Casey O’Brien (one goal, three assists) posted her second four-point game in a week. Her second period assist to senior Britta Curl marked the 150^th point of her career.

O’Brien is the 15^th player in UW history to accomplish the feat.

“It’s really special, I know there are some legends on that list,” O’Brien said. “I’m mostly just happy to be able to contribute to the team in any way I can and if that’s with points that’s great. Just happy to contribute to the team in any way I can.”

Three other players had multi-point games for Wisconsin: sophomores Kirsten Simms (one goal, two assists) and Laila Edwards (one goal, one assist) and senior Maddi Wheeler (one goal, one assist). Eleven players scored at least one point.

“It shows the depth that we have as a whole team,” Simms said. “It’s important, especially later in the season as we get into these more important games. Whether it’s playoffs or the later games at the end of the season, it’s important that we know we can count on anyone in the lineup to put the puck in the net.”

Wisconsin struck quickly as sophomore Vivian Jungels and O’Brien scored during the first 2 minutes 13 seconds of play.

The Badgers led, 2-1, after one period and owned a 3-2 advantage later in the second period before icing the win with four straight goals during the final 25 minutes.

Next for the Badgers is a series at No. 7 Minnesota Duluth. The teams split two games when they played in Madison Dec. 2-3.