Wisconsin women’s hockey shakes off rust, wears down Merrimack to open the new year

MADISON – Playing its first game since Dec. 9, it took the Wisconsin women’s hockey team some time to shake off the rust.

But during the second half of the Badgers’ game with Merrimack Friday night, the team was well on its way to regaining its form.

Third-ranked UW (15-4) scored five goals during the final 30 minutes and recorded a 6-1 victory over the Warriors in front of a crowd of 2,273 at La Bahn Arena.

Junior Lacey Eden (two goals, one assists) and senior Katie Kotlowski (three assists) recorded three-point nights and sophomore Laila Edwards scored twice for the Badgers.  Freshman Cassie Hall (one goal, one assist), senior Britta Curl (one goal, one assists) and senior Casey O’Brien (two assists) also had two-point nights for UW.

BOX SCORE: Wisconsin 6, Merrimack 1

Perhaps the most important of those scores was Eden’s, which came 12 seconds after Merrimack took a 1-0 lead in the first period.

“It just shows how our team handles adversity when we get scored on,” she said. “We don’t hold over, we go right back at it the next shift. To get that one really changed the momentum of the game right away.”

Edwards added the game-winner at the 13:09 mark of the second period off passes from Kotlowski and O’Brien. Curl added insurance with a score at the 17:54 mark of that period.

UW punctuated the night with goals by Eden, Hall and Edwards during the final 4 minutes.

“I was super excited to get back going with the team,” Edwards said. “I’ve missed playing with them.  It’s been almost a month. I think we’re excited to get this second half of the year going and hopefully get that national championship at the end, but it all starts here in these games and what we work on to get better.”

Wisconsin didn’t put up a lot of goals until the last few minutes, but its defense steadily improved. UW allowed just nine shots during the final two periods. Junior goaltender Jane Gervais had 17 saves.

It was a much-needed evening on the ice for a team that returns to WCHA play next week.

“We were practicing well, but it’s tough to simulate game competition,” Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson said. “The first period was shaking the cobwebs out, getting back into the swing of things. …  We needed to get our legs back, the timing down, and eventually as the game wore on that’s what happened.”