Sarah Wozniewicz gets hat trick, Wisconsin women's hockey shuts out St. Thomas

MADISON – Last week Sarah Wozniewicz scored a point for the first time in almost two months.

Saturday, St. Thomas couldn’t keep her out of the net.

The junior forward recorded the first hat trick of her career to help the Wisconsin women’s hockey team score a 7-0 victory over the Tommies in front of an announced sellout crowd of 2,273 at La Bahn Arena.

The win raised third-ranked UW’s record to 17-4 overall, 11-4 (34 points) in the WCHA.

The play of Wozniewicz, whose 10 shots on goal equal St. Thomas' team total, set the tone and was a continuation of her work against Merrimack last Friday and Saturday.

BOX SCORE: Wisconsin 7, St. Thomas 0

“I think any time somebody scores a goal and had back-to-back good games you come back the next week in practice and you’re feeling good about yourself,” Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson said. “She came out strong. We talk about being first on pucks. She set the example for everybody.”

The contest marked the first WCHA matchup for Wisconsin since Dec. 9. It was impressive effort on a variety of fronts.

UW, which swept St. Thomas by scores of 5-3 and 3-0 on Oct. 26-27, owned a 51-10 edge in shots on goal, killed five penalties, scored one power play goal and one short-handed goal.

The team also had depth to its scoring. Four players scored a goal. Ten players scored a point.

In addition to Wozniewicz’s hat trick, UW got two goals from freshman Cassie Hall, a four-point afternoon from senior Maddi Wheeler (one goal, three assists) and a two-point day from sophomore Laila Edwards (one goal, one assist).

On the other end of the ice redshirt junior Jane Gervais (10 saves) recorded her fifth shutout of the season.

Also sophomore Caroline Harvey returned to action after missing the Merrimack series. She finished with one assist.

"She's just adds energy in practices, adds another layer of speed in practice. You saw the round of applause when she started the game," Johnson said. "People like watching her play, so it was a good game for her comeback. She made it through. She looked comfortable.

"With any player coming off injury, you try to keep getting better as you play more games. Hopefully she'll recover. She's in good shape and come back and have a strong game again tomorrow and start building for the second half (of the season)."

As for Wozniewicz, the performance continued what has been an offensive surge of sorts for the native of Cochrane, Alberta.

She entered play with 16 goals during her first two seasons. Last season she recorded six goals and eight assists. This year she entered play Saturday ahead of that pace with seven goals and five assists.

“I feel like the last few games I’ve gotten more confidence,” she said. “Just playing with a whole new line this year, we all didn’t play much in the last year so now we’re all coming together and everything is working out and we’re making great plays.”

The hat trick was the fourth of the season for the Badgers. Juniors Lacey Eden and Sophie Helgeson and Hall all recorded the feat in a 16-1 win over Lindenwood on Sept. 29.

Wozniewicz has the unique distinction of completing her hat trick with a short-handed goal. It came with 1:36 to play.

“You always want the hat trick, but I was trying to play consistent through the whole game,” she said. “That’s been my goal the whole year, just to play a consistent 60 minutes and lucky Wheels made a great pass to me in the third and I got it done.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sarah Wozniewicz gets hat trick, Wisconsin hockey shuts out St. Thomas