By Pat O’Rourke
BU News Service

The BU women’s hockey team saw its season come to an end Saturday, losing 5-1 to Wisconsin in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

The Badgers (29-6-4) scored the game’s first five goals, drawing first blood 2:56 into the game on a goal from Annie Pankowski. It was the first of two tallies on the night for Pankowski, who also scored at 15:43 of the second to put Wisconsin ahead, 3-0. The Terriers (25-9-3) allowed two goals in each of the first two periods to go down, 4-0, after 40 minutes.

BU ruined the shutout bid for Wisconsin goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens (20 saves) with 3:53 remaining in regulation, when Victoria Bach scored her 20th goal of the season.

Victoria Hanson made 40 saves before being pulled with 3:04 left in the game in favor of Mia Becker, who stopped all three shots she faced in the final minutes.

The Badgers will face top-ranked Minnesota next Saturday in the national semifinal for the right to advance to the national title game for the first time since 2012.

BU, who won their fourth consecutive Hockey East title and fifth in six seasons, see their season end a win shy of the Frozen Four for the second consecutive year. Brian Durocher’s squad graduates five seniors, the most notable of whom is captain Marie-Philip Poulin, who finished her collegiate career with an 81-100–181 scoring line in 111 games.

BU returns its next four leading scorers after Poulin in 2015-16 in Sarah Lefort (23-27–50), Kayla Tutino (14-23–37), Victoria Bach (20-14–34), and Rebecca Leslie (14-17–31). The Terriers bring back seven of the ten players who scored double-digit points as well as starting goaltender Victoria Hanson.