ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Five different Badgers lit the lamp, while senior netminder Ann-Renée Desbiens earned her 39th career shutout as the top-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team began its 2016-17 season with a 6-0 victory over St. Cloud State Friday night.

Desbiens made 16 saves at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, including seven in the final period, to match the UW school record for career shutouts. She currently shares the top spot in program history with UW and USA Hockey legend Jessie Vetter.

"It wasn't maybe as easy as some of the shutouts she had last year, but Ann-Renée definitely earned the shutout tonight," UW head coach Mark Johnson said. "They had a couple of quality opportunities, we took a number of penalties that we had to kill.

"She's had a good summer of training, she looks like she's in real good physical shape, and that's what you want after a player had a wonderful season like she did last year. She keeps pushing herself and that's a good sign."

"At the end of the day the fact is we won another game and I think that's what matters most," Desbiens said. "Whether you win with a shutout, 5-1 or 2-1, it's going to be the same. But it's definitely nice as a team to know what we've been able to do the past three or four years." 

Junior Baylee Wellhausen paced the Badger offense, scoring a pair of goals while adding an assist. Freshman Abby Roque also recorded three points off a goal and two assists, while Sydney McKibbon, Sarah Nurse and Sophia Shaver all tallied a goal and an assist. In addition, junior Lauren Williams collected a career-high two assists.

"With Abby it was kind of like we were reliving our old linemate days," Wellhausen said. "We played together on a line on the U.S. under-18 team, so it was nice having her center me because I kind of know what kind of player she's like.

"She fits right in, she has great hands, great vision, she wins battles in the corners, and she gets the puck to you when you're open. It's really fun playing with her. And of course with Sophia too, with her speed, it's awesome."

McKibbon collected Wisconsin's first goal of the night on a rush as Nurse fed McKibbon the puck in the slot and the captain launched the puck into the top corner of the net.

Nurse went on to score a goal with less than two minutes remaining in the first period thanks to a McKibbon faceoff victory to double the UW advantage heading into the first intermission.

UW struck quickly in the second, as Roque scored her first collegiate goal at the 1:48 mark of the second before Wellhausen tallied a goal thanks to assists from Shaver and Roque.

The Shaver, Roque and Wellhausen line struck again late in the third, as Shaver redirected the puck into the back of the net to give UW a 5-0 advantage after two periods of play.

The line wasn't done, as Wellhausen collected her second goal midway through the third off feeds from Roque and Williams to round out the scoring for Wisconsin.

"If you can create scoring depth you become harder to beat," Johnson said. "It's a good way to start, especially for some of the players who scored tonight because usually when they score they become more confident. So it's a good sign."

The Badgers outshot St. Cloud State 34-16 and held the Huskies scoreless on their four power-play opportunities.

"Usually the first game of the year is the toughest from the standpoint that you're not sure what you're going to see on the ice," Johnson said. "Most years you get 10 or 12 days before an exhibition game, this year we had two or three practices. Now we can start to teach, we can become a better team.

"It's a good way to start the game but certainly as we move forward we have to strengthen up and improve in a lot of areas and that will start tomorrow. We'll do a little film before the game and hopefully come back Saturday to play a little bit stronger."

Wisconsin wraps up its series with St. Cloud State on Saturday with a 3 p.m. contest.