The No. 3 Wisconsin women's hockey team headed to Minneapolis hoping to win their first-ever Western Collegiate Hockey Association tournament. But in the end, it was the No. 1 Minnesota Golden Gophers (25-1-2 WCHA, 33-2-2 overall) that prevailed with a 3-2 overtime win in one of the most exciting games in WCHA tournament history.
The Badgers (20-7-1, 28-8-1) started the tournament Friday with a 3-1 victory over St. Cloud State (7-18-3, 9-22-4). The Huskies took a 1-0 lead into the third period, but the Badgers were able to rip off three unanswered goals en route to victory. In Saturday's semifinal match-up the Badgers had to get past the No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs (22-4-2, 27-5-2), a foe who had won the regular season series three games to one. But UM-Duluth was unable to duplicate their regular season success against UW as the Badgers were able to fight their way to a 3-2 overtime victory. With the win, the Badgers set themselves up for a showdown in the final versus Minnesota.
On Sunday the Badgers came out of the gates swinging, dominating the first period by out-shooting the Gophers 9-3. Nevertheless the game was kept scoreless as Minnesota senior goalie Jody Horak was equal to the Badger onslaught.
In the second period, the Gophers were able to match the Badgers level of play. The two teams fought tooth and nail to what looked to be another scoreless frame. But a UW penalty at 19:46 put UM on a power play. The Gophers were able to capitalize just nine seconds later when UM junior forward Natalie Darwitz scored the first goal of the contest.
It looked like the Gophers were going to put the game out of reach in the third period when UM freshman forward Bobbi Ross put the Gophers up 2-0 at 5:26 in the third. But all the goal did was set the stage for the most frantic minute of the season.
With the Gophers ahead 2-0 in the final minutes, UW head coach Mark Johnson called a timeout and pulled junior goalie Meghan Horras to give the Badgers an extra attacker. The maneuver paid off as UW senior defender Carla MacLeod pulled the Badgers to within one with a slapshot from the point with 50 seconds left in the game. Johnson kept Horras on the bench and once again the maneuver paid off as another MacLeod goal tied the game 26 seconds later.
Unfortunately all of UW's momentum vanished in mere seconds as UW was called for two penalties which allowed the Gophers to start the overtime period with a five on three advantage.
The setback proved to be too much to overcome and UM won the game and their third WCHA Tournament title in four years when junior forward Krissy Wendell scored the game winner just 19 seconds into overtime.
Because UW failed to get the automatic berth for the NCAA Tournament they will have to wait until March 13 to find out if they will be making their first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament.
