DULUTH, Minn.—In preparing for the NCAA Frozen Four national semifinal, Wisconsin women’s hockey head coach Mark Johnson stressed the importance of coming out strong in the first period. Less than a minute in to Friday’s game, however, Johnson’s team found itself trailing Boston College 1-0.
Not exactly the start that Johnson wanted. Good thing the Badgers would score the next five goals.
“You don’t know how kids are going to react,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately for us, [Boston College freshman forward] Emily Fields makes a great play and we are down 1-0. Certainly that’s not the way you want to start.”
“That’s why it’s a 60 minute hockey game,” he added.
The Badgers’ early struggles gave way to a dominating performance that seemed effortless at times, as they defeated the Eagles 6-2 and earned a spot in the national title game against Minnesota. The Border Battle rivals will face off Sunday at 3 p.m.
Down 1-0, Wisconsin’s spark came from a somewhat unlikely source in sophomore forward Brittany Ammerman. Receiving a pass from the stick of sophomore forward Madison Packer, Ammerman took a couple of strides and ripped a low wrist shot on net that got past Boston College junior goaltender Corinne Boyles.
After Ammerman tied the game, senior forward Carolyne Prevost netted one with the Badgers on a penalty kill to give Wisconsin the lead that it would never give back.
“Any time that you can score shorthanded, especially the way the game started…it creates energy within our bench,” Johnson said.
From that point on, the Badgers took control of the game, never allowing the Eagles to get back into it.
Ammerman would tally another goal late in the second period, which put the team up 4-1 and all but sealed the game for Wisconsin.
“We created a lot of energy in the locker room,” Prevost said. “Once that third, fourth goal came in, everybody seemed to relax. You could see the smiles on everyone’s faces. We were just having fun.”
Aside from Ammerman, the Badgers offense was on display as it had 10 different skaters get on the score sheet.
While the story of the game may be the offense of Wisconsin, the play of sophomore goaltender Alex Risgby cannot be ignored. Rigsby, who tallied an assist on Ammerman’s second goal, came up big turning all but one of the shots that she faced after letting the first one get by her.
“[Alex] Rigsby is one of those players that you’re so fortunate to have,” Knight said. “There were a bunch of opportunities where the puck kind of bunched the wrong way for us and fortunately she was right there.”
“I played with Jessie Vetter and it’s sort of the same feeling,” she added, referring to the former Badger who now backstops the U.S. Olympic women’s hockey team.
Midway through the third, Boston College was able to make it a three-goal game and bring back some of the energy the Eagles had in the first period. However, a power play goal by Knight seemed to take away what energy the Eagles has left in them.
A surprising note to come out of Wisconsin’s victory was that junior forward Brianna Decker, a Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award finalist did not factor in any of the team’s goals until late in the third, assisting on a goal by senior forward Brooke Ammerman and the Knight power play goal. At that point in the game, the Badgers were only waiting on the final horn to make it official.
“The nice thing about Brianna [Decker] and [Brittany Ammerman, Hilary Knight and Carolyne Prevost], is they do more than just score,” Johnson said. “Whether it’s winning face-offs, whether it’s killing penalties, they log a lot of ice time and do a lot of good things.”
