Big games are when teams discover a lot about themselves. Unfortunately for the Badgers, they were on the losing end of two of them this weekend. No. 1 Wisconsin (4-2-0 WCHA, 6-2-0 overall) fell to No. 2 Minnesota (3-0-1, 5-0-1) both Friday night and Saturday afternoon, UW’s first two losses of the season.
“We had some chances, but in these type of games against those types of opponents, you have to capitalize on them,” said head coach Mark Johnson. “They did, and we did not.”
Penalty teams were the big issue in the first game. Wisconsin had six power plays, five coming in the first two periods, and could not capitalize on any of them. They allowed a shortie in their first power play and gave up a goal after five shots in their first penalty kill.
Minnesota led 3-1 after the first period of the game, with the third goal coming with 0.3 seconds left on the clock. From that point, the game was pretty even, with the exception of another late Gopher goal with under a minute left in the second, but the Badgers just could not crawl out from their early deficit.
Saturday’s game seemed to pick up right where Friday’s game left off. From the start, the teams went back and forth with neither team able to take control. The first period saw seven penalties, four on Wisconsin, but both teams held strong in penalty kill.
In the second period, the Badgers came through on a power-play goal by sophomore forward Sarah Nurse to give the team their first lead of the series. That goal seemed as though it would be the deciding point, until the Gophers responded with a power-play goal of their own with only 1:29 left in the third.
Overtime was neck and neck. Freshman forward Baylee Wellhausen sent a slap shot off of the post that would prove to be Wisconsin’s last chance to take the game. UW turned the puck over with 1:38 to go, and as the announcer started to say “One minute to go,” Minnesota put it in the back of the net, sealing the golden-goal victory.
“It was a good hockey game,” said Johnson after the game. “The important thing is that we played hard and we played well today. Obviously you want to win the game, but we can take a lot of things out from here. We became a better team today than what we showed yesterday.”
He later said “You look at the big picture. It’s October. We can play at a really high level, and now we just have to continue to improve.”
Look for that improvement to start next weekend as the team travels to Bemidji St. to take on the Beavers.
