While some UW-Madison students were out shopping and saving on Black Friday deals, the Wisconsin women’s hockey team (7-1-0 WCHA, 14-1-0 overall) looked to gobble up a team they haven’t played since 2014: The Harvard Crimson (1-3-1 ECAC, 2-4-1).
The Badgers hadn’t lost to the Crimson since 1999, but while they kept that streak alive Friday night it wasn’t by much in a 3-2 overtime win.
Fresh off the holiday, the crowd at Labahn was rocking from the earliest moments of the game.
“It’s so much fun to play here,” said Pankowski. “I got back in the locker room after the first goal, and everybody was like ‘Did you hear the crowd?’ and we just started laughing about how loud it was. Some of the girls said ‘I think I would just pass out from how loud it was when you got the puck’. It’s awesome. We are so grateful we have such an awesome fan base.”
In her first game back on the ice since her leg injury from five weeks ago, senior forward Emily Clark didn’t play a game of “turkey” against her opponents.
“I love having her out there,” said redshirt senior forward Annie Pankowski. “She’s working really hard to getting back to feeling confident, and I’m so grateful she’s back there and Sam [Cogan] as well.”
The Crimson came out hard and fast in the first period, with the first goal of the game coming from freshman forward Kristin Della Rovere. The Ontario native scored less than four minutes into the period during a powerplay.
But, the Badgers would not let that lead prevail for long. A couple minutes later, junior forward Abby Roque was sent to the penalty box on a hooking call. The Crimson did not cash in, and on a rush the other way Pankowski buried her seventh career shorthanded goal to tie it at one.
“That first period was incredible,” said Pankowski. “That was our team and that was so exciting to watch and be a part of. The energy in the locker room was awesome.”
Shortly after Pankowski’s goal, senior forward Sophia Shaver’s assist to junior forward Presley Norby allowed the puck to sneak past Harvard goaltender Lindsay Reed. While she had 13 saves, the freshman goalie couldn’t stop Norby’s shot.
With a scoreless second period, the Badgers and Crimson’s frustration rose, and the two teams were like children fighting over the last piece of pumpkin pie, accumulating five penalties between the two periods.
“In a game like this, there is nothing you really can do and you just have to fight that frustration,” Pankowski said. “Honestly, from the bench standpoint, there was a lot of ‘good jobs’, ‘nice try’, ‘the next one is yours’. That coming from everybody on the bench was really awesome.”
With little over a minute left in the third period, Harvard senior forward Lexie Laing tied it up 2-2, sending the game into overtime. Three minutes into overtime, the crowd erupted into cheers as Pankowski sent a puck flying past Reed into the upper left corner of the net and ended the game.
“From a team stand point, we had been battling that goalie all game,” said Pankowski. “That extra five minutes was all we needed to put a little pressure on and bring it home.”
While Wisconsin escaped with the win, its overall performance left something to be desired as the team prepares to face off with the Crimson again.
“The little battles and the stuff away from the puck is not something you can just turn on and off,” Pankowski said. “You can’t just decide to do that come playoffs or come some game down the stretch. If we have everybody doing those little things and hunting the puck afterwards, this team is going to be unstoppable.”
The series closer will start at 8 p.m. tomorrow night at LaBahn Arena.
