The Wisconsin Badgers women’s hockey team celebrated their seniors this past weekend, a fact that possibly overshadowed that they clinched their 10th WCHA regular season title.
Wisconsin clinches the WCHA regular season championship on Saturday
Before puck drop, the LaBahn Arena crowd recognized the six seniors: Lacey Eden, Katie Kotlowski, Quinn Kuntz, Casey O’Brien, Marianne Picard and Sarah Wozniewicz.
If the Badgers were feeling any extra pressure given that a single point would clinch the conference championship, it was impossible to tell.
After failing to capitalize on an early too many players on the ice penalty, junior defender Caroline Harvey threaded the needle to junior forward Laila Edwards who opened the scoring just four minutes into the game.
Thirty seconds later, junior defender Vivian Jungels found Eden for a breakaway that put the Badgers up 2-0.
Minnesota trailed, but they weren’t out. On their first shot of the game, senior forward Ella Huber brought the Gophers within one, halfway through the first period.
Wisconsin struck back when Picard managed to place a shot behind Minnesota goaltender Hannah Clark, scoring the game winning goal before the first intermission.
If there’s one guaranteed way to fire up a bench, it’s a senior scoring on senior day. “I was screaming my head off. Every single person was. No one was happier to see a goal than that one today,” O’Brien said following the game.
Freshman forward Maggie Scannell scored early in the second by gently nudging in a missed shot from fellow freshman forward Hannah Halverson, putting the Badgers up three.
Edwards scored her second after beating Clark top-shelf from the right circle, and O’Brien padded the lead by doing the same thing from the left side.
After allowing six goals over 40 minutes of play, Minnesota’s head coach saw the need for a change and took Clark out for junior backup Sophia Johnson.
While Johnson ended with a higher save percentage than Clark, this decision quickly looked very bad when O’Brien scored her second of the game less than 30 seconds into the period.
This time, the Gophers answered, scoring their second and final goal of the game three minutes later.
With 12 minutes left in the WCHA regular season championship race, Jungels beat the Minnesota netminder on a high-angle shot.
The Badgers lost their entire second defense pairing during the game. Sophomore defender Ava Murphy went down with a noncontact injury in the first, and sophomore defender Laney Potter left after a second-period collision with Minnesota’s Abbey Murphy. In their stead, junior forwards McKayla Zilisch and Edwards (because of course Laila Edwards could also be an elite defender. Why wouldn’t she be able to?) moved to the blue line.
The Badgers fired on all cylinders, and claimed their 10th regular season title. With the 8-2 win, head coach Mark Johnson became the first coach to reach double-digit WCHA titles.
Wisconsin pours salt on the wound on Sunday
After the 8-2 drubbing on Saturday, Edwards assumed they’d get Minnesota’s best on Sunday. “We know they’re gonna come out hard tomorrow. No one likes to get beat 8-2,” Edwards said in a press conference after Saturday’s game.
Johnson gave his Badgers something they haven’t seen much this season: a few new looks. He put Scannel on the highly lauded top line alongside O’Brien and junior forward Kirsten Simms and kept Edwards at defense. A battered Wisconsin team rolled with four sets of wings, three centers and five defenders for the bulk of the game.
The excitement started when a hooking penalty put the Badgers on the power play just over halfway through the first period.
That power play gave the Badgers a lot of momentum, and the home team ended the period outshooting their rivals 13-3, but the game was still scoreless.
Early in the second, O’Brien sprung loose, and Edwards found her on a 100-foot breakout pass, but O’Brien got upended at the net by Minnesota defender Sydney Morrow, earning herself a penalty shot. After the whistle, Morrow committed a second penalty, booking herself a trip to the penalty box.
The Badger captain tried to go between Clark’s legs, but couldn’t convert.
On the power play, Edwards was toppled by Patty Kazmaier hopeful Abbey Murphy, but the refs didn’t blow their whistle. Frustrated, Edwards took matters into her own hands, retaliating with a cross-check that earned herself a penalty of her own. After a review, the refs upheld their no-call on Murphy, prematurely ending the Badger power play and sending the game to 4-on-4.
Fired up from the no-call, Jungels beat Clark five-hole, opening the scoring 4 minutes into the second period.
After a defender tripped Simms on the proceeding faceoff, the Badgers found themselves back on the power play.
Right after the play became 4-on-4, Simms took a baseline pass from Eden and beat the goalie to go up by two.
With 12:41 left in the second, Abbey Murphy was sent to the box for a two-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which Eden capitalized on from the mid-slot for the third goal of the game.
Minnesota scored their first goal of the game when noted defender Edwards got caught in a 2-on-1.
With Minnesota on the powerplay, O’Brien outhustled a defender, and beat the goaltender on a shorthanded breakaway attempt to make it 4-1. If the Badgers didn’t already have all the momentum, they certainly had it now.
With about a minute and a half left in the kill, Morrow, who had a game-leading 6 PIM, committed a penalty behind the play, sending the game back to even strength.
Minnesota’s Murphy played the part of the villain in Madison. She was serenaded with boos every time she touched the puck.
The second period saw seven penalties for 17 penalty minutes alongside five goals.
With just over two minutes left, sophomore forward Claire Enright put the Badgers up 5-1, and if that didn’t make it clear that the Badgers had no interest in lifting their foot off of the gas pedal, a long stretch pass from Venusio that sent sophomore forward Kelly Gorbatenko on a rush chance to fully salt the wound sure did.
O’Brien, the captain, tallied four points in the game making her the second Badger to ever score 250 points, and McNaughton stopped 24 of the 25 shots she saw, earning the win.
For their efforts, Jungels, McNaughton, and O’Brien all received WCHA weekly awards.
Wisconsin looks to finish the regular season strong when they travel to Bemidji to take on the Beavers in two weeks.
