The No. 1 Wisconsin women’s hockey team started their WCHA Tournament run last weekend by toppling last-place Bemidji State in two games in LaBahn Arena.
Sneakily dominant on Friday
The Badgers, WCHA regular season champions, were awarded a first-round matchup with last-place Bemidji State.
Fifteen seconds into the game, junior forward Kirsten Simms made a dash toward the Bemidji State net, but an adept stick from an opposing defender sent the puck away from the net. This play represented a game in which Bemidji State blocked 36 shots.
At eight minutes, 47 seconds in the first period, the Badgers and Beavers were tied at five shots on goal apiece. The Badgers then took the next 31 shots.
With 38 seconds left in the first, junior defender Caroline Harvey drove deep into the Bemidji State zone behind the goaltender. She slipped a pass back to sophomore forward Kelly Gorbatenko, who opened the scoring.
The first penalty for Bemidji came with around 4:45 left in the second period, but the Badgers’ power play never got a chance to show off as sophomore forward Claire Enright found a loose puck near the net to score Wisconsin’s second goal.
Shortly after, with 2:05 left in the period, senior forward Lacey Eden deflected a Harvey point shot that dribbled past the Bemidji State goaltender to put the Badgers up 3-0.
Bemidji State couldn’t offer sophomore goaltender Ava McNaughton a single save opportunity during the second period.
Sophomore defender Ava Murphy received a penalty for body-checking 50 seconds into the third, sending Bemidji to their first power play opportunity of the series where they broke their shot drought.
At 11:43, fifth-year senior forward Casey O’Brien received a tripping penalty, the captain’s first penalty of the season.
Wisconsin outshot Bemidji State 45-12 en route to a 3-0 victory, dominating more than the pedestrian three-goal margin of victory suggests.
The Death Star fires on the Beavers on Saturday
O’Brien entered the game on Saturday with 259 career points, only three shy of tying the all-time Badgers points record set by forward Hilary Knight in 2012. Simms made a dash toward the Bemidji State net 15 seconds into the game, and this time, she scored.
“That creates excitement. Could’ve created the same thing last night if we had scored,” Johnson said about Simms’ goal.
O’Brien had an assist on the goal, her 51st of the season, a school single-season assists record. Just over three minutes into the game, O’Brien found Simms once again in the high slot to put Wisconsin up 2-0.
At 15:28, a shot from Murphy snuck behind Bemidji State goaltender Kaitlin Groess, and freshman forward Maggie Scannell slammed it home to put the Badgers up by three.
Exactly five minutes in, O’Brien passed to freshman forward Finley McCarthy who moved the puck from her stick to the back of the net.
After Gorbatenko scored Wisconsin’s fifth goal, freshman goaltender Lauren Mooney replaced Groess.
Sophomore forward Cassie Hall added another goal top shelf before Scannell was booked for tripping. This led to a 2-on-1 breakaway for Badgers captains O’Brien and Harvey. Harvey sent the puck across the crease to O’Brien, who buried a shorthanded goal for career point number 263.
O’Brien stands alone atop the record book. She managed to climb Mount Knight. She had become the Badgers’ all-time leading point-scorer.
“It made me super emotional, honestly,” O’Brien said of breaking the record in LaBahn. “Wisconsin women's hockey has the best fans in the country.”
O’Brien notched another assist when she set up Halverson near the end of the first period for a close-quarters goal.
Johnson replaced McNaughton with senior goaltender Quinn Kuntz to play the last two periods.
Just over halfway through the second period, O’Brien found Simms in the low slot for O’Brien’s sixth point of the game and Simms’ third goal, completing her hat trick.
Wisconsin scored two more goals in the last minute to win 11-0.
The “kid line,” freshman forwards Halverson, McCarthy and Scannell, showed up on Saturday, recording four of Wisconsin’s 11 total goals.
After the game, a special message from Knight congratulating O’Brien on her accomplishment played on the video board.
O’Brien credited her teammates for the record, saying, “I think it's more than just an individual award, and it should be celebrated for the whole team and each team that I've been on.”
Next week, the Badgers will face the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs in Duluth in the second round of the WCHA Tournament.
