MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota continued its dominance over Wisconsin Friday evening, winning their national semifinal 3-1 before a packed house on home ice at Ridder Arena.
The Badgers have been unable to beat the Gophers in the past 16 meetings.
The win earns the Gophers a berth to the national championship game, their fourth trip in four years, on Sunday.
After the teams spent the first few minutes feeling each other out, Wisconsin took control, peppering Minnesota goalie Amanda Leveille and pushing out to an 8-1 lead in shots on goal. They were unable to take advantage of a slow start by the Gophers and by midway through the period, Minnesota settled in and found its footing.
The Badgers took the lead early in the second period when Emily Clark won a faceoff and centered a puck for NCAA Rookie of the Year Annie Pankowski. With less than a minute gone in the period, Pankowski one-timed it and beat Leveille to put the Badgers up 1-0.
Clark dominated faceoffs through the first period and a half. She won the first eight straight against Minnesota’s Kelly Pannek. From there, Minnesota coach Brad Frost adjusted his lines, putting his No. 1 against Wisconsin’s No. 2 when there was a draw in the Gophers’ defensive end.
“[We had a slow start because] we had some matchups that we wanted, line-wise, early on and they weren’t working,” Frost said. “Starting in the second period, once we put Hannah [Brandt]’s line on the Clark-Pankowski line, the tide turned a little bit.”
Wisconsin used the momentum from their goal to force some long shifts from Minnesota. The Gophers played their first line extensively against both of the Badgers’ top lines for most of the first two periods.
The tide changed as Minnesota began to put more pressure on Wisconsin, working the puck into the zone. The three Gopher goals came within 8:01 of each other, effectively ending any chance Wisconsin had to comeback.
Prior to Friday’s contest, the Badgers had been 24-1-2 when scoring the first goal.
Two straight odd-man rushes resulted in Minnesota getting multiple chances in front of the net. The Gophers capitalized the second time when Brandt slipped one past Wisconsin goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens. Dani Cameranesi and Maryanne Menafree assisted the goal and it was Cameranesi’s 100th point wearing the maroon and gold.
“[Cameranesi is] probably our most consistent player night in and night out,” said Frost. “Putting her, Hannah and Maryanne together has been huge for us all year, including tonight.”
Menafee tipped in a Megan Wolfe slap shot from the blue line, giving Minnesota the 2-1 lead. Wisconsin had its best chance to tie the game and gain back some of the momentum when Leveille failed to control a shot from the far side and the puck was left sitting in the crease with the back door wide open. Pankowski made a lunge for the puck, but Leveille recovered and made the glove save.
The Gophers’ third goal was a power-play tally for Pannek. Something was going to have to five with Minnesota’s top-ranked power play unit met Wisconsin’s historically successful penalty kill.
Frost said he told his team that if they scored a power play against Wisconsin, they were going to win.
“That power-play goal is always a tough one to take in a high-intensity game like we had here and the crowd kind of shut us down a bit,” Pankowski said. “That’s the game of hockey – it’s going to be up and down and it’s going to be up and down. It’s going to be our ability to respond and it didn’t happen how we wanted it to happen today.”
Wisconsin couldn’t mount much of anything to threaten the Gophers in the third period. The Badgers took their timeout with 3:22 left in the game, pulling Desbiens, but couldn’t find the back of the net. Minnesota hit the post and just missed wide on two empty-net chances that would have iced the game.
Wisconsin’s inability to beat Minnesota is a source of frustration for everyone in their locker room. Badgers’ coach Mark Johnson credits the Gophers’ top line with being able to fluster and beat his team.
“Similar to our game last Saturday, when you’re playing against world class athletes, at the end of the game you don’t want to see them on the score sheet,” said Johnson. “It just seems like the past two years, Hannah always seems to play a strong game against us. Rachel Ramsey plays a strong game against us. Cameranesi plays a strong game against us. Their elite players, their go-to players, seem to come up big in the big moments. When they needed a boost in today’s game, Hannah stepped up and scored then she set up a couple of more plays.
“That’s why she’s so special.”
