No. 1 Wisconsin greatly improved its odds of a fourth-straight WCHA regular season title when Maddie Rolfes scored at 14:59 of the second period, and the Badgers derailed all attempts at a rally by second-ranked Minnesota in a 2-1 win on Friday.
“We thought we had one before that, but they disallowed it; they said it was kicked in,” Wisconsin (21-2-0, 11-2-0-0 WCHA) coach Mark Johnson said. “To come back a few minutes later and win a faceoff and stay ahead, which is always important in these type of games.”
The Wisconsin fourth line hasn’t generated a ton of offense this season, but it was able to establish possession after an offensive-zone draw, and defenseman Rolfes connected for her second goal of the season, with sophomores Brette Pettet and Delaney Drake each earning her third assist.
“Rolfes unfortunately has scored two or three of those exact same goals from the exact same spot, just in different rinks,” coach Brad Frost said. “It’s frustrating that a puck like that from the half wall finds a way through.”
The Gophers (21-3-1, 11-3-1-0 WCHA) weren’t able to seriously threaten goaltender Kristen Campbell the rest of the way, as they were held to eight shots in the final frame and 20 for the game, and weren’t able to get the puck deep enough to pull Alex Gulstene for an extra attacker.
“In the third period, we tightened things up, and I thought we eliminated a lot of things,” Johnson said.
Early on, Wisconsin eliminated any lift that Minnesota might have gotten from the large crowd announced at 3,196 when Emily Clark converted with 5:20 elapsed and her team on a power play.
“That was just a case of a scrum in front of the net, and the puck bouncing out, and just bearing down on it and getting the goal,” Clark said. “I was able to get my head and up and I just saw a little bit of net and was able to get it up in tight.”
Minnesota’s Nicole Schammel erased that lead just 18 seconds after the first intermission when she broke in two on one.
“On that particular play, I was thinking shot,” Schammel said. “They were cheating over to the pass, and I’ve scored on that shot a lot in practice, so it was nice for it to go in in a game.”
That was one of the few clean looks at the net for her team, and Frost believed that was partly because the visitors did a better job on 50-50 pucks.
“Their second player was getting to it a lot faster than ours was, both offensively and defensively,” he said.
The teams conclude their season series on Saturday at 4:07 pm CST, and Wisconsin will try to move into the lead in conference points with two games in hand.
“They’ve got some depth compared to last year; we’ve got some depth compared to last year,” Johnson said. “The matchups are pretty good, so it’s just a matter of going out and executing.”
