It was a special day in Madison Saturday as Wisconsin Women’s Hockey Coach Mark Johnson will become the first-ever Badger to have his jersey retired at tonight’s men’s hockey game. The festivities started early for Johnson, as his women cruised to a 7-2 win over the Minnesota State Mavericks.
Johnson was worried the extra distractions may cause difficulty for his squad, but senior captain Annie Pankowski said Saturday’s game was the most comfortable the team had felt on the ice in a few weeks.
“We had an uphill battle the past two weeks,” she said. “We weren’t really sure what we were missing or what we left out during the week, and we kind of got back to the fun and the simple joy of it this week during practice and it clicked today.”
Freshman Nicole LaMantia scored just 1:42 into the game, tallying her first career goal with a wrister from the top of the right faceoff circle that floated over goalie Chloe Crosby’s left shoulder to put the Badgers up 1-0, settling any possible nerves and setting the tone for the game.
With the win, the Badgers extended their win streak over Minnesota State to 24 games, outscoring the Mavericks 119-12 in the process.
Despite the final score, there were things to like about the loss for Minnesota State, which averages just 1.78 goals per game this season. The Badgers have been incredibly stingy on defense, allowing 1.18 goals per game. The Mavericks hadn’t scored twice on the Badgers since November of 2014.
MSU had 38 blocks in the game, but coach John Harrington said that was just the nature of defending a team that has as many shot attempts as Wisconsin does. He was happy that his team made the most of the opportunities that they had, but he hopes to see his team with the puck on their sticks more in Sunday’s series finale.
“We have to do a better job of winning stick battles with the puck,” said Harrington. “We got in a lot of situations where we were jockeying with the puck and not trying to close on the puck. A team like Wisconsin, you give them a lot of time with the puck, they’re going to make a play. We have to close a little bit better, and we have to win the puck when we get there. We’ve got to be willing to skate with the puck. There were times where we were just content to get it somewhere else.”
Senior Emily Clark doubled the Badgers’ lead a few minutes later with a great individual effort. She won the puck in the slot and fought off multiple Mavericks before turning around and hitting the roof with a sniped shot to make it 2-0.
MSU closed the gap on a power-play goal from senior Rebekah Kolstad. The Mavericks had a number of chances in front of the net as the Badgers could not clear the puck. Kolstad’s shot from the right of Wisconsin junior goalie Kristen Campbell’s right deflected off her pads up into the net.
The Mavericks had a tough stretch with three penalties that overlapped, and the Badgers took advantage as junior Abby Roque became the 25th Badger to record 100 points in her career on a tip-in from senior Maddie Rolfes to make it 31. Junior Mekenzie Steffen scored 87 seconds later from the point to extend the lead to 4-1.
The Badgers did not let up in the third. Pankowski scored her team-leading 16th goal 1:17 into the third period to extend the Badgers lead to 5-1. Sophie Shirley added on with a breakaway where she out-skated all five Mavericks to get in on Minnesota State Crosby and easily backhand it into the net.
The Mavericks did not go down without a fight, however. Freshman Claire Butorac scored her first collegiate goal on a breakaway of her own as she broke down the ice after gathering a loose puck in her own defensive zone and taking off down the ice, where she beat Campbell to make it 6-2.
The Badgers suffered a few defensive breakdowns that led to Maverick opportunities, but Pankowski knows that those breakdowns came from the offense trying to find a way to the net.
“When you get a team like Mankato, who likes to pack it in, it comes down to us. You have to get creative, you have to switch lanes, you have to find ways to get pucks to the net, you have to find lanes and in doing that, you’re going to run into the moments when you miss a drop pass or you miss something else because it’s not something we do every day. So something like that, it shows that we’re trying to make plays.”
Freshman Britta Curl closed out the scoring as she found the top shelf from the far faceoff dot to beat Crosby and make it 7-2.
Points are crucial for the Badgers this weekend, as Minnesota sits idle on a bye week. With Saturday’s win, they are a single point behind the Gophers for first place in the WCHA. The regular-season champion gets a first-round bye in the conference tournament.
The two teams return to the ice Sunday at 2:00 p.m. to finish their season series.
