For the first time in three seasons, Mark Johnson's ladies in red will not hoist the WCHA conference tournament trophy.
The Wisconsin women's hockey team fell 5-4 in overtime against Minnesota-Duluth in the WCHA title game Sunday, their fourth loss to the Bulldogs this season. Duluth coach Shannon Miller received her fourth conference title since 2000 with the victory.
UMD converted two of its first three shots into goals by freshman forward Laura Fridfinnson and junior defender Myriam Trepanier.
The Badgers did not get on the board until they were down 3-0 when senior wing Jinelle Zaugg put back a rebound with seconds left in the first.
Sophomore forward Emmanuelle Blais was fighting for position in front of the goal during a second period power play and managed to net a rebound that Wisconsin junior goaltender Jessie Vetter could not control, pushing the Bulldogs' lead back to three. Wisconsin then responded with two goals a minute apart, one from sophomore center Jasmine Giles in the slot and one from Zaugg off a nice feed from junior defender Rachel Bible at the point.
The five goals were a career high in goals allowed for Vetter.
With under three minutes left in the third Mallory Deluce forced overtime by scoring on a rebound after Duluth sophomore goalie Kim Martin was taken out of the play.
Both teams had good shots to try to end the game in overtime, including a Zaugg shot that was blocked by the Bulldogs' sophomore defender Heidi Pelttari when Martin was out of the net.
Freshman forward Haley Irwin ended it by burying a Pelttari shot that Vetter had stopped.
Wisconsin earned their berth in Sunday's conference title game by beating the Golden Gophers 4-3 Saturday. It was UW's third win over Minnesota in five tries this year.
Minnesota opened the scoring when junior forward Gigi Marvin slammed home a cross-ice pass, but Zaugg answered by sneaking the puck between the post and Gopher junior goaltender Kim Hanlon from a difficult angle.
The Badgers took the lead after freshman wing Hilary Knight stole the puck behind the Minnesota net and centered it to junior center Erika Lawler, who scored. The lead grew to two when Lawler and a pack of players crashed into the goal, dislodging the puck from Hanlon's glove into the net.
Marvin tipped a pass from the blue line into goal to cut into the lead. Freshman forward Jen Schoullis tied it when she got the puck off a strange bounce off the sideboard and had an open net in front of her.
Nine minutes into the third period Minnesota was penalized for having too many players on the ice. The penalty would prove costly as Zaugg buried a long shot off the draw to give the Badgers their winning margin.
The Gophers put the puck in the net with .1 seconds to go but the officials ruled that it had been directed in by a hand and was disallowed.
It was very impressive that she got it in that quick with .1 left, but I knew she got it with her hand,"" Vetter said.
Zaugg scored four goals over the weekend, which moves her into first place in the school record books with 86 career goals. She passed former Badger Meghan Hunter who graduated in 2004 with 84 goals.
The winner of the WCHA Championship has won six of the past seven national titles. Wisconsin will return to Minneapolis for the second time this season to play Minnesota in the first round of the NCAA Tournament next weekend.
