Two periods into Friday night's first round WCHA playoff game between Wisconsin and St. Cloud State, there was still a chance the impossible might happen.
The top-ranked Badgers, winners of 30 regular season games and regular season conference champions, held just a one-goal lead over St. Cloud state, losers of 31 regular season games and regular season conference cellar dwellers, after 40 minutes of play. The idea of the lowly Huskies topping Wisconsin was by no means likely, but the game was certainly closer than anyone at the Eagle's Nest Ice Arena in Verona thought it would be.
Then, just over a minute into the period, junior forward Carolyne Prevost stick handled around the St. Cloud defense, put Wisconsin up 5-3 and kicked off a five-goal third period. Those 20 minutes flipped the script on the first step in the Badgers' playoff journey, taking it from tighter than expected to predictably one-sided.
Wisconsin followed up Friday's 9-3 win with a more consistently dominant victory Saturday night, propelling the team into the next round of conference playoffs, the WCHA Final Face-off in Minneapolis March 4-5.
""Whether it's a good season or you're disappointed in your season, everyone starts off fresh,"" Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson said Friday night. ""I would anticipate us going back tomorrow and playing a little bit better than we did today.""
The Badgers scored 15 seconds into the first period Friday, indicating the lopsided affair most expected. But the Huskies stuck with Wisconsin for the first two periods, before UW's defense got a grip on St. Cloud, allowing just two shots on goal in the third period.
""They got a lot of bounces and a lot of things went their way because they caught us breaking out of the zone too early and not playing a solid defensive zone,"" junior forward Hilary Knight said.
Wisconsin had no such defensive problems Saturday night as the Badgers took better care of the puck in their own zone, and freshman goaltender Alex Rigsby seemed to get over the nerves of her first playoff start. With their defensive troubles behind them, Wisconsin cruised to a 5-1 victory, ending St. Cloud's frustrating season and advancing their own to the next round of the conference playoffs.
The Badgers will face North Dakota in the WCHA semifinals Friday.
