MINNEAPOLIS — No. 3 Wisconsin (24-3-1 WCHA, 32-3-1 overall) continued its postseason dominance versus Minnesota-Duluth (10-17-1 WCHA, 15-20-1 overall) Saturday afternoon at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. After a slow first period, the Badgers turned up the heat and decimated the Bulldogs 5-0 in the WCHA Final Face-Off, adding yet another shutout to their impressive season.
When asked about their team’s record setting ‘D’ zone and continuing success, the whole Wisconsin program has virtually the same response: It’s not something they ever envisioned.
“I mean it’s not something that we are setting out to do. It’s not a goal. It’s not a focus,” sophomore forward Annie Pankowski said. “I just think it goes to show the hard work we put in.”
“I don’t know it’s not something we think about, like [Pankowski] mentioned, it just happens. It just shows how consistent we have been since the beginning of the season. Playoffs too,” junior goaltender Anne-Renée Desbiens added. “If you were asking me at the beginning of the year I would have said ‘That’s not even a thing.' I didn’t think it was possible. Seriously, it’s just amazing how the team and everyone in front of me have been doing. It’s not something I planned on doing.”
The emotion of the playoffs seemed to initially affect each respective squad, which left both units searching for their own rhythm and some sort of momentum. It seemed the pendulum could have swung either way until UW’s freshman defenseman Mikaela Gardner snuck a puck past UMD’s senior goaltender Kayla Black at the 7:34 mark in the first frame.
The Badgers took the 1-0 lead and never looked back, adding four more goals via four separate Badgers in the second period, putting the Wisconsin up 5-0 and cementing its seat in the WCHA championship game tomorrow.
Senior captain Courtney Burke got the party started early when she lit the lamp only 21 seconds into the frame off an assist from sophomore Emily Clark. The walls didn’t fall in on UMD until the final five minutes of the second period, when the Cardinal and White scored three goals in approximately five minutes.
“I think we loosened up a little bit I think always when you get a chance to play a playoff game and its away from home and its not in our home atmosphere it’s a little different,” Pankowski said. “It feels a little different anyway. So I think that once we were able to kind of just take a breath and loosen up on our sticks a little and just kind of play our game. We got a lot better.”
Tomorrow the Badgers will hope to carry that momentum onto the ice when they take on the Minnesota Gophers. The last time the two perennial powerhouses met, the Badgers were swept by Minnesota in the very same arena they will be skating in tomorrow afternoon.
“You don’t often get a lot of chances to play for a trophies,” UW head coach Mark Johnson said. “We’re excited about the opportunity.”
