No. 1 Wisconsin’s hopes of becoming the first team in WCHA history to win four consecutive regular season titles were dashed on the season’s final day, as the Badgers (18-4-2 WCHA 28-4-2 overall) were only able to manage a tie against No. 10 Ohio State (12-10-2, 18-12-2).
For the second consecutive day, Ohio State followed up a 65-minute tie with a narrow shootout victory.
“I think people are disappointed because when you fall a bit short, it stings,” head coach Mark Johnson said.
The Buckeyes jumped ahead just 23 seconds into the game on a goal from sophomore left wing Emma Maltais, assisted by fellow forward linesman and sophomore Tatum Skaggs. The Burlington, Ontario, native slipped past Badger defenders and redshirt junior goaltender Kristen Campbell to score the first goal of the game after the Badgers produced a scoring chance at the opposite end.
With junior left wing Alexis Mauermann out on a penalty for cross-checking, Ohio State had the chance to score on a power play, which they failed to capitalize on. Mauermann had a beautiful shot on goal moments after she came back onto the ice, but freshman goaltender Andrea Braendli stopped Wisconsin’s efforts to keep the score 1-0 at the end of the first period.
“The big thing is to not get frustrated,’’ Johnson said. “If you’re not getting chances, then you can get concerned. But right now, we’re getting an amount of chances, we had 90 attempts today or whatever the number ended up being.”
Halfway through the second period, Wisconsin lost senior forward Sam Cogan to a hand injury and squandered a power play opportunity. 12 minutes into this period, the Buckeyes scored again against Campbell, this time with sophomore forward Liz Schepers exploiting the Badgers on a power play while junior center Abby Roque was out on an interference penalty.
“I think we took an unnecessary penalty in the second people and they capitalized on that, but if you take that away from the period, we created some energy, but we just didn’t get the puck in the net,” said Johnson. “The opportunities were there.”
Although Wisconsin had outshot the Buckeyes 26 to 11 at the time of the second goal, their struggles against Ohio State goaltender Andrea Braendli continued from Friday night’s game.
Under five minutes left to go in the third period, freshman right wing Sophie Shirley slammed a puck past Braendli to cut the deficit in half. LaBahn was deafening with shouts from the crowd, consisting of “One, we want more!” aimed at the Badgers.
“In the third period, the sixth of the weekend, the kids are a little bit tired and they’re looking for a spark,” Johnson said. “It took us a while to get a goal, but when we did, it sparked us, and then we got a second one. I give them credit for that and giving themselves a chance to try and win it in overtime.”
The combination of Shirley’s goal and LaBahn’s energy set the Badgers on fire, bringing them another goal scored by redshirt senior center forward Emily Clark with under two minutes left in the third period.
“[After my goal], I think that little extra hope of getting it tied up went a long way,” said Clark. “But I think we fed off [the crowd’s] energy for sure and a weight was lifted off our shoulders. We weren’t holding onto our sticks quite as tight and we had a couple tough bounces on the six-on-five [during overtime] or at least get it set up, but that’s stuff for us to work on in the coming weeks.”
Wiith the scored tied up in under five minutes, the series was sent into overtime and then into a shoot out, a chilling deja-vú moment for both teams from the night before.
And, an even worse moment for the Badgers when the Buckeyes won the shootout. Again.
“At this point, you gotta have faith in the hockey gods,” Clark said. “I am a little superstitious but bounces have got to come our way eventually, so I’m proud of the heart we showed through the last period here, and I’m looking forward to next weekend when we have two more games at LaBahn.”
Narrowly missing out on the possibility of a record-setting conference title and the accompanying first-round conference tournament bye, the Badgers will now face St. Cloud State in a best-of-three home series beginning Friday.
