The No. 1 Wisconsin women’s hockey team won an instant classic last Saturday before handily dispatching the visiting No. 4/5 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs last Sunday, the Badgers’ first games against a ranked team this season.
‘I just can’t believe what I’m seeing right now’
The Bulldogs started Saturday morning strong with an oppressive forecheck and a few highlight reel saves from goaltender Ève Gascon.
With about eight minutes left in the first period, Duluth defender Tova Henderson was assessed a tripping penalty, marking the first of 70 total penalty minutes during the series.
Wisconsin’s power play looked good, but Gascon proved to be too much to overcome, and the Badgers left the power play scoreless.
Duluth opened the scoring when forward Thea Johansson beat junior goaltender Ava McNaughton with 2:30 left in the period, giving Wisconsin their first deficit of the young season.
2:30 into the second period, Gascon held onto the puck way too long behind the net, allowing Badger forwards Lacey Eden and Kirsten Simms to box her in, forcing a turnover and leading to an easy game-tying goal from Simms.
With thirteen minutes left in the second, Duluth forward Caitlin Kraemer hooked sophomore forward Maggie Scannell in the neck and was given a two minute hooking minor.
Wisconsin and Duluth traded power plays for the next ten minutes, but neither managed to break the tie.
Duluth junior Grace Sadura beat McNaughton with four minutes left in the second, but her shot hit the crossbar. The Badgers took the puck all the way down the ice leading to a goal by junior forward Cassie Hall.
Disaster struck the Badgers over the next few minutes as senior superstars Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards exited the game after a puck to the neck and hit along the boards, respectively. Harvey returned in the third period. Edwards did not.
Duluth was given a too many players on the ice penalty with thirty seconds left in the period, but Simms was given a roughing penalty for a scrum after the period ended, cutting the power play short.
Five minutes into the third period, Kraemer once again hooked Scannell in the neck, and immediately after serving her two minute minor, got a one-on-one with senior defender Vivian Jungels and ripped one past McNaughton from the high slot to tie the game.
Bad became worse for the Badgers five minutes later when junior defender Ava Murphy turned the puck over behind McNaughton’s net. McNaughton stopped Duluth freshman Molly Cole’s first shot, but Cole got her own rebound and buried it to take a one-goal lead.
With two minutes left, head coach Mark Johnson successfully challenged for a major penalty after Duluth forward Rae Mayer elbowed freshman forward Adéla Šapovalivová, giving the Badgers life once again.
The Badgers, now with a 6-on-4 personnel advantage after emptying the net, were vicious.
With only 20 seconds left in the game, Harvey found the puck free in the slot. With Gascon out of position after a save moments before, Harvey found the back of the net, tying the game at 3 and practically blowing the roof off LaBahn Arena.
With 8.6 seconds left, Hall turned around and took a shot from one knee that somehow made it past Gascon, scoring the game winner and leaving B1G+ announcer Joey Bonadonna unable to believe what he was seeing.
After the game, Hall said trailing is “definitely something we’re not very used to,” but said her team never gave up.
Wisconsin runs away in game 2
Sunday’s game was largely devoid of the tension present on Saturday, but it was somehow even more physical. The two teams combined for 18 penalties and 47 penalty minutes.
The physicality started almost immediately with the first penalty coming after defender Kate Kosobud hooked Šapovalivová five minutes into the game.
Senior forward Claire Enright committed a hooking penalty herself three minutes later. Sophomore defender Emma Venusio committed an interference minor about a minute after that, giving Duluth 43 seconds of 5-on-3 power play time.
Johansson tripped Šapovalivová with four minutes left in the first period. After Šapovalivová got into some post-whistle extracurriculars with four Bulldogs, both Šapovalivová and Duluth defender Ida Karlsson were sent to the box as well.
The two teams continued to trade penalties, and right after a tripping minor from Duluth’s Ashley Messier ended, Šapovalivová threaded the needle between Karlsson and Gascon to find junior defender Laney Potter in the crease and score Wisconsin’s second goal.
With 1:30 left in the second period, Šapovalivová redirected a shot from Harvey to put Wisconsin up three and collect the Badgers’ second power play goal of the game.
With ten seconds left in the period, Murphy and freshman forward Charlotte Pieckenhagen were given minor penalties. This gave Duluth a full two minutes of 5-on-3 power play, but they couldn’t convert.
Johansson was ejected with a little under six minutes left in the game after checking Šapovalivová into the boards from behind. Wisconsin capitalized on the penalty, scoring the final goal of the game when Eden connected on a one-timer from Simms in the left circle.
Kraemer, after hooking Scannell in the neck twice the day before, let her frustration get the better of her, throwing Scannell to the ground and earning a cross-checking minor
A scrum in front of McNaughton’s net with under two minutes left led to a pair of cross-checking minors for Simms and Duluth’s Linnea Natt och Dag, bringing the penalty minute total to the vaunted 47 mark.
McNaughton was perfect, saving 22 shots to earn the 4-0 shutout victory.
On October 17th, the Badgers headed to Schenectady, New York, to participate in the 2025 edition of the Icebreaker Tournament
