After sweeping St. Cloud State with a 9-2 victory on Feb. 21 and 4-2 win on Feb. 22, Wisconsin clinched their 11th WCHA regular season championship, tying Minnesota for the most all-time.
Saturday
Saturday’s first period began with a back and forth battle. Badgers forward Claire Enright got off the first shot on goal, but St. Cloud State goalie Jojo Chobak secured the pad save.
However, it didn’t take long for the Badgers to find the net. Just four minutes into the game, defenseman Laney Potter created a scoring opportunity by lodging the puck toward the net. The shot hit the left post, but Charlotte Pieckenhagen found herself in the right place at the right time and stuffed the puck into the goal to give the Badgers a 1-0 lead.
Even with the puck bouncing from zone to zone, St. Cloud State still had yet to take a shot on goal seven minutes into the first period. But a minute later, St. Cloud’s Sydney Lamb found a loose puck and sniped it behind Rhyah Stewart to tie the game. Even with a good shot from Lamb, Stewart gave up a rebound,a growing trend from the freshman.
With a tied game, both teams came out with more energy in the second half of the period. Wisconsin continued to pressure Chobak to no avail.
With 1:09 remaining in the period, the Badgers found themselves on the power play after Maélie Pion got called for hooking. It seemed as if the clock would run down the remainder of the period, but with seven tenths of a second remaining, forward Kelly Gorbatenko nudged the puck past Chobak to give the Badgers a 2-1 lead.
Early in the second period, Wisconsin captain Lacey Eden scored her 100th career goal after redirecting a puck shot by Emma Venusio. This puts her in a category only achieved by three other Badgers: Meghan Duggan, Brianna Decker and Hilary Knight.
“Those three are girls I’ve looked up to since I was a kid, and I’ve had the honor to play with two of them,” Eden said. “So it’s really cool to be on that short list."
After the electricity of Eden’s goal, Wisconsin found themselves sitting in St. Cloud State’s zone for a good four minutes, and just under halfway through the period, Gorbatenko grabbed the puck from Eden and shot on Chobak’s right side to give the Badgers a 4-1 lead.
As the clock slowly wound down, the Badgers continued to show their dominance, limiting the Huskies to just two second-period shots on goal with seven minutes remaining.
Wisconsin’s lead was then cushioned when Gorbatenko secured her first career hat trick with a backhanded goal, sending hats flying on the ice.
Pieckenhagen scored with just 9.8 seconds remaining on a shot off her own rebound, giving the Badgers a 6-1 lead heading into the third period.
Only 20 seconds into the third period, Vivian Jungles found Eden up the ice who snipped the shot to the top of the goal to make it 7-1.
Trying to muster up any momentum down a seven goal deficit, St. Cloud found themselves in Wisconsin's zone for a long period of time, but could not find control. The Huskies caught a break when Ava Murphy was sent to the box for a high-sticking with a little over 16 minutes remaining.
The power play gave the Huskies the boost they needed, as it took just 40 seconds for captain and defender Grace Wolfe to find an open shot for St. Cloud State’s second goal of the game.
In response, Wisconsin put extensive pressure on St. Cloud State goalie Emilia Kyrkkö, who switched in at the beginning of the period replacing Chobak. The pressure culminated in more hats on the ice, as Eden scored her third goal of the game with nine minutes remaining.
With a 9-2 lead, head coach Mark Johnson swapped Stewart for Chloe Baker with just under seven and half minutes remaining, giving the senior what will most likely be her last minutes on the LaBahn ice.
“When I say it’s one of our better games, it’s just a lot of the little things,” Johnson said. “Our faceoffs were good, you know not a ton of outnumbered situations.”
Sunday
After Saturday’s obliteration, Wisconsin knew a win on Sunday would clinch the WCHA regular season championship.
Early on, the Huskies played much more aggressively defensively, attacking the puck to clear the zone. That aggressiveness showed after defenseman Laney Potter was tripped up, and although the LaBahn crowd wanted the call, the referees put no hands up.
A few seconds later, Gorbatanko, set up in the crease, looked like she could tap the puck in for an early score but was pushed out at just the right time.
St. Cloud forward Svenja Voigt was sent to the box with 13:25 left to play in the period, but the Huskies cleared the puck out of the zone to refuse the Badgers solid chances to score.
Over a minute into the power play, St. Cloud’s Sydney Bryant and Wisconsin’s Maggie Scannell both found their way to the penalty box, which allowed the Badgers to retain a slight advantage.
Coming off a faceoff in the Huskies zone, Eden passed the puck across to Potter who had a clear lane to score the first goal of the game.
The period continued with more Wisconsin power plays, though none of them resulted in goals. In the final minute of play, the Huskies found themselves on the advantage but were not able to capitalize.
The second period started off on a penalty kill for the Badgers, but defense helped control the rest of the power play. Wisconsin regained control after defender MacKenzie Jones sniped a shot to the top right corner for her first career goal, giving the Badgers a 2-0 lead
With 11:24 remaining, the Badgers found themselves on yet another power play as Myah Krueger got called for hooking. Less than a minute into the power play, Eded, with some patience, found a clear path and sniped an unstoppable shot to add to Wisconsin’s lead.
Even with three goals on the board for Wisconsin, St. Cloud State’s defense presented a tough battle, forcing turnovers and clearing the zone.
With two minutes remaining in the period, McCarthy was called for her second penalty of the game, this time for slashing. With some momentum, Lamb shot from the blue line and Stewart was screened, resulting in her not having time to react before the puck found the back of the net.
Hall started the third period quickly, breaking away on a one-on-one to fight for a goal, making the score 4-1.
With Wisconsin aiming to close out the game, Eden was slammed into the boards with 15 minutes remaining. She was slow to get up but left the ice on her own will.
The Huskies found themselves on another advantage after Enright got called for slashing with 9:11 remaining. As the power play wound down, Sofianna Sundelin received a pass from behind the net and slipped the puck in behind Stewart to bring the Huskies within two goals.
While the goal brought St. Cloud more energy, it wasn’t enough for them to create scoring chances, even as they pulled their goalie.
With the 4-2 win against St. Cloud, Wisconsin finished their regular season with a 22-3-2 conference record and WCHA regular season championship.
Wisconsin is now tied with Minnesota for 11 WCHA regular season championships, the most in conference history.
“I give the players a lot of credit,” Johnson said. “You know, they got themselves ready for this last stretch that we were going to be in, and they met the challenge, and they were able to push themselves through. And at the end, they got rewarded with the trophy.”
The team couldn’t have gotten through the last four weeks without Eden, who has stepped up with multiple key players, Ava McNaughton, Caroline Harvey, Laila Edwards, Kirtsen Simms, Adéla Šapovalivová, participating in the Olympics.
“The leader of that group the last four weeks has been Lacey Eden. Not only on the ice but off the ice. I complemented her after the game, because she’s the one that led us. She just took the team on her back and led us to this finish line,” Johnson said.
Now, the Badgers squad that has been known as the “B Squad” will be joined by the five Olympians at practice Tuesday, when they prepare to take on Bemidji St. Friday at LaBahn Arena in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.
