Long, short, steady Badgers win women’s semifinal
DULUTH, MN. — As Wisconsin’s quest for a third straight Women’s NCAA hockey championship races toward Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. finish line, the Badger odyssey should be titled “The long, the short, and the steady.Ââ€
Those ingredients worked again in Thursday’s 4-1 semifinal victory over No. 1 ranked Harvard, before 3,023 well-entertained fans at the DECC. The long is Jinelle Zaugg, a 6-foor-1 senior wing who scored her 23rd and 24th goals; the short is 5-foot-0 junior center Erika Lawler, whose sparkplug goal ignited a 3-goal second-period outburst that overturned Harvard’s early 1-0 lead; the steady is junior goaltender Jessie Vetter, who simply never has an off-night, and inspires the calm precision of the entire team.
For the Badgers (29-8-3), who rose from the No. 5 seed to eliminate No. 4 Minnesota in the NCAA quarterfinals last week, the victory over No. 1 Harvard leaves only one remaining obstacle, although it’s a formidable one – No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth, which knocked off No. 3 New Hampshire 3-2 in Thursday’s second semifinal. The Badgers have several reasons to feel they owe the Bulldogs one, after losing 5-4 in overtime to UMD in the WCHA playoff final to expand the season deficit against the Bulldogs to 1-4.
On the other hand, Wisconsin beat UMD 4-1 in last year’s NCAA final for the second Badger NCAA title in succession, and only one other team has ever won three straight NCAA women’s hockey trophies, and that was UMD, in the first three NCAA tournaments ever held.
Coach Mark Johnson’s words were careful to his players after the first period, when the Badgers trailed Harvard 1-0, and looked sorely in need of some inspiration. There were no harsh words, no fire and brimstone. Johnson told them simply to relax and enjoy themselves. “I told the team it’s fun to participate, but we came here to do more than participate,†said Johnson. “My whole mission is to get them to relax and play the way they can, the way they have all year.Ââ€
Actions, however, were needed to support the coach’s words, and Erika Lawler’s name and action are one and the same. “The first shift of any period is always big,†said Lawler. “You want to get everybody going – back in the game.Ââ€
Lawler was asked if she is really 5-feet tall, because she makes UMD’s 5-foot-4 Emmanuelle Blais look like a monster by comparison. “She IS a monster,†cracked Lawler, whose unassisted goal opened the second period, and changed the game completely around.
After the puck dropped to start the second period, Lawler pounced on a loose puck, swung out from behind the goal line and scored at 0:18 – tying the game and untying the knotted up Badger attack. “Erika’s goal at the start of the second period changed our energy level, and our bench,†said Johnson. “It calmed everybody down, and when we got two delayed penalties, we capitalized.Ââ€
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Harvard came into the semifinals with the No. 1 rank and a superb 32-1. The only loss was 4-1 to New Hampshire, which also was the only time the Crimson had given up more than two goals in a game. Until Thursday. Harvard gained the upper hand when Jenny Brine deflected in a power-play goal at 4:42 of the first period. But Vetter stopped everything after that, including several more chances at the goal-mouth by Brine.
Lawler’s goal not only was the equalizer, it was almost immediately followed by another goal at 2:25 by Jasmine Giles, and then Zaugg’s first, at 6:56.
Harvard coach Katey Stone called time out right then, and while the Crimson got settled down, the damage was done.
“My hat’s off to Wisconsin,†said Stone, whose team’s dream season ended 32-2. “They’re highly battle-tested I’d say, but I thought we were in it until they made it 4-1. We definitely weren’t as sharp as we’ve been. When they scored those three goals, we backed up a little bit, and that’s not the kind of team we are.Ââ€
At 3-1, Harvard was still a threat, but at 3:15 of the third period, Zaugg finished a picture-perfect scoring play that swept from end to end. Mallory Deluce started it with a rink-wide pass to Meghan Duggan, breaking up the right boards. Duggan carried into the Crimson zone, passing with perfect precision across the slot where Zaugg, coming off the left wing, smacked a one-timer past goaltender Christina Kessler.
“We’re excited,†said Johnson. “We get to practice tomorrow. And we get another chance to play, in the last game of the year, and another opportunity to play for a championship.Ââ€
And that captured the long and short of it. And the steady.
UMD beats Lakers,, adversity to gain women’s semis
If you wanted to check off the reasons why the University of Minnesota-Duluth women’s hockey team would fail to reach this week’s Frozen Four, there were several.
They were young and surprisingly rattled against Mercyhurst in their NCAA regional match; they fell behind by 1-0, 2-1, and then 3-2 in the third period; they were still without freshman star Iya Gavrilova, who has been held out of a dozen games for an NCAA investigation into whether she was eligible to continue leading the WCHA in scoring; they lost Saara Tuominen to a left knee injury, after the recently returned captain had spent two months recovering from a right knee injury.
But there is something about this Bulldogs team, some undefined chemistry that seems to prompt top players to come through and unsung players to rise up and also come through, and it happened again against Mercyhurst, when Karine Demeule and Emmanuelle Blais came up with the biggest of big plays, and UMD toppled the Lakers 5-4.
The victory sends UMD (32-4-1) into Thursday’s NCAA Frozen Four semifinals against New Hampshire (32-4-1), a 3-2 overtime winner against St. Lawrence in its regional, at the 8 p.m. Nightcap at the DECC. Wisconsin (28-8-3) which beat Minnesota 3-2 on Mallory Deluce’s overtime goal, will face top-ranked Harvard (32-1), which whipped Dartmouth 5-1 to reach Duluth.
Every team faces adversity, and every team has its stars and its unsung heroes, but none of the other four finalists pulled all of those elements out of a hat and just kept winning, the way coach Shannon Miller did with the Bulldogs
“It was an awesome game for us,†said Miller. “It was huge, because it was do-or-die. We have a young team that had a little trouble with the pressure Mercyhurst put on us. We had qujite a fight in our own zone.
“Our players were so tight, it almost cost us the game,†said Miller, who recognized the problem and understood it immediately. “I’ve been through so many big games, as have my assistants, Caroline Ouellette and Julie Chu, but this team is so young, they haven’t been through games like this. After the first period, I just said yes, it’s a big game, but let’s relax and try to have some fun.Ââ€
Certainly, sophomore goaltender Kim Martin has been the mainstay in all of UMD’s success this season, and she remains a deserving member of the three finalists for the Patty Katzmaier Award. She was under heavy fire from Mercyhurst, but she came through with 25 saves, many of them crucial, despite giving up more goals than she usually allowed in two weekends.
In Gavrilova’s absence, fellow freshmen Haley Irwin and Laura Fridfinnson have come through as scoring leaders, and Fridfinnson came through again, with two big goals, but otherwise the big guns were stopped by Laura Hosier and the Mercyhurst defense. Tuominen, since returning to action and getting up to speed the last three weeks, hurt her knee in the first period. She told Miller she would try to play with the knee braced in the second period, but should move from center to wing, and after two shifts in the second period, she left the game. Her status for the Frozen Four is doubtful, at best.
UMD’s defense had been thoroughly impressive in carrying the Bulldogs past Wisconsin in a 5-4 overtime thriller in the WCHA Final Faceoff playoff final, but that defensive corps, as a group, was set back on its heels and turned the puck over to the dangerous Mercyhurst forwards with frightening and uncharacteristic regularity – part of those opening jitters. It started on the opening shift, when Meghan Agosta – also a Katsmaier finalist – got free for a shot, and scored with her own rebound while all along in front after just 22 seconds.
If the Bulldogs were stunned, the Irwin-Blais-Fridfinnson line was ignited to action. Blais sped up the right side and jammed a goal-mouth pass that Fridfinnson stuffed past Hosier at 0:48. Any idea of a battle of defenses was gone in the 1-1 opening minute. It settled down after that, but Mercyhurst went back ahead 2-1 when Valerie Chouinard scored a power-play goal at 18:37, converting her own rebound.
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The Bulldogs, at that point, looked rattled. When Fridfinnson’s solo dash midway through the second period was halted by Agosta’s hook, and UMD’s power play failed to click, things looked bleak. It got bleaker when Erin Olson went off for a penalty at 14:07. That’s when Demeule came up with possibly the play of the game.
Demeule, the only UMD senior, has been a vital role-player for the Bulldogs all season. She took over the captaincy with Tuominen out, and while she is not the swiftest skater, or possesses the hardest shot, she is an invaluable source of inspiration, which was never more evident than in the Mercyhurst game.
Out on the penalty kill, Demeule’s shot ended up behind the net. Agosta, who Miller called the best player on the ice in the game, went behind her net to start a power-play rush. Demeule sensed a chance and went after her. Agosta looked up, and in that moment the game turned.
“I had the puck between my stick and skate just off the boards,†said Agosta. “But I couldn’t quite get my stick on it.Ââ€
Demeule swiped it clean, and swung out on the left side of the net for a quick wraparound try that went through the legs of the startled goaltender. “It wasn’t a garbage goal, for once,†smiled Demeule after scoring her 15th goal of the season. “It probably was the most important of my goals. It changes the tempo of the game a little to score shorthanded.Ââ€
Miller said: “Karine’s goal on the penalty kill was the best goal of the game – it changed the entire game for us.Ââ€
It tied the game 2-2, and sent it to the third period with UMD in good position. But the UMD defense again lapsed, casually going back after the puck and allowing Agosta to speed right past them all and get to the puck first. She zipped a pass out to center point, and Natalie Payne beat Martin with a screened shot at 3:08, restoring Mercyhurst to a 3-2 lead.
As Miller juggled lines, giving extra duty to Tawni Mattila and Demeule, the Bulldogs extra work on special teams proved valuable again. Irwin had the puck deep o a power play and got the puck to Fridfinnson, who scored her second of the game and 20th of the season for a 3-3 tie at 8:19.
Then it was up to Blais, a speedy sophomore playing with freshmen Fridfinnson and Irwin, and she was positioned in front to deflect Heidi Pelttari’s screened shot from the right point, for a power-play goal at 10:21 that gave UMD a 4-3 lead – its first of the game. Mercyhurst regrouped during a timeout, and charged again, but with 3:07 remaining, Blais got loose up the right boards, with three defenders falling back. With a burst of speed, Blais cut across the slot and outflanked the defense, cutting back toward the net and snapping a shot into the left edge for her 16th goal and a 5-3 lead.
“I don’t know how I got by them, I just tried to use my speed,†said Blais. “After I cut to the left, at the end, it was just the goalie left. This is so exciting – the most exciting. They’re a really good team. No team is going to give it to you easy, but we played so well. I got the hard hat, but a lot of players could have had it. Our third line played super.Ââ€
That was Mattila, Demeule and Erin Olson. Mercyhurst, the seventh seed in the NCAA pairings, kept coming hard, and it was then that a subtle play by Demeule proved her value beyond the score sheet. UMD had escaped its zone, and a couple of deflected passes got the puck sliding toward the Mercyhurst blue line, while several Bulldogs went for a change. Demeule put all her energy into a last burst, and dived across the blue line to poke the puck ahead, so it would go deep into the zone and out of immediate danger.
As the final seconds ticked away, the Bulldogs could finally relax – although they shouldn’t have. Kim Martin was left alone when Vicki Bendus snapped one last shot that caught the right edge of the netting just as the horn sounded. The goal was ruled good, at 19:59, although time was up. It closed the final score to 5-4, and left the exhausted but happy Bulldogs realizing they can’t take anything for granted.
The Bulldogs stay at home for the Frozen Four, and while New Hampshire and Harvard will offer as much or more challenge than the familiar Badgers, the last time UMD was home for the national tournament they won their third in a row, beating Harvard in overtime in the third NCAA national women’s tournament ever conducted.
UMD home, Badgers face Gophers in women’s NCAA
The University of Minnesota-Duluth captured the women’s hockey version of a hat trick by winning the WCHA-Women’s Final Faceoff, right after winning the WCHA regular season title, and then gaining a home-ice slot for the NCAA women’s hockey tournament. The news was also good – but with an asterisk – for both Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The two-time defending NCAA champion Badgers and Gophers joined UMD to give the WCHA-Women their anticipated three entries in the eight-team NCAA field, but it came at the price of facing off against each other in a first-round NCAA pairing.
The NCAA selection committee’s pairings are believed to have followed precisely the rating of the NCAA Selection Committee. Other ratings can list what they want subjectively, but the NCAA’s own rating is the one that matters, and while the committee could have altered its rating to avoid familiar foes from meeting, it apparently stayed on form.
That meant No. 1 Harvard would be at home against No. 8 Dartmouth, No. 2 UMD will be host to No. 7 Mercyhurst, No. 3 New Hampshire is at home against No. 6 St. Lawrence, and No. 4 Minnesota is at home against No. 5 Wisconsin. All four match-ups are one-game eliminations, to be held Saturday.
There are no easy matchups, no “gimmes†into next week’s Frozen Four in Duluth. Obviously, Harvard (31-1) is favored over Dartmouth (18-8-6), and New Hampshire (32-3-1) is favored over St. Lawrence (28-9-1), but UMD’s superb 31-4-1 cinches nothing against a Mercyhurst (26-7-3) team that was rated No. 1 when UMD tied and beat them 3-1 in an early-season series.
And Minnesota (27-6-4), of course, got the least of the bargains for being one of the top four seeds, because even home ice doesn’t make the Gophers chore easy against Wisconsin (27-8-3), which has lost to the Gophers only once in five meetings – completing a 3-1-1 mark with a 4-3 thriller in the WCHA semifinals, before losing the 5-4 overtime battle to UMD.
Minnesota’s loss in the Final Faceoff in Duluth was created by two goals apiece from 6-foot-1 Jinelle Zaugg and 5-foot-0 Erika Lawler, and came despite outshooting the Badgers 28-21, while the Gophers were led by two goals from Gigi Marvin, whose last-second try for the equalizer was disallowed for being batted in by hand by teammate Whitney Graft.
“That was the best game I’ve seen her play in three years,†said coach-of-the-year Brad Frost of his ace junior. “She was flying, playing strong defense, and creating offense every shift.Ââ€
As for the pairings, Frost had mixed emotions. “Our goal was to finish in the top four so we could host the first round of NCAAs,†he said. “But up until this point, there had never been interconference matches in the first round. For sure, the WCHA wanted to avoid playing each other. On one hand, this pairing prevents the WCHA from having any chance of getting three of the Frozen Four spots, but on the other hand, it also assures one of us of getting to the Frozen Four.Ââ€
For that matter, Harvard and Dartmouth are both ECAC teams, which means two of the four pairings will be between teams from the same conference. Also, UMD has played both Mercyhurst and St. Lawrence – and, in fact, the lower rating of both those teams was at least partially due to UMD sweeping two games at St. Lawrence, and tying and beating Mercyhurst.
The Minnesota contingent was concerned that if Wisconsin had beaten UMD in the title game of the Final Faceoff, the Badgers might have slipped ahead of Minnesota. That would have given the Badgers home ice in Madison, and perhaps sent the Gophers out east for a quarterfinal game. Everybody concerned anticipated the NCAA would, as usual, attempt to avoid interconference matchups, or games between teams that had played each other already, but the pairings proved otherwise.
It is also a factor that the women don’t generate the same sort of revenue the men’s NCAA tournament and Frozen Four do, and the pairings now assure three bus trips with only Mercyhurst needikng to fly to Duluth. For the Bulldogs, that game means they will be able to stay in the friendly confines of the DECC, where they happened to play their last two league series, the first round of league playoffs, the Final Faceoff, and now the NCAA quarterfinal, and then the Frozen Four. By then, the ice will come out of the DECC about the same time the ice goes out of the Lake Superior harbor.
Unusual goals at the crease were the order of the weekend at the Final Faceoff. UMD jumped ahead of St. Cloud State 4-0 with a three-goal burst midway through the second period, as Elin Holmlov and Haley Irwin scored twice each in an eventual 9-0 romp.
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Along with Graft’s batted-in disallowed goal, the second semifinal featured Lawler scoring a goal when she crashed into the Minnesota net and the puck went in off her body as she slid into goalie Kim Hanlon.
In the final, UMD jumped ahead 3-0 in the first period, with the third goal coming as Holmlov, at the right of the net, got her stick on the puck and managed to pull it back and tuck it in while falling face down on the ice. UMD raced off to 3-0 and 4-1 leads, but The Badgers rallied back, finally attaining a 4-4 tie when Meghan Duggan slid into goaltender Kim Martin, jarring the puck loose, and Mallory Deluce rapped the suddenly uncovered puck in at the crease with 2:49 remaining, for a 4-4 tie.
In what almost appears to be an effort to cut down on icings, the officials let about a dozen missed long passes go without calling icing. The last of those bothered the Badgers, because the puck never came out of the Badger zone, with Heidi Pelttieri shooting, and freshman Haley Irwin retrieving the blocked shot and sending a screened wrist shot past Jessie Vetter at 6:32 of overtime for a 5-4 victory and the league playoff title.
The all-tournament team consisted of Irwin, who had 3-2—5 in the two games as one of the forwards, Myriam Trepanier, who had 1-5—6 with her rocket-shooting from the point, and Jocelyn Larocque, who had three assists, and goaltender Martin, all from UMD; plus Jinelle Zaugg, who had four goals, from Wisconsin; and Marvin, who had two goals in Minnesota’s game, as the other two forwards. Elin Holmlov of UMD was named tournament most valuable player, after she scored 3-1—4 in the two games, some of them while on her skates.
Trepanier, whose hard shots were decisive during much of her junior year, but particularly in the playoffs, said, “I’ve been practicing a lot, working on getting my shot through from the point. And it’s taken a lot of practice – as my teammates know, because of all the times I hit their helmets, shoulder pads and bodies.Ââ€
While UMD won the league playoff trophy, they now go after bigger game, and whether WCHA teams are paired against each other or not, the fact remains that they have won all seven national tournaments held so far – with UMD winning the first three, Minnesota the next two, and Wisconsin the most recent two.
As far as Minnesota and Wisconsin are concerned, maybe the Final Faceoff should be renamed the “Final Faceoff until next week,†because the tense battle they had in the league semifinal will have an immediate sequel at Ridder Arena, with a trip to the Frozen Four attached. And with three entries, WCHA supporters can have a reasonable hope that the league will extend its national championship mastery to eight straight years.
Zaugg, Lawler lift Badgers past Marvin, Gopher women
If you stand Jinelle Zaugg next to Erika Lawler, the difference is readily evident, because Zaugg is 6-foot-1 and Lawler is 5-foot-0 – maybe. But side by side on the winner’s podium Saturday, they were pretty nearly identical, after each of them scored twice to lift Wisconsin to a 4-3 victory over Minnesota in the second semifinal of the WCHA Women’s Final Faceoff.
Wisconsin spotted the Golden Gophers the opening goal, then Zaugg tied it, with Lawler striking twice in the second period to build a 3-1 lead. Minnesota, with WCHA most valuable player Gigi Marvin scoring twice, caught up at 3-3, but Zaugg won it with her second of the game on a power play at 11:05 of the third period.
The outcome hinged on a Gopher nongoal with the clock literally ticking into the last second of regulation. Marvin swung into the left corner aware it was desperation time, and flung the puck toward the crease. Whitney Graft was there, but her only option was to put her hand out and virtually punch the puck into the goal. After review, it was disallowed for having been directed in by hand.
The victory puts the two-time defending NCAA champion Badgers at 21-5-3 and sets them squarely in Sunday’s 1 p.m. championship game against Minnesota-Duluth at the DECC. For the Gophers (21-6-2) it is a return down I35 to await Sunday afternoon’s NCAA selection announcement to see where they might be placed. All three teams are secure among the top eight for NCAA spots, but opponents and sites are still to be determined.
“It’s a thrill to get the opportunity to play for the championship,†said Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson, whose Badgers move from one archrival to another. “All four games we’ve had with UMD have been extremely close, and I expect this one to be another.Ââ€
Minnesota, which nipped Wisconsin for second place in league play on the basis of a final-game 2-2 tie, outshot the Badgers 28-21, and followed the lead of Marvin, who seemed to rise to hyperspeed when the Gophers needed a lift. Marvin opened the game’s scoring at 14:07 of the first period, when she moved in to the right circle and drilled a shot past goaltender Jessi Vetter.
Two minutes later Wisconsin attacked and Zaugg, stationed deep on the left, fielded the puck as it came off the end boards and snapped a shot that glanced in on the short side against goalie Kim Hanlon.
In the second period, Lawler put the Badgers up 2-1 by one-timing a pass out from behind the net by Hillary Knight, at 1:15. It stayed 2-1 until the last three minutes of the middle session. At that point, Lawler exchanged passes and broke for the net. As she closed in, the always-hustling Lawler lost her footing and slid, crashing into Hanlon at the goal. When they unpiled, the puck was in the net, and Lawler got credit for the goal for a 3-1 lead, at 17:44.
“I hit Angie Kesely in the slot and was going to the net,†said Lawler. “I didn’t know she was passing it back, and I guess I tipped it in. I didn’t know it went in until afterward.Ââ€
But at 18:55, Marvin scored with a quick shot and the Gophers were down only 3-2. “It’s playoffs, and yeah, we lost the game, but it was fun,†said Marvin.
Ross said, “Gigi got her line going, and they caused a lot of problems for Wisconsin.Ââ€
At 6:42 of the third period, Minnesota tied it when Dagney Willey shot from the right point. The shot was wide to the right, but it came off the end boards right to where Jen Schoulis was stationed, and she jammed it in before Vetter could cover.
A critical play came at 9:19, when Minnesota was called for too many players on the ice. Not only did the penalty stall the Gopher momentum, but it gave the perfect opportunity to Zaugg to play opportunist. Mallory Deluce won the left corner faceoff, but the puck popped loose to the slot. Zaugg slammed a one-timer – right in – at 11:05.
Vetter and the Badgers held firm from then on, against repeated Gopher rushes, including the final minute, when Hanlon was pulled for an extra skater.
In the interview room, Vetter, at 5-foot-8, looked about normal size. Next to her were Zaugg, who towered over Lawler. The three of them proved, however, that the Badgers have every dimension covered.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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