DULUTH — For the second time in three seasons, Wisconsin celebrated a postseason championship at Minnesota Duluth’s Amsoil Arena.
The No. 1-ranked and WCHA regular-season champion Badgers, who won their 2023 NCAA championship in Duluth, repeated as WCHA Final Faceoff champions on Saturday with a 4-3 victory over Minnesota.
The result drops the Gophers from the No. 3 overall seed to the No. 4 seed in next week’s NCAA tournament. Minnesota will host fifth-seeded Colgate in a two-team regional while the sixth-seeded Bulldogs travel to ECAC champion Cornell for a three-team regional.
“An exciting finish for us,” Badgers coach Mark Johnson said. “It’s a typical Minnesota-Wisconsin game, whether it’s in the regular season, this tournament or the NCAA tournament. I hope the fans enjoyed it. It was back and forth. Both goaltenders made a bunch of different key saves for each team. At the end, we end up making a play.”
Wisconsin senior wing Sarah Wozniewicz scored the game-winning goal with just 24.5 seconds left in regulation after Gophers fifth-year senior center Natalie Mlynkova tied the game with a power play goal in the final minute of the second period.
Junior wings Allie Franco and Josefin Bouveng gave Minnesota a 2-1 lead after the first period while goals by fifth-year senior center Casey O’Brien, junior defenseman Vivian Jungels and freshman center Maggie Scannell put Wisconsin ahead 3-2 a little over eight minutes into the second period.
Related Articles
University of St. Thomas arena opponents ask courts to block construction — again
St. Paul: University of St. Thomas ordered to remove Goodrich Avenue driveway near future arena
University of St. Thomas gets green light — again — from city of St. Paul for Division I hockey and basketball arena
“A disappointing result a heartbreaker in the way that happened there, under a minute to go,” Minnesota coach Brad Frost said. “I’m proud of our group to not just get the win yesterday, but to compete and battle the way that they did today. We put Wisconsin right on the brink. Super disappointed that we couldn’t finish it off.”
O’Brien, the tournament MVP, had a goal and an assist Saturday and Badgers sophomore goaltender Ava McNaughton made 31 saves.
Gophers freshman goalie Hannah Clark had 30 saves.
Leave a Reply