Women's Hockey Shutout For Second Night By Wildcats
November 17, 2001 | Women's Hockey
For the first time in program history, the fourth-ranked women's hockey team was shutout for the second time on a weekend when No. 5 New Hampshire defeated the Badgers, 2-0, at Whittemore Center on Saturday.
Wisconsin played an improved first period over game one of the series yesterday, but still failed to score. Despite the improved effort, the Badgers were outshot, 14-10, in the period.
'There was a lot of times we passed on scoring chances, ' assistant coach Dan Koch said. 'We are not putting the puck on net. Instead we are trying to skate through. You have to put it on net and drive for the rebounds. On our power play we weren't patient setting up, and that hurt us.'
Kerry Weiland (Palmer, Alaska) had the Bucky's best chance of the second period with a slap shot just past the midway point of the game. Weiland 's shot from the high slot hit off the post to the left of UNH goalie Jen Huggon. The rebound skipped over Jackie Friesen's (Regina, Saskatchewan) stick for what would have been a shot at an empty net.
New Hampshire broke the scoreless tie at 15:29 of the second with its second breakaway goal in as many games. Steph Jones got behind the Badger defense and took Allison Edgar's pass for the opportunity. Jones hit the corner above Jackie MacMillan's (Buffalo, Minn.) blocker for her ninth of the season.
The Wildcats had two more breakaways before the period closed, but MacMillan stopped Randi MacMaster on the first at 18:47 and Edgar hit the crossbar after a Badger giveaway in their own zone on the second.
Early in the third period, Steph Boeckmann (St. Cloud, Minn.) was whistled for obstruction-hooking and Sis Paulsen (Eau Claire, Wis.) was called for slashing. The Badgers killed the one minute, 10 second two-player advantage, but UNH scored seconds after Boeckmann returned to the ice. Carolyn Gordon got the goal on a rebound at 4:23 for her third of the season.
For the second night, the Badgers went on a late power play and pulled MacMillan. Wisconsin got off a couple of shots, but was kept out of the net. Weiland 's penalty with 17 seconds left for slashing ended the comeback attempt and Wisconsin was shutout on back-to-back nights for the first time in program history. The blanking for UNH was their school-best fifth straight shutout.
'They are a good team that clogs the middle,' Koch analyzed. 'They don't give you good scoring chances in close and they have a great goalie. You can get rebounds, but we just couldn't capitalize on them.'
MacMIllan dropped to 6-4-1 with the loss despite a 30-save performance. Huggon earned her third consecutive shutout with saves and improved to 6-1-0 on the season.
'I thought we played more of a balanced game than yesterday, ' said Koch. 'We didn't really have a down period like we did yesterday. I thought we played with them for the entire weekend and outplayed them a lot of the time except for 10 minutes the first night.'
The Badgers (6-4-2 overall, 5-2-1 WCHA) continue a two-week road swing through the East with the Thanksgiving Tournament next weekend in Lake Placid, N.Y. Wisconsin faces St. Lawrence on Friday at 3 p.m. EST. The winner and loser will meet the winner and loser of the U.S. National Team and the North York Junior Aeros on Saturday.
'I thought we did some good things,' said Weiland. 'We had some breakdowns on both goals tonight and that is what killed us. That was the difference. We had a couple of mental lapses and they had a couple of mental lapses, but they put the puck in the net and we didn't. We just have to go full speed in practice this week, pick up the tempo like its a game and I think we will start burying those pucks.'
