Gophers Hand Women's Hockey 4-1 Loss
November 30, 2001 | Women's Hockey
Wisconsin's Steph Boeckmann (St. Cloud, Minn.) gave the Badgers an early 1-0 lead to break their three-game scoreless drought, but No. 4 Minnesota scored twice in the second and twice in the third to claim a 4-1 victory at Capitol Ice Arena on Friday.
Jocelyn Cookson (Edina, Minn.) set up Amy Vermeulen (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) for a shot from the low left slot. Minnesota's Jody Horak made the initial save, but Boeckmann found the rebound and scored her third of the season with a backhand shot. The goal gave Wisconsin a lead at 4:10 of the first period and broke the Badgers' 187 minute, 53 second scoring drought.
'It raised the team's spirits up a little bit, ' said Boeckmann. 'We gained confidence and we thought `Yeah, we could do it, we can get out of this slump, but the bounces didn't go our way.' Like coach said `Go over the valley, we are going to get there.'
The Badgers held the lead through the first period and up to 7:28 of the second before Tracy Engstrom knotted the game at one. Kelly Stephens skated onto a loose puck in the neutral zone and went in on Jackie MacMillan (Buffalo, Minn.) with a UW defender drapped on her back. MacMillan stopped the shot, but Engstrom followed for the rebound and scored her seventh of the season.
Just over 10 minutes later, the Gophers grabbed the lead. Jerilyn Glenn recoverd a loose puck in the Wisconsin slot after a Minnesota forward forced a turnover on Wisconsin's breakout. Glenn flipped the puck under MacMillan 's glove for her third of the season. It was a long shift for the Badgers as Minnesota kept Wisconsin pressed deep in its own defensive zone.
Ronda Curtin scored the only power-play goal of the game for Minnesota at 4:47 of the third to give the Gophers breathing room. Engstrom and Stephens assisted Curtin, who scored from a point shot to the blocker side of a screened MacMillan.
Stephens added an empty net tally at 19:43 for her 11th of the season, sealing the win for Minnesota.
'We can't get down on ourselves,' Boeckmann added. 'We have to keep going and think and believe in ourselves, our teammates and each other. We know we have good talent - we have great talent on this team. We know if we pull together and stay together we will do a good job.'
MacMillan made 24 saves and dropped to 6-6-1. Horak improved to 5-0-1 with a 26-save effort.
The Badgers (6-6-2, 5-3-1 WCHA) and Gophers (10-2-3, 6-1-2) complete their series tomorrow night at Capitol Ice Arena. Game time is slated for 7:05 p.m.
'Our program is young,' head coach Trina Bourget said. 'In the past two seasons, we've had no real tests. Things just flowed really well. We didn't really deal with any adversity. Now, sometimes things aren't going our way. We are playing well. Sometimes you do all you can and it doesn't work. I am proud of our team with each game coming back and battling. We are going to get back to our scoring and winning ways.'
