Badgers Shutout By Golden Gophers, 3-0
October 25, 2003 | Women's Hockey
The sixth-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team battled hard, but could not hold off No. 1 Minnesota's special teams in a 3-0 loss Saturday afternoon at the Kohl Center.
Wisconsin goaltender Meghan Horras collected 24 saves in net for Wisconsin, while Carla MacLeod and Molly Engstrom led the Badgers with four shots on goal each.
Minnesota's Natalie Darwitz scored two power-play goals and an assist for the Golden Gophers, while teammate Lyndsey Wall tallied a third power-play goal for the victory. UM goaltender Jody Horak collected 27 saves. Despite the loss, Wisconsin second-year head coach Mark Johnson feels his team kept pace with Minnesota.
'The overall effort, five-on-five, was very good,' Johnson said after the game. 'I thought we competed, we played hard. It was a very even game. The differences were in their penalty play and our penalty play, their penalty killing and our penalty killing.
'We gave up two quick power-play goals in the latter part of the second period and that took a little bit of the wind out of our sails. Our goaltender (Meghan Horras) was playing well and it's tough when you're down three goals to a team of that caliber, but we've got some things to work on. That 's part of the growing process this early in the season and we'll get better because of the game.'
The Badgers and Golden Gophers vied for an early advantage throughout the first period as both teams wrestled for an offensive attack. The scoreless period saw UW outshoot UM 11-7, while both teams failed to capitalize on a power play.
Minnesota lost forward Krissy Wendell, a 2002 Olympian, to a 10-minute game misconduct after she received a five-minute major for checking from behind. She was ejected from the game, but the Badgers could not break the Gopher penalty killing unit from the ensuing power play.
Minnesota tallied all three of its goals in an 11-minute span of the second period. Also members of the 2002 U.S. Olympic team, Darwitz and Walls combined to score six total points against Wisconsin tallying 2-1=3 and 1-2=3 respectively. The Gophers edged the Badgers 10-8 in total shots in each of the last two periods, while the game total was tied at 27 shots on goal per team.
Wisconsin, now 4-1-0 overall and 0-1-0 WCHA, continues its conference-opening series against Minnesota (3-0-0 overall and WCHA), Sunday, Oct. 26. The puck drops at 2:05 p.m.
