Badgers Fall To Gophers, 3-1
October 26, 2003 | Women's Hockey
The sixth-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team scored a late goal in the third period and fought for a chance at a tie game, but fell 3-1 to No. 1 Minnesota in the closing seconds of the series Sunday afternoon at the Kohl Center.
Frosh Sara Bauer fired in UW's lone goal with an assist from junior Amy Vermeulen, while frosh goaltender Christine Dufour collected 18 saves in net. The Badgers outshot the Golden Gophers 26-21, but finished 0-2 to 1-2 on power plays. Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson credits the Badgers for their hard work and feels his team played well despite the series outcome.
'Once you get by losing a couple of games, I was really encouraged by a lot of little things and very happy with the girls' effort, not only in yesterday's game, but how they responded and came back and played very hard today,' Johnson said about the series. 'So, we had six pretty good periods and made a couple of mistakes in the first game on the penalty killing. Overall, (I am) very encouraged by a lot of things with this team.
'I thought today we played even a little bit better than we did yesterday five on five. It's just a case of not being able to get the puck in the net. One thing about Minnesota, everyone talks about Natalie (Darwitz), Krissy (Wendell) and (Lyndsay) Wall, but people have to understand that they're pretty good in their own end and they know how to defend and it's tough to score against them. Then you have (Jody) Horak back there and she's sort of a nemesis to us right now. At least to me, the last five games that we have played against her, she 's just played very well.
'So it's a challenge to score and it's nice to see Bauer score, even late in the game, and now you have a chance to pull your goalie and you never know what's going to happen. So I'm encouraged. I like what I saw and I had some questions answered as far as some of the things we need to get answered in the early part of the season.'
Minnesota's Chelsey Brodt tallied the Golden Gophers first goal at 16:18 in the first period, while Krissy Wendell punched in a power-play goal at 14:42 for the 2-0 lead, before Bauer and Vermeulen brought the Badgers back into the game with their goal at 17:41 in the third period.
The goal was Bauer's career first and gives her seven points for the season (1-6=7) to continue leading the Badgers in overall scoring. It was also Vermeulen's first point of the season and also snapped Horak's scoreless streak of 192 minutes in net.
UW pulled Dufour from the net with 1:11 left to add a sixth attacking player to the ice, but Minnesota's La Toya Clarke found the puck on a breakaway play to score a third Gopher goal
against UW's empty net with five seconds left on the clock and the ensuing 3-1 win. Overall, UM goaltender Jody Horak collected 25 saves for Minnesota.
Wisconsin, now 4-2-0 overall and 0-2-0 WCHA, will remain home next weekend for a two-game series against Ohio State at the Kohl Center, Saturday, Nov. 1 and Sunday, Nov. 2.
Both games start at 2:05 p.m. and Saturday's game will be broadcast live on NewsTalk 1310 WIBA with Brian Posick and former UW women's hockey player Julia Ortenzio calling the game. Live stats will also be available on uwbadgers.com.
