The Wisconsin women's hockey program won its first NCAA championship with a 3-0 victory over two-time defending champion Minnesota in the title game Sunday afternoon at Mariucci Arena.
When time had run out, the Badgers poured onto the ice and celebrated together with the championship trophy. There were hugs and 'high-fives' all around at the bench area and on the ice as the UW Band played away and a strong contingent of Badger fans voiced their approval.
The Badgers (36-4-1) got a pair of goals from sophomore Jinelle Zaugg (Eagle River, Wis.), another from senior Grace Hutchins (Winnetka, Ill.) and a stellar performance from 2006 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player and freshman netminder Jessie Vetter (Cottage Grove, Wis.) to knock off the rival-Golden Gophers (29-11-1) for a fifth time this season.
Vetter allowed just one goal (in a 2-1 double OT win over Mercyhurst in the quarterfinals) in three NCAA Tournament games. No goaltender had ever posted a shutout in a women's NCAA Frozen Four prior to this season. Vetter proceeded to blank Minnesota on Sunday after doing the same to St. Lawrence (1-0) in Friday's semifinal. Vetter, who made an NCAA Tournament record 95 saves in three games, is the first goaltender and the first freshman to be named Most Outstanding Player of the women 's NCAA Hockey Tournament.
Vetter, who allowed just two goals in her final six appearances this season and closed out the campaign with a shutout streak of 201 minutes and 4 seconds, was joined on the all-tournament team by Zaugg and junior defender Bobbi-Jo Slusar.
The victory was Wisconsin's 36th of the year, a school record. The Badgers concluded the 2005-06 campaign on a school record-tying 12-game winning streak.
The NCAA team title is the second for the University of Wisconsin this year. The men's cross country team also won the national crown in the fall. The women's hockey team's victory marks the UW's third NCAA team title in a women's sport and the first since the women's cross country team won it back-to-back in both 1984 and 1985.
The victory also represented yet another accomplishment for head coach Mark Johnson. The Badger athletic legend won an NCAA men's hockey title as a player in 1977; was a star on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team's 'Miracle On Ice;' and is now one of a select number of people who have both played for and coached an NCAA hockey champion.
Wisconsin, which headed into Sunday's title game having won four of five meetings with Minnesota this season (including the WCHA Playoff title played in Minneapolis), got on the board at the 9:56 mark of the first period when Zaugg picked up a loose puck and flipped it high past Golden Gopher goalie Brittony Chartier and into the net. Slusar and Cyndy Kenyon (Sparta, Wis.) assisted on the power-play goal.
Just 30 seconds later Hutchins tipped in a Nikki Burish (Madison, Wis.) shot to give the Badgers a 2-0 lead. The two goals were the second-fastest back-to-back tallies in women's Frozen Four history.
Then, with the Badgers on another power-play, Zaugg took a pass from recently named Patty Kazmaier Award winner Sara Bauer (St. Catharines, Ont.) and one-timed a hard shot high to Chartier's glove side for a 3-0 lead. Zaugg is just the fourth player to score more than one goal in a women's NCAA hockey title game.
Each team fired 10 shots on goal in the first period before the Golden Gophers outshot the Badgers 21-9 the rest of the way, including a 14-4 edge in the third period. Vetter, however, was equal to the task.
Wisconsin wound up 2-for-4 on the power play, while Minnesota was scoreless in five opportunities.
Welcome the NCAA Champion Women's Hockey Team
MADISON, Wis. - Badger fans are invited to the Kohl Center Monday evening at 6 p.m. to welcome the national champion Wisconsin women's hockey team as it celebrates the program's first NCAA women's ice hockey national championship. Wisconsin claimed the NCAA title Sunday in Minneapolis with a 3-0 victory over the two-time defending champion University of Minnesota.
Gates will open at 5:30 p.m. Fans should enter the Kohl Center through Gate A. The program will take place in the Gate A lobby. Free parking is available in UW Lot 91 east of the Kohl Center. Admission is free.
The celebration will feature Athletic Director Barry Alvarez, Head Coach Mark Johnson, and the champion women's hockey student-athletes.
