This is the second in a series of stories recapping the five greatest moments of 2005-06 as voted on by viewers of uwbadgers.com.
In just its seventh season of competition, 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 March 26 at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis.
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 the 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 (Swift Current, Saskatchewan).
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 was the second for the University of Wisconsin this year. 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 1984 and 1985.
Wisconsin, which headed into the 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 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 will look to become the third consecutive WCHA team to win back-to-back NCAA titles when it opens the 2006-07 campaign in September. Minnesota Duluth (2001, 2002 and 2003) and Minnesota (2004 and 2005) previously achieved that feat.
