No. 1 Badgers Fall to No. 2 New Hampshire
November 17, 2007 | Women's Hockey
Freshman Hilary Knight scored her fifth goal of the season, but the No. 1 Wisconsin women's hockey team was unable to hold onto the lead and fell to No. 2/3 New Hampshire 2-1 Saturday evening at the Whittemore Center.
Knight (Hanover, N.H.) gave the Badgers (9-3-1 overall) a 1-0 lead late in the second period, however the Wildcats (10-2-0) stormed back with two goals in the final six minutes of the third period to claim the victory.
Junior goalie Jessie Vetter (Cottage Grove, Wis.) stopped 24 shots in the game while her counterpart, Kayley Herman, was credited with 19 saves.
Following a scoreless first period, freshman Mallory Deluce (London, Ontario) had Wisconsin's first great scoring chance of the second period less than four minutes into the frame. Deluce was fore-checking hard at the UNH blue line and was rewarded when she caused a turnover that led to a breakaway. However, Herman was able to kick out her left leg and make the save.
Knight finally broke the scoreless tie at the 13:47 mark of the second. Skating on the power play, Jasmine Giles (Ottawa, Ontario) hit Malee Windmeier (Champlin, Minn.) with a breakout pass up the right side. Windemier then found Knight cutting behind the UNH defense at the blue line and Knight skated in and ripped a shot past Herman from the bottom of the right circle.
Giles and Windemeier each earned assists on Knight's fifth goal of the season. For Giles, the assist marked her 10th point of the season, making her the fifth Badger to reach double digits this year.
However, UNH took control of the game with two goals in less than four minutes late in the third period. First, Leah Craig found herself all alone in front of the UW cage and flipped a shot over Vetter's right shoulder to tie the game at 1-1 at the 13:20 mark. Then, Julia Marty fired a shot through traffic from the left circle that put UNH up 2-1 with 4:01 left in regulation.
The Badgers finished the game 1-for-7 on the power play while UNH was 0-for-2.
Saturday's loss is Wisconsin's second straight, marking the first losing streak by UW since February of 2006. The Badgers also continue to be winless against New Hampshire in the all-time series, going 0-5-1 against UNH.
Wisconsin will again look for its first win against New Hampshire when the two teams conclude their non-conference series Sunday afternoon at the Whittemore Center. Faceoff is set for 3 p.m. ET.
