After earning a 2-1 win against North Dakota in the 2017 WCHA Final face-Off semifinals, the No. 1 Wisconsin women's hockey team meets No. 2 Minnesota Duluth in the championship game.
The game can be seen on Fox Sports Wisconsin, Fox Sports North and Fox College Sports Central as the winner earns the league's automatic berth into the 2017 NCAA Tournament.Â
About the Badgers
The Badgers enter the league tournament as the No. 1 seed as UW looks to win its third-straight WCHA tournament title.
The Badgers have been on a roll in the WCHA tournament action with seven-straight shutouts. The last time UW gave up a goal in the WCHA playoff play was on March 7, 2015 against North Dakota.Â
UW enters this weekend with an 18-game unbeaten-streak, the longest active unbeaten stretch in the NCAA.
Senior Ann-Renée Desbiens, a Patty Kazmaier top-10 finalist, leads NCAA goaltenders in goals-against average with a 0.70Â clip, winning percentage with a mark of .903, save percentage with a .962Â clip and shutouts with 15. Desbiens now has 53 career shutouts and has had three-straight seasons with at least 14 shutouts.
Junior Annie Pankowski, also a Patty Kazmaier top-10 finalist, has been on a tear during the Badgers' unbeaten run with 38 points during the span thanks to 16 goals and 22 assists. Pankowski ranks fifth in the country in scoring, averaging 1.56Â points per game. Her goals per game average of 0.69Â ranks second in the WCHA
Junior Emily Clark has been clutch this year for UW as nine of Clark's 18 goals this year have been game-winners. Clark currently leads the NCAA in the category.
Senior Sarah Nurse leads UW with 23 goals after tallying a hat trick in UW's 6-0 win against Minnesota State last weekend. It marked her third hat trick of the season.
TV time for the Badgers
Sunday's" game can be seen live on
Fox Sports Wisconsin,Â
Fox Sports North and Fox College Sports Central. The game can also been seen online via
Fox Sports Go.Â
NCAA Selection Show
The Badgers will find out their NCAA fate on Sunday night as the organization will release the eight-team field for this year's tournament at 8 p.m. CT on
NCAA.com. UW looks to make its fourth-straight appearance at the NCAA meet.Â
Number of the Week
6 – UW has won six WCHA tournament titles, which is tied for the most in league history.Â
About Minnesota Duluth
UMD is coming off of a 2-1 double-overtime win on Saturday against Minnesota as Lara Stalder scored midway through the second overtime to lift the Bulldogs into the title tilt.Â
UMD has been second in the country most of the season but finished third in the WCHA behind UW and Minnesota.Â
Senior Lara Stalder, a top-three Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award finalist, leads the NCAA in points per game with a 1.67 clip.Â
Sophomore Maddie Rooney sports a 1.60 goals-agaisnt average and a.943 save percentage that ranks fourth nationally.Â
The series against UMD
Sunday's game marks the 73rd time UW and UMD have met.
The Badgers lead the all-time series with the Bulldogs 40-30-12
UW went 2-1-1 against UMD this year, including a 8-0 win in the team's last meeting on Feb. 12.
UW has a 7-5 record against Minnesota Duluth in playoff games, including a 5-0 win in the semifinals of last year's league tournament.
Desbiens named finalist for Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award
For the second-straight year, Wisconsin women's hockey goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens has earned a spot on the top-three list for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, the highest individual honor in women's college hockey, USA Hockey announced Thursday.
The 2017 WCHA Goaltending Champion, Desbiens leads the NCAA in goals-against average with a 0.69 mark, which is lower than her NCAA-record 0.76 goals-against average she collected last year. She also has a .963 save percentage this year, a rate that trumps her NCAA-record .960 clip set a year ago.
A native of La Malbaie, Quebec, Desbiens also leads the NCAA in shutouts with 15 and winning percentage with a .900 clip.
She broke the NCAA record for career shutouts with 44 on Nov. 6, 2016 and currently has 53 career blank slates in only 115 starts for the Cardinal and White.
Joining Desbiens on the top-three list are Minnesota Duluth senior forward Lara Stalder and Clarkson senior forward Cayley Mercer.
Desbiens is only the second Badger to earn a spot on the top-three list multiple times, as Sara Bauer was a top-three selection in 2006 and 2007. Desbiens aims to become Wisconsin's fifth recipient of the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, joining Bauer (2006), Jessie Vetter (2009), Meghan Duggan (2011) and Brianna Decker (2012).
The UW netminder looks to become only the third goaltender to win the award, joining Vetter and Brown's Ali Brewer (2000).
The 2017 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award will be presented at a brunch ceremony at the Foundry Arts Centre in St. Charles, Missouri on March 18, as a part of the NCAA Women's Frozen Four weekend.
Â
Badgers earn several WCHAÂ season honors
After claiming the program's sixth WCHA regular season crown, seven members of the Wisconsin women's hockey team received season honors from the league on Thursday.
Freshman Abby Roque was named the WCHA Rookie of the Year, while senior Ann-Renee Desbiens was named the league's goaltending champion for the third time in her career.
Desbiens, along with junior Annie Pankowski and senior Jenny Ryan were All-WCHA First Team selections, while Sarah Nurse earned second-team honors and Emily Clark took home third-team accolades. Roque and fellow freshman Mekenzie Steffen were two of six league newcomers to be selected for the WCHA All-Rookie Team.
Learn more here.
Hitting the Mark:
Wisconsin head coach
Mark Johnson became the first coach in WCHA history to record 400 career wins in the Badgers sweep of Clarkson. Johnson is only the third coach in NCAA Division I women's hockey history to collect 400 career triumphs.
