MINNEAPOLIS – In a battle of the top-two teams in NCAA women's hockey, No. 1 Wisconsin and No. 2 Minnesota battled to a 2-2 draw at Ridder Arena on Sunday afternoon.
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the first period, a lead the Golden Gophers held after 40 minutes of action.
Britta Curl tied the game at 1-1 early in the third period as she pick-pocketed a Gopher skater and beat the Minnesota netminder for her seventh goal of the year.
A minute later, the Gophers retook the lead, but
Dara Greig tied the game at 2-2 with her second goal of her career.
After a five-minute overtime and a five-minute 3-on-3 overtime, the game went to a shootout, which Minnesota won 1-0.
Three Notes of the Game
- Sunday's game marked the first game in Badgers history that went to 3-on-3 overtime, a new rule that the WCHA implemented for the 2019-20 season.
- The Badgers outshot Minnesota 34-25, including an 11-5 advantage in the third period and a 4-0 advantage in the five-on-five overtime.
- It marked the first shootout between UW and Minnesota since Feb. 19, 2017.
Straight from the Rink
UW head coach Mark Johnson
"Really good game. I liked the way we responded from losing our first game yesterday of the season and came back, especially with the last 40 minutes of this afternoon's game. We played exceptionally well. We came back from 1-0 to make it 1-1 and responded again when we were down 2-1 to make it 2-2 and then we had a couple real good chances in the third period. A good growth weekend for us. Overall, today we were better than we we were yesterday and made some adjustments and most importantly, the kids played hard and understand what it takes to play at this level. It was good."
Sophomore forward Britta Curl
On the series
"I think we did a lot of positive things. Obviously today we battled hard and came back from a couple deficits, but I think the number one thing is just we have to play a complete 60 minute game and if we don't it's going to hurt us.
On first 3v3 OT:
"It was kind of fun honestly. First time I've gotten to do that, so I thought we played well. We got chances, and we just couldn't finish. It was definitely fun to play.
Up Next
The Badgers will enjoy a weekend off of competition before hosting Minnesota State, Nov. 16-17, at LaBahn Arena.
