MINNEAPOLIS – In its third-straight matchup with No. 8 Minnesota Duluth, the No. 2 Wisconsin women's hockey team took care of business, earning a 4-1 win in the semifinal round of the 2020 WCHA Final Faceoff at Ridder Arena on Saturday afternoon.
It took only 56 seconds for the nation's top power-play unit to score as senior
Abby Roque, a top-three finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, scored her 26th goal of the year to give UW (28-4-3 overall) an early 1-0 lead.
However, the lead was short lived as the Bulldogs' (22-8-6 overall) Sydney Brodt scored minutes later on a rush to even the game at 1-1.
With just over a minute to go in the opening frame, Watts, the NCAA leader in points, lit the lamp to give UW a 2-1 lead after the first 20 minutes.
Junior
Caitlin Schneider joined in on the scoring action midway through the second as she sniped in a shot past Olympic gold medalist Maddie Rooney to extend the Badger advantage to 3-1.
Just as the clock was running out, sophomore
Sophie Shirley notched an effortless empty-netter with 39 seconds left as one last victory goal for the Badgers.
Kristen Campbell made 34 stops to win her eighth-straight playoff contest.
Three notes of the game:
- UW has advanced to the WCHA title game for the sixth-straight year and are 4-1 in their previous five WCHA Final Faceoff championship contests.
- Senior netminder Kristen Campbell became the fourth goaltender in school history with 90 wins after Saturday's victory, despite playing her first year of collegiate hockey at UND.
- Sophie Shirley is closing in on a pair of milestones as she's one goal away from becoming only the sixth Badger to score 30 goals in a season. The sophomore sensation is also one point away from joining the 100-point club.
Straight from the Rink:
UW Head Coach Mark Johnson
On the game:
"We're excited, Having not played last weekend, thought we came out in the first period and had a bunch of energy. Obviously getting a power play early on in the period, settled up down. Overall, it was a good game. Minnesota-Duluth, we played them three times in the last 14 days and had three pretty good games against them and found a way to win this afternoon and play for another trophy tomorrow. I think everyone is pretty excited.
Senior Abby Roque
On the third-straight game against UMD:
"I think we started slow those games in Duluth. I think our first periods were by far our worst periods in both games, and I think today we started strong. We got the lead right off the bat and then in the second period, we didn't let them come back. We got another goal to extend that. We just played our game, played strong defensively.
Senior Kristen Campbell
On the game:
"The UMD top line is super-fast, and they feed off the rush a lot. So, we knew as a d-core, we needed to counter that and be able to shut them down when they did get their chances.
On moving past a goal against:
"Obviously it's not ideal that when the first shot goes in, but you just have to flush it, and put it behind you. The most important shot is the next one. That's the mentality I took the whole game. I just needed to be there when the team needed me on the back end.
Up Next:
UW will face Ohio State on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the championship game of the WCHA Final FaceOff. The game can be heard on 1310 WIBA and can be seen live on Fox Sports Wisconsin Plus or online via FloHockey.
