Badgers stop Gophers 3-0 for Women's NCAA title
March 26, 2006
MINNEAPOLIS, MN. - Sophomore Jinelle Zaugg scored two goals and freshman goaltender Jessie Vetter recorded her second shutout in two Frozen Four games as Wisconsin capped a spectacular breakthrough season with a 3-0 victory over Minnesota in the NCAA women's hockey championship game Sunday.
The victory, before 4,701 fans at Mariucci Arena, gave the Badgers a 36-4-1 record and came after also winning the WCHA women's regular season and playoff championships. Minnesota, which tied Minnesota-Duluth for second in the WCHA and lost 4-1 to Wisconsin in the WCHA playoff final, finished 29-11-1 - one game short of winning a third straight NCAA title.
Because Wisconsin had beaten the Gophers four out of five times this season coming into the game, someone asked Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson what it was that made Wisconsin so difficult for her Gophers to play against. "They have three very strong lines, very strong defense, and good goaltending," said Halldorson. "They're hard to play against for any team in the country.
"We were the fourth seed, and we beat No. 1 (New Hampshire), and if we'd beaten No. 2, it would have been little short of a miracle."
Indeed, Wisconsin's great teamwork and balanced skill level provided the breakthrough season. In the five previous women's NCAA tournaments, Minnesota-Duluth won the first three and Minnesota the next two, so getting the big trophy out of the state took something special, and these Badgers had it. In their history of Division One hockey, Minnesota had beaten Wisconsin's ever-improving team for a record of 23-4-2 until this season, when the Badgers won five of the six meetings.
But Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson knew history was meaningless when it came to the final game. His Badgers had barely made it to Mariucci, by beating Mercyhurst 2-1 in double overtime, and overcame a strong St. Lawrence team 1-0 in Friday's semifinals, while Minnesota was stunning top-ranked New Hampshire 5-4.
"I want to congratulate Minnesota and Laura did a nice job coaching them this year, because they were more difficult and challenging for us to play each time we played them," said Johnson. "We had to dethrone the two-time defending champions, and we knew they weren't going to go down without a fight.
"We told the players that what happened in the previous five games against Minnesota becomes irrelevant," said Johnson. "We said we had to play a strong first 10 minutes. When we did that, and came out of it with a power-play goal and then Grace Hutchins tips one in, I felt a lot better. At playoff time, special teams have to be good. They have to score what I call timely goals."
The first timely goal came at 9:56, when Wisconsin had killed a penalty and then got its first power play. Bobbi-Jo Slusar shot from the left point and the puck hit traffic in front of the net, and Zaugg, at 6-foot-1 the biggest player on either team, found the rebound and drilled it past Gopher freshman goaltender Brittony Chartier. "They gave me an open shot," said Slusar, "so I took it, and the puck bounced around until Zaugg got hold of it."
If the goal punctured Minnesota's opening enthusiasm, it was punctured again 30 seconds later. Nikki Burish got the puck and moved to the top of the left circle where she sent a shot skipping through the congestion in front, and Grace Hutchins deflected it into the right edge. Hutchins, a senior from Winnetka, Ill., had only scored four goals all season, and 15 in her career, and now she has a keepsake for her memory bank, and her trophy case.
Shots were 10-apiece through the first period, and the game tightened up in the second, until the Badgers got their fourth power play of the game. Sara Bauer, recipient of the Patty Kazmaier award as the nation's top female college player, had the puck in the left corner and passed across to the slot. Zaugg got her full force behind a one-timer, and Chartier had no chance, at 9:08 of the middle session.
"That third goal was a rocket," said Johnson. "A lot of women players have a problem with the velocity of their shot as they move away from the net, but not Jinelle. Sara got her the puck, and she sent a laser."
Minnesota outshot Wisconsin 31-19 for the game, but there was no mistaking which team was in command, even in the third period, when the Gophers threw everything they had at trying to score and had a 14-4 edge in shots.
"We had a three-goal lead," said Vetter. "We're not trying to score more goals. We're just trying to play good defense."
The Gophers were frustrated, but they also knew how far they had come as a team, after losing Olympic stars Krissy Wendell, Natalie Darwitz, Kelly Stephens and Lyndsay Wall, plus both their goaltenders from the team that won the last two titles.
"She (Vetter) stood on her head today and stopped everything, and their D cleared everthing," said Minnesota captain Andrea Nichols. "But after losing all the Olympians who carried us on and off the ice, nobody expected us to get this far."
Bobbi Ross, who scored four goals in the amazing semifinal 5-4 victory over New Hampshire, was part of the Gopher power play that got blanked, along with the rest of the offense. "Coming into this game, obviously we weren't looking at finishing second," Ross said. "Right now, we're unsatisfied, but in a few days, I think we'll be able to appreciate what we've done. We accomplished so much more than anyone thought we would. We replaced raw talent with strength of character and team unity, and that made this season all the more satisfying."
Having broken through, the Badgers aren't about to let up. With only five seniors on the team, their top scorers and all six defensemen return. As does Vetter, who got the nod through all three NCAA tournament games after rotating with senior Meghan Horras and junior Christine Dufour all season.
"Jessie red-shirted last year," said Johnson, "then she got mono and sat out the first two months of this season. The first game I stuck her in was in the third period against Bemidji, and the first shot went in. She faced a challenge because she had lost strength and conditioning, and there were two good goaltenders ahead of her."
Johnson recalled winning an NCAA tournament as a player, playing for his dad, Badger Bob Johnson, at Wisconsin. And he won an Olympic gold medal playing for Herb Brooks in 1980. Then he had an outstanding NHL career.
"I remember in the early `90s, when my dad was coaching the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they were winning the Stanley Cup," said Johnson. "I came here and watched them in Bloomington, and I got to go downstairs after they'd won it. I saw something special when he hoisted the Stanley Cup. And now, with this team, I can feel how really special it is as a coach."
Zaugg and Vetter were teammates on a national championship club team, and with Zaugg from Eagle River and Vetter from Cottage Grove, Wis., they are two of eight homestate Wisconsin players on the Badger team. So coming to Minnesota, where the Gopher men's team had been upset in the NCAA regional, and now the Gopher women's team was now dethroned, the Minnesota Wild NHL slogan of Minnesota being the "State of Hockey" is in question.
"We were saying in the locker room," said Zaugg, "that Wisconsin is the new State of Hockey."
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