Minnesota Is Golden In WCHA Final Five
March 17, 2004
by John Gilbert
The University of Minnesota women's hockey team maintained its impressive momentum, rolling through the WCHA Final Five to add the playoff championship to its regular-season title and its No. 1 national rank. The Gophers whipped Ohio State 5-1 before withstanding a full-scale test from Minnesota-Duluth to claim a 4-2 victory in the final.
The Gophers also swept the awards, with Jody Horak named all-tournament goaltender, and Natalie Darwitz and Kelly Stephens taking two of the three first-team all-WCHA spots, while Krissy Wendell was named most valuable player of the tournament as a worthy tradeoff for not being named one of the forwards.
Others named to the six-player all-tournament team were center Jenny Potter and defenseman Krista McArthur of Minnesota-Duluth, and defenseman Molly Engstrom of Wisconsin.
Darwitz scored two goals and one assist against Ohio State - which had beaten Minnesota State-Mankato 3-1 in the play-in game - and added an assist in the final; Stephens scored a goal against Ohio State and two goals against UMD; Wendell, who seems to be at the peak of her game after being named player of the year in the WCHA at the pretournament banquet, scored a goal and two assists against the Buckeyes and against the Bulldogs.
Minnesota outshot Ohio State 41-24 and Horak allowed only one goal, after her teammates had put their five on the board in the semifinals. But she was never better than in the final, when UMD - playing with fierce intensity in hopes of returning to the Frozen Four after winning championships in the only three previous NCAA tournaments - outshot Minnesota 45-26.
Along with making 43 saves, Horak's competitive fire proved the difference in the game after she made a stunning mistake to open the game. With the game scoreless, midway through the first period, the puck went from the Minnesota zone to UMD's end, and at some point, referee Brad Shepherd raised his hand, signaling a delayed penalty. Apparently both sides had the puck during that stretch, and both sides thought the penalty was on the other team.
While UMD coach Shannon Miller gestured for goalie Riita Schaublin to come to the bench, Horak was already coming to the Minnesota bench. UMD defenseman Krista McArthur, carrying the puck up the left boards on an already-existing power play, looked up to see an empty net, and celebrated the opportunity by scoring with a 65-foot shot into the open net at 9:08.
"Krissy [Wendell] had the puck and his arm was up," said Horak. "So I started for the bench. When I skate to the bench, I skate with my head down. I felt really bad about what happened."
Not only did Minnesota give up the first goal, but the penalty was, indeed, on Gopher LaToya Clarke. If that seemed like a chance for UMD to take complete control, instead the unflappable Horak and Minnesota killed the penalty, and few minutes later Wendell's 32nd goal of the season tied the game 1-1.
UMD outshot Minnesota 14-10 in the first period, and turned the intensity up considerably in the second period. After a season that saw injuries knock out a star recruit before she could even come to school and kept UMD thin on players all season, the Bulldogs finally had three lines mobilized and it showed in the flow of play. But even while UMD outshot the Gophers 20-10 in the second period, Horak blanked the Bulldogs while Minnesota scored three times.
Kelsey Bills, playing her first shift after sitting with an injury, deflected in Chelsey Brodt's shot early in the second period to put Minnesota up 2-1, and Stephens tipped a point shot from Ashley Albrecht that skipped past Schaublin at 17:16.
A swarming team defense that smothered UMD's top guns before they got to the net stifled more UMD thrusts before they got to Horak in many cases, and the only other goal UMD scored came while outshooting the Gophers 11-6 in the final period, as Juliane Jubinville scored off Jenny Potter's assist with 3:19 to go.
"We usually get outshot by Duluth," said Halldorson, whose team split an early series at Duluth by rallying from a 3-1 deficit in the third period to win 4-3 in the second game, then swept the rematch at Ridder Arena, winning 4-2 and capturing a wild 7-5 second game.
UMD coach Shannon Miller said: "They've always had a lot of talent, but this is the first time they've played together as a team so well. I'm proud of my team. We worked hard, we had unbelievable scoring chances on screens and tips, and if a couple of them had gone in, it might have been different."
It was difficult to discern whether Halldorson was predicting or hoping when she said she didn't expect to face UMD again, because she doubted UMD would make the Frozen Four. "I think they have a great team, one of the best, but look at their record. They're a great team, but how many losses do they have?"
The answer is 12, as in 20-12-2. That sounds nondescript compared to Minnesota's 28-4-2, or even to the records of Dartmouth, Harvard, St. Lawrence and Wisconsin - the teams that went into last weekend ranked ahead of UMD. Because of their solid rank, the Gophers were assured of a spot in the four-team NCAA Frozen Four, but the question remains about the other three finalists.
"We don't know for sure what to expect at the Frozen Four," Halldorson added. "We played Dartmouth, but we haven't seen Harvard or St. Lawrence."
That explains UMD's record, because nine of the 12 Bulldog losses came against the other five top-rated teams in the country. "We played the toughest schedule in the country," said UMD coach Shannon Miller. "Nobody has done as well as us against the top four. And today we proved we could play with the No. 1 team in the country."
True, UMD is the only team among the top six that played all five other top teams. Two of Minnesota's four losses came against UMD; one of Dartmouth's five losses was a 6-2 shocker administered by UMD when Dartmouth was undefeated and ranked No. 1; Harvard lost only three games and tied one, and the tie came against UMD; St. Lawrence's seven regular-season losses included a 5-0 blowout at UMD's hands; and two of Wisconsin's six losses and a tie were inflicted by UMD.
Beating Wisconsin 3-1 in the playoff semifinals, and outshooting the Badgers 38-21, left the teams in a 2-2-1 standoff against each other. Wisconsin still has an impressive record, at 25-5-3, although the Badgers didn't play Dartmouth, Harvard or St. Lawrence.
Still remaining are the eastern playoffs, where St. Lawrence already lost one game, and where only one team can go undefeated. It may not be until after that tournament that the four finalists can be discerned. Regardless, Minnesota is flying high, above such trivial pursuits.
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