Badgers, Gophers, St. Lawrence challenge UNH's No. 1 rank
March 23, 2006
On paper, No. 1 ranked New Hampshire is favored to beat two-time defending champion Minnesota in Friday's 7 p.m. Women's NCAA semifinal, and Wisconsin rates only a slim edge against St. Lawrence in the 4 p.m. first semifinal. That would set up a 3 p.m. Sunday final where New Hampshire would rate a slight favorite over Wisconsin, if you believe some sources.
One of those is U.S. Olympic women's coach Ben Smith.
Wisconsin had just won the Women's WCHA league playoff title at Ridder Arena, beating Minnesota 4-1, and Smith was spotted leaving the facility. He sort of shrugged when it was suggested that Wisconsin's performance was very impressive.
"Wait till you see New Hampshire," said Smith.
"Are they the best you've seen?" Smith was asked.
"They're the best team I've seen in women's hockey in many years," said Smith.
Interesting. Smith is an Easterner who has been accused of favoring Eastern teams and Eastern players when selecting his U.S. Olympic teams, and it's easy to see why Smith is so impressed, because coach Brian McCloskey's Wildcats had won 16 straight games and ran their unbeaten streak to 27-0-1. When they breezed to the Hockey East playoff title, it was their first since they were in the ECAC in 1966, then they knocked off Harvard in the NCAA quarterfinals.
Still, the Wildcats didn't displace Wisconsin as the nation's No. 1 team until February 6, and the thought lingered that maybe Smith's comment was a swipe at the West, and the NCAA tournament dominance by the splendid former teams from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, and the University of Minnesota. Those two are the only teams to ever win an NCAA title.
The first UMD teams featured brilliant elite players such as Jenny Potter (formerly Schmidgall), Maria Rooth, Erica Holst, Tuula Puputti, Hanne Sikio, Patricia Sautter, and Caroline Ouellette, and they won the first three NCAA tournaments ever held, in 2001, 2002, and 2003. Then, like a tag-team, UMD touched off - figuratively of course - to its intense rival Minnesota, and the Gophers won the last two NCAA tournaments, led by the likes of Krissy Wendell, Natalie Darwitz, Kelly Stephens and Lindsay Wall.
There has been speculation that no team will ever again see the dominance of players from those UMD and Minnesota teams, and it seems certain that Smith must be impressed by them, too. For example, Potter, Wendell, Darwitz, Stephens and Wall all played for Smith's U.S. team at the just-completed Winter Olympics, and Ouellette was a standout for Team Canada's gold medal team, while Rooth and Holst were the top players for silver medalist Sweden. Rooth singlehandedly ruined Team USA's chance to face Canada for gold by scoring twice, including a shorthanded goal to tie the U.S. 2-2, then also scored the clinching goal in the shootout that led Sweden to a 3-2 victory and left the U.S. seeking bronze.
With that background, WCHA observers can remain unconvinced, awaiting the emergence of New Hampshire. If the Wildcats, and their splendid 33-2-1 record, are to win the championship, they will have their work cut out for them.
The University of Wisconsin has broken through the dynamic duo of Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth to win the Women's WCHA championship, and the Women's WCHA playoff title, and the Badgers are attempting to be the first NCAA hockey champion with a name from outside the state of Minnesota.
The Gophers will not give up the state's domination easily, however, having made the Frozen Four with a 28-10-1 record. The Gophers, ranked fourth in the nation, will face New Hampshire following completion of the first semifinal between Wisconsin (34-4-1) and St. Lawrence (31-4-2). The games are at Mariucci Arena, with its wider Olympic ice sheet.
St. Lawrence took out Minnesota-Duluth in the NCAA quarterfinals, with a 1-0 victory last Saturday - the second year in succession the Bulldogs couldn't get past St. Lawrence to reach the Frozen Four. Wisconsin had its hands full with a 2-1 double-overtime victory over Mercyhurst, while New Hampshire dispatched Harvard, and Minnesota cruised past Princeton.
New Hampshire is led by junior forward Nicole Hekle, a junior forward who was a Patty Kazmaier final 10 candidate, although she failed to make the final three. She has a strong supporting cast. When the Wildcats overran Boston College 6-0 in the Hockey East playoff final, junior goaltender Melissa Bourdon recorded her fourth - and UNH's sixth - consecutive shutout. Bourdon has a live shutout streak of 282 minutes, 10 seconds, and the team streak has now stretched to 402:19.
Hockey East rookie of the year Sam Faber was only one of a UNH sweep of the all-tournament team in Hockey East, along with UNH teammates Bourdon, Jennifer Hitchcock, Sadie Wright-Ward, Kacey Bellamy, and Martine Garland. Hitchcock set a tournament record with seven points (4-3--7).
The Gophers are without the abundance of firepower they donated to the Olympic team, but they have rebuilt gamely, and are led by sophomore Erica McKenzie (27-25--52), WCHA freshman of the year Gigi Marvin (16-30--46), and sophomore Bobbi Ross (17-22--39), and the freshman goaltending tandem of Kim Hanlon and Brittony Chartier. Hanlon is trying to return from a twisted ankle suffered in the WCHA playoff final.
In the first NCAA semifinal, an interesting sidelight will focus on Wisconsin's Sara Bauer, the WCHA player of the year, a junior forward with 22-35--57, and St. Lawrence sophomore Sabrina Harbec, who has 24-36--60, and was the ECAC player of the year. Also intriguing is that Wisconsin defenseman Bobbi-Jo Slusar, a junior, and the WCHA defenseman of the year, and St. Lawrence senior goaltender Jessica Moffat also were top 10 picks as Kazmaier candidates.
The two WCHA entries have both seen the two Eastern teams in the field, but in cross-reference. Minnesota lost 3-1 to St. Lawrence back on October 8, and Wisconsin lost a 2-1 game at New Hampshire.
The Gophers have improved considerably and ended the regular season with a seven-game winning streak, their season's best, winning four straight against WCHA foes, and adding three more in the playoffs before being thumped 4-1 by Wisconsin in the league final. Wisconsin, however, has credentials that more closely rival UNH's. The Badgers opened with a loss to UMD, then rattled off 12 straight victories, before losing at New Hampshire. After that, the Badgers embarked on another 12-0-1 streak - meaning the loss at UNH was Wisconsin's only setback in a 26-game stretch.
Statistically, Wisconsin had the most goals (151) and the fewest goals-against (51) among WCHA teams, with UMD second and Minnesota third in both categories. In scoring by periods, Wisconsin had a large edge on all league foes, scoring a balanced 49 in the first, 48 in the second, and 50 in the third, and adding four in overtime. The Badgers were 4-0-1 in overtime games, while Minnesota was 2-2-1.
The Badgers also had seven of the WCHAs's top 20 goal-scorers and seven of the top 20 assist-getters, as Bauer's 22-35--57 led Slusar's 12-27--39, Sharon Cole's 15-24--39, Jinelle Zaugg's 22-13--35, Angie Kesely's 13-20--33, Erika Lawler's 13-19--32, and defenseman Meaghan Mikkelson's 4-27--31, while Nikki Burish (10-17--27) and Cyndy Kenyon (13-12--25) followed closely.
Minnesota's McKenzie, Marvin and Ross were the only Gophers among the top 20, but Hanlon led league goaltenders with a 1.12 goals-against and a .943 save percentage, although Wisconsin's Meghan Horras played twice as many games and was second at 1.54 and .928.
UMD goalie Riitta Schaublin, incidentally, was a close third at 1.59 and .941, and joins Bauer and Harbec as the three Kazmaier finalists for the player of the year award, which will be given out Saturday.
If Olympic coach Smith is right, the Minnesota/UMD domination of the NCAA championship will be accomplished by New Hampshire. But Wisconsin has spent the whole season breaking down Gopher/Bulldog dominance, and the Badgers could be primed to make history themselves. After winning their first Final Five, coach Mark Johnson wouldn't say his Badgers have peaked.
"I prefer it this way, to not be No. 1 right now," said Johnson. "Other teams can have a lot of incentive to beat No. 1. Our only intention was to become better every month. Now you win and move on, and if you win the game, you've peaked."
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