The Small Things Lead to Big Things
Nov. 5, 2009
by John Gilbert, for WCHA.com
As a member in good standing of the WCHA Women's "Big Three", the defending NCAA champion Wisconsin Badgers appeared to have lost their esteemed status with season-opening losses to North Dakota, Bemidji State and Ohio State. Because Minnesota had opened the season with an 8-0 run that included a sweep over arch-rival Minnesota Duluth, it looked like a mismatch when the Gophers came blowing into Madison for a series against the sputtering Badgers.
But the Badgers stunned the Golden Gophers 4-2 on Friday, Oct. 30, then stunned them again 5-2 on Sunday, Nov. 1.
Consider the lost esteem regained. Consider the "Big Three" membership reinstated in good standing. And, consider the apparent WCHA runaway by the Gophers suddenly transformed into a wide-open race.
After a month of juggling and worrying and reassembling, coach Tracey DeKeyser was able to celebrate by partaking in a little sarcastic humor about her team's faltering start leading up the Gophers.
"Yes, we decided to lose a few games, just to throw 'em off," laughed DeKeyser, who is a Wisconsin assistant coach elevated to interim head coach status while Mark Johnson is away coaching the 2010 U.S. Olympic women's team. "We'd been getting 50 to 60 shot attempts at the net every game, but we just couldn't score. On Friday night against Minnesota, we outshot them two to one and played our best game by far this season. Saturday was the only game where we got outshot all season, and after having so much trouble scoring, all of a sudden we scored five goals on 15 shots."
DeKeyser said she was prepared for the anticipated early experiments.
"In camp, I didn't sense that we would have problems scoring," she said. "I knew there would be some time needed to develop more two-way players, and blending in the new who had to learn to play defense-first. We tried all kinds of combinations, but after four weekends, you can see patterns developing that you couldn't see after a week or two.
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"I think it really helped us when we were preparing to play the Gophers. The whole team saw the video of them sweeping Minnesota Duluth, and they were playing so well maybe we were more mentally prepared. We knew they would come with two forecheckers and be all over us. Then they came out for the first game and they were really tentative. They were hesitant, and we played really well. The next day, they played much better, but Becca Ruegsegger was great in goal for us."
Goaltending was as big a question mark as finding some chemistry on the forward line combinations. Jessie Vetter was gone with Team USA, so DeKeyser had senior Alannah McCready and sophomore Nikki Kaasa, plus freshman Ruegsegger, who is from Lakewood, Colo. If that unusual name is familiar, she is the younger sister of University of Denver men's star forward Tyler Ruegsegger.
Becca Ruegsegger spun a shutout in her first college start, and looked sharp, despite losing the 1-0 game to Bemidji State, and the game to Ohio State. She came back to stifle Minnesota both games – including the biggest Badger test in the second game. After outshooting all their foes through their first seven games, the Badgers were soundly outgunned when the Gophers amassed a 40-15 edge in shots, but Ruegsegger blocked 38 of those shots, and the Badgers proved themselves again.
The Gophers, meanwhile, had been led to their sizzling start by stellar goaltending from Finnish freshman Noora Räty, who continued to play well in the first game at Madison. After being victimized by Wisconsin's strong attack, Räty left the Gophers behind in Madison to return home to join Team Finland for the Four Nations Cup international tournament. Minnesota went with veteran returnee Alyssa Grogan, a move that coincided with the Badgers suddenly finding the range on an economy of shots.
For now, DeKeyser has settled on more than just her top two lines, Junior Mallory Deluce centers Brooke Ammerman and Carolyn Prevost on one line, while Geena Prough, a junior shifting from defense, centers seniors Jasmine Giles and Kyla Sanders. A dangerous third line has emerged too, with freshman Breann Frykas centering junior Kelly Nash and Emily Kranz.
In the first Minnesota game, Wisconsin trailed 2-1 before a 43-28 shot advantage swept the Badgers to their 4-2 victory. Ammerman scored the game-winning goal with three seconds remaining in the second period. The next night, Deluce's opening goal gave way to a pair of Gopher goals, but Ammerman, Nash, and Ammerman again boosted the Badgers to a 4-2 lead, and junior defenseman Malee Windmeier finished the scoring.
On defense, Canadian freshmen Stef McKeough and Saige Pacholok stepped into the lineup and helped solidify the corps. That talent was all there from the start, but it was nowhere near in sync.
The Badgers opened WCHA play by losing 2-0 to North Dakota, although they bounced back for a 3-0 victory in the rematch. They went to Minnesota to face Bemidji State, and lost 1-0 in the first game, which was held in Coleraine, Minn., before coming back for a 3-1 rematch victory. Next came Ohio State, a talented team that could well be a strong contender despite having lost twice to Minnesota. The Buckeyes beat Wisconsin 4-3, making the defending champs 2-3, before the Badgers claimed the rematch 5-3.
That 3-3 start was hardly the stuff of a contender. Consider that last season, the Badgers were 21-2-5 in WCHA play, finishing second, one point behind Minnesota for the WCHA title, before charging ahead to win the league playoff and the national championship with a 34-2-5 final record. That means the Badgers lost more games in their first five games this season than they lost in all 41 games last season.
"When we started, it seemed like the players tightened up and didn't do the things they normally did," DeKeyser said. "We hit posts, we were stopped on breakaways...We had a lot of quality scoring chances, we just didn't score."
The turnabout didn't come without hard work. The Badgers had contributed heavily to the Olympic teams, so DeKeyser had to blend in nine new players, plus a couple of soccer-playing rookies who haven't even showed up yet, and also had to find a new goaltender – all while weathering the get-acquainted term needed for the players to adjust to their new coach. But the collection of talent was also mitigated by who wasn't there.
Brianna Decker, a skilled freshman from Dousman, Wis., was blanked along with the rest of the Badgers in their opener against North Dakota, then scored two goals to ignite the second-game comeback against the Fighting Sioux. But as she scored her second goal of the game, Decker crashed into the goal, and suffered a broken arm.
"We've also got Alev and Derya Kelter, twins from Eagle River, Alaska," said DeKeyser. "When Mark coached the U.S. Under-18 team last year in Fussen, Germany, Alev Kelter was captain of the team. Both sisters wanted to go to college somewhere where they could play both soccer and hockey, so Mark went with our soccer coach to recruit them. They're both still with our soccer team, so they aren't even with us yet."
Losing players didn't help, but losing those three early games may now be paying ironic dividends.
"Losing is good," said DeKeyser. "When you lose a couple games, the players are willing to spend more attention to doing the small things – things we hadn't been doing well enough."
The small things lead to big things, and their sweep of the Gophers should elicit gratitude from the rest of the WCHA. Suddenly Minnesota looks less invincible, with two losses, the same number of setbacks as UMD, Bemidji State and Minnesota State, and just one less than the three losses on the Wisconsin and Ohio State records. It's a new race, and the rebuilding Badgers – who proved that reports of their falling from the ranks of contender were premature, at best – are in the thick of things.
