Wisconsin women's hockey pushed to OT brink, wins thriller
Bemidji State pushed Wisconsin women's hockey further than it had in half a decade, but Laila Edwards delivered heroics
Madison, WI — For 33 minutes and 24 seconds of game time, Wisconsin women’s hockey and the Bemidji State Beavers were locked in a relatively uneventful, scoreless tie.
Then, in the following 6:05, absolute chaos ensued.
“You know, it’s that time of year,” Badgers head coach Mark Johnson said in a post-game interview. “Tomorrow becomes March, and they call it March Madness. There’s a reason for it.”
The madness arrived one day early in Madison. Wisconsin entered Game 2 of its best-of-three conference tournament series in the midst of a 28-game unbeaten streak against Bemidji, but that nearly ended as UW escaped by the slimmest of margins in a 3-2 overtime win over last-place Bemidji State.
“Obviously we didn’t play our best game,” Badgers standout Laila Edwards said of the performance. But at the same time, the situation was different for Bemidji. They’re fighting to keep their season alive.”
Wisconsin women’s hockey starts slow
After scoring a trio of first-period goals against the Bemidji State Beavers on Friday night, BSU stymied the Wisconsin women’s hockey team throughout on Saturday. Bemidji head coach Amber Fryklund opted to make a change in net after netminder Kaitlin Groess allowed seven goals on 51 shots in Game 1.
Senior Ava Hills delivered in Game 2. She held Wisconsin, which boasts the country’s most prolific offense, scoring 5.33 goals per game, to only two goals through 60 minutes. It was only the sixth time this season that UW was held to two or fewer goals in regulation.
“Their goalie was phenomenal,” Edwards remarked. “She made a lot of good saves. She wasn’t giving us anything easy. So hats off to her.”
After a slow start, with neither team scoring for over half the game, both offenses seemed to break through all at once.
It began as Wisconsin goaltender Ava McNaughton turned the puck over behind her own net. Bemidji State captain Hailey Armstrong took advantage of the miscue, giving the Beavers a 1-0 lead over the top-ranked team in the country deep into the 2nd period.
That lead did not last long, however, as UW forward Maggie Scannell scored her sixth goal in six games against BSU this season by tipping in a shot from the point by defender Ava Murphy.
Simply quickly erasing a lead, however, would not cross the line into chaos.
First, it looked like Bemidji State winger Isa Goettl gave her team a 2-1 lead just 50 seconds after Scannell scored. But, UW successfully challenged the call on the ice to overturn the goal, as officials deemed that BSU alternate captain Morgan Smith was offside.
Then, only 17 seconds after that review had concluded, it was Wisconsin’s turn to seemingly take a 2-1 lead. Badgers center Adéla Šapovalivová passed to Kirsten Simms on a two-on-one rush, and Simms appeared to score on a wrist shot. That goal, too, was overturned for offside after a coach’s challenge.
“I’ve been around hockey a long time, and it’s one of those games where you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Johnson said of the several reviews throughout the second period.
It took roughly another three minutes, a called penalty against Bemidji State, and an unsuccessful challenge for high-sticking, but Šapovalivová broke the tie with just 31.3 seconds remaining in the second period. The Czech standout scored her third goal of the weekend when she tipped in a point shot by Wisconsin captain Caroline Harvey.
All appeared normal again for another 20 minutes, but the Beavers would not have their season ended so easily. Hills, who logged an impressive 44 saves in the contest, went to the BSU bench in favor of the extra attacker with nearly two minutes remaining in the third period. That allowed the Beavers to wrestle the lead away from the Badgers.
Wisconsin struggled to clear the puck out of its defensive zone for much of the remainder of the third. McNaughton made an outstretched toe save, freezing the puck and allowing her team to make a line change with 39 seconds remaining, but Bemidji center Raeley Carney’s timely win on the ensuing face-off proved costly for Wisconsin.
A ping-ponging puck, initially off Smith’s stick on a shot from the point, initially ricocheted off UW forward Cassie Hall’s stick, then bounced again off Badgers defender Laney Potter’s leg, before finally finding the back of the net with 25.6 seconds remaining in regulation, tying it at 2-2.
Badgers capture WCHA Final Faceoff berth in overtime
Bemidji nearly ended several streaks in its upset bid. The Badgers entered Saturday 9-0 against the Beavers in WCHA Tournament play. BSU had not won a game inside UW’s LaBahn Arena since January 16, 2015.
With Wisconsin firmly on its heels after giving up the late equalizer, it would not have been all too surprising if the Badgers had faltered. Edwards credited her team’s plethora of leaders, regardless of whether those players are wearing a ‘C,’ ‘A,’ or no letter at all, for Wisconsin’s steadiness throughout.
“I love the way we responded almost every time they scored,” UW’s alternate captain said. “I think we just know that most of the time, we’re the better team out there. So just playing our game, you know, we’re going to succeed.”
Getting back to Wisconsin’s game was exactly what it did in overtime. Edwards scored with a wrist shot on a three-on-two rush 74 seconds into overtime, putting the Beavers away for good.
Johnson noted that Simms’ pass, a feed that moved backwards through the neutral zone to Edwards, is not one he would normally advise on a rush. In this case, however, it put Edwards in the perfect position to take a shot she can so frequently score on.
“She’s got momentum coming up the ice, and then she gets into the top of the circle range, where, you know, again, you’re using that defenseman as maybe a little bit of a screen,” Johnson said of the gold medalist’s overtime scoring opportunity. “And for a split second, the goalie doesn’t see it, or makes a move that she normally wouldn’t do, and so it’s in the back of the net.
Johnson saw the play exactly how Edwards did.
“I was coming in with speed, I saw the ‘D’ backing in, I was like, it’s a good screen,” said Edwards. “I just gotta get it through.”
“You have to credit Bemidji,” Johnson said. “I mean, they tightened things up big time today, played with that energy and that desperation. Which, when you’re playing for your lives, I’m gonna give everything I got. So they were blocking shots, and they were covering that scoring area in the slot area very well.”
Up next for Wisconsin women’s hockey
The Badgers will not return to action on home ice inside LaBahn Arena until the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals in two weeks. Before then, Wisconsin will vie for a third consecutive WCHA Final Faceoff championship.
The WCHA conference tournament semifinal games will be played next Thursday, March 5th, at 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Central. UW’s semifinal opponent and start time is yet to be determined.
The tournament championship game begins Saturday, March 7th at 2:00 p.m. The semifinal and championship matchups are hosted in St. Paul, Minnesota, inside the University of St. Thomas’ Lee & Penny Anderson Arena.
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