Western Collegiate Hockey Association
UMD tips Badgers 5-4 in OT to win WCHA-Women's Final Faceoff
March 9, 2008
DULUTH, MN. --- Haley Irwin is only a freshman, but she showed the poise and patience of a veteran to score at 6:32 of sudden-death overtime Sunday and give the University of Minnesota-Duluth a 5-4 victory over Wisconsin in the championship game of the WCHA-Women's Final Faceoff tournament.
The triumph, before 1,274 fans at the DECC, gave UMD its fourth WCHA playoff title, and the first in five years, since the Bulldogs won league playoff crowns in three of the first four tournaments, since they and the WCHA began women's competition. It also secures the WCHA's guaranteed spot in the upcoming NCAA tournament, although UMD's record of 31-4-1 and No. 2 rank by the NCAA assured that anyway.
About an hour after their victory, the Bulldogs learned they would open the NCAA tournament at home against Mercyhurst next Saturday. Both Wisconsin (27-8-3) and Minnesota (27-6-4) also made the field, with the committee deciding to pair them up for a meeting in Minneapolis, also on Saturday.
UMD's victory was unlike any of the tense, hard-fought four games the two teams had during the regular season, undulating instead between flows of momentum. The Bulldogs stunned Wisconsin by jumping to a 3-0 first-period lead on goals by Laura Fridfinnson, Myriam Trepanier and Elin Holmlov, built it to 4-1 in the second period when Emmanuelle Blais deflected in another Trepanier missile, then had to hold on.
"It was a great game," said UMD coach Shannon Miller. "Obviously, I knew it would end up being a close game. I pretty much knew that even when we got ahead 3-0 and 4-1, that it was far from over."
The Badgers got a goal 10 seconds before the first period ended from Jinelle Zaugg, and rose from the 4-1 deficit when Jasmine Giles and Zaugg scored later in the second period, and Mallory Deluce scored with 2:49 left in regulation to tie the game 4-4.
"The start was not the way we envisioned it," said Wisconsin coach Mark
Johnson, whose team is now 1-4 against UMD this season. "We thought if we could get by the first 8 or 10 minutes, we might be OK. But they did a good job on the power play, with three goals. We got that goal late in the first period, and that gave us hope. But we weren't ready for the first 10 minutes, and that was a good learning experience for us."
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UMD's start featured a right corner faceoff by Irwin and Fridfinnson's quick shot at 5:24. Trepanier, a junior defenseman with a cannon shot, wound up clear at 6:56 after deft, power-play passes by both Holmlov and Saara Tuominen. "Those were great plays by Elin and Saara," said Trepanier. "I was right there, and I waited. I knew [Jessie] Vetter couldn't see anything, so I waited for a hole to develop, and just shot."
Then Holmlov scored a goal that would have been worthy of ESPN's play-of-the-day features, if that outfit covered women's hockey. The sophomore from Knivsta, Sweden, was at the right edge of the goal on a power play, when Tuominen spotted her and shot wide for her to tip. Holmlov deflected it right on, and Vetter saved it, but Holmlov sprawled to the ice, yet managed to get her stick on the puck, pull it out to the left, and tuck it in, just as she made an unscheduled landing, at 16:11.
Zaugg's 20th goal of the season came on a Badger power play, when she one-timed the rebound at the right slot, after Kim Martin blocked Erika Lawler's shot from the left circle. But even then, the Bulldogs seemed to have blunted Wisconsin's spark when Blais tipped another Trepanier missile past Vetter on a power play at 7:08 of the second period, making it 4-1. But just as Miller suspected, the Badgers came back strong.
Giles scored on the power play at 15:42, and just 1:01 later, Zaugg got her second of the game, fourth of the weekend, and 21^st of the season, deflecting a left-point shot by Rachel Bible to make it 4-3.
In the third period, UMD was doing a good job of protecting the 4-3 lead, outshooting Wisconsin 9-3. But one of those three was by Deluce, from the crease, after hard-charging Meghan Duggan went up the slot for the net. She almost made it, but was taken off her feet by a Bulldog, and she slid hard into Kim Martin, who appeared to have smothered the puck in the crease. The impact knocked Martin clearly out of the crease, and left the puck in the crease, and while her teammates converged, Martin could only watch helplessly as Deluce shoveled in her 12th goal of the season.
Irwin's game-winner was protested by some of the Badgers because it came after an apparent icing went uncalled. In an attempt to keep action moving, frequent untouched attempts at long passes went the length of the ice uncalled, but when the last one gave UMD a chance to advance territorially, it became an issue. "I think everybody in the building thought it would be icing," said Wisconsin coach Johnson. "But it doesn't change the outcome."
The overtime game-winner itself was a picture. Defenseman Heidi Pelttieri tried a shot that was blocked by Badger defenders, but the puck came right to Irwin's stick. Blasting a quick shot seemed like the play, but instead, Irwin controlled the puck, moved in, waited for an opening, then zapped her wrist shot just inside the left post.
"Heidi had a great shot, and when I got the puck, I knew Vetter was playing the shot to the right side, so I knew there had to be a hole on the left," said Irwin, who was the WCHA scoring champion as a freshman, and now has 22-32--54 overall. "The defenseman who had blocked the shot didn't know where the puck went, so I waited until she moved, so I could see the opening."
