Only three games separate the Wisconsin women’s hockey team from a national championship three-peat as it heads into the NCAA Quarterfinals Saturday. However, the Badgers must get through a slew of tough opponents to accomplish that feat, starting with Minnesota in Minneapolis.
“The team put themselves in a position that they’re only three games away from a national championship, and that’s all you can ask. It’s a journey to get here, they’ve done what they’ve needed, and now they have an opportunity, and that’s the bottom line,” head coach Mark Johnson said.
The journey was a roller-coaster, which featured a 1-5-1 drop from Nov. 3 to Dec. 1, bottoming out with a heartbreaking overtime loss to eventual WCHA regular-season and Final Face-Off champion Minnesota-Duluth.
“Sometimes with defeat, people are a little more attentive and work a little bit harder because they don’t like what happened to them, and certainly our leaders felt that way,” Johnson said.
As a result, the Badgers have bounced back, boasting a 17-2-1 record since that point and now will face a familiar foe.
Wisconsin and Minnesota have battled five times this season and have played as recently as last Saturday when Wisconsin prevailed 4-3 to move onto the conference finals. The Badgers hold the season edge 3-1-1, and have had even more success on the road at Ridder Arena in recent years, going 7-0-1 in the last eight games at the Gophers’ home.
“I love Ridder Arena, and I’m sure like many people have said, it’s kind of like a second home for us,” senior forward Jinelle Zaugg said. “No matter who ends up winning, it’s a huge rivalry … it’s going to be awesome.”
Badger junior goaltender Jessie Vetter claims the rivalry with Minnesota is not at the same level as it is between the men’s hockey teams. Vetter is friendly with some of the Minnesota players because she has represented the United States in hockey tournaments with Gophers such as senior defenseman Anya Miller and junior forward Gigi Marvin, who played with Vetter this past November in Sweden at the Four Nations Cup.
“It’s definitely less intense. I think with the guys there’s more of hatred towards each other. We’ll go out to dinner on Friday with them before we play them Saturday,” Vetter said.
This season, Vetter heads into the NCAA Tournament knowing she’ll be the starting netminder. In each of the last two campaigns, head coach Mark Johnson ended a senior goalie’s career—Meghan Horras in 2006 and Christine Dufour in 2007—in favor of Vetter, who has a 0.26 goals-against average and .988 save percentage in her six national tournament games.
“It definitely helps me relax a little bit,” Vetter said. “It’s just nice knowing that I will have that opportunity to play.”
The Gophers face a similar decision this weekend, with junior Kim Hanlon and freshman Jenny Lura putting up nearly identical stats this season. Hanlon is 0-2 on the season against Wisconsin, while Lura is 1-1-1 facing the Badgers.
“We’ve been in that [situation] before. If you win you made the right choice, if you lose you second guess yourself,” Johnson said.
When the choice to start a goalie like Vetter pays off for a coach like it has for Johnson—6-0 in the NCAA Tournament with the junior—there is no need for second guessing.
