The fourth-ranked Wisconsin Badgers gave up a third period game-tying power-play goal and allowed another in overtime in falling to top-ranked Minnesota-Duluth, 2-1, at Capitol Ice Arena on Saturday.
Wisconsin (4-2-2 overall, 3-2-1 WCHA) and Minnesota-Duluth (5-0-1, 3-0-1) skated through almost two scoreless periods, but the Badgers finally broke through at 18:35 of the second period. Frosh Molly Engstrom found the net with a wrist shot from above the left faceoff circle. Carla MacLeod fed Engstrom along the blue line for the primary assist.
The Badgers held a 22-9 shot advantage through two periods and entered the second intermission with a 1-0 lead.
The lead held until Kerry Weiland was whistled for tripping during a poke check attempt. UMD capitalized when Tricia Guest took Larissa Luther’s pass and slapped it past Jackie MacMillan. The game-tying tally came at 8:42 of the third period.
Wisconsin had a chance to win the contest with 1:30 left in regulation as Jocelyn Cookson found herself in alone on a breakaway. Cookson’s shot was stopped by Patricia Sautter and the teams would go to overtime.
Minnesota-Duluth began the extra period on a power play after Cookson was called for high sticking with 15 seconds left in the third. The Badgers killed the penalty, but failed on its attempt to kill a holding the stick infraction called on Kathy Devereaux during the overtime. The junior was sent to the box at 3:48, and Laurie Alexander won the game 14 seconds later. Joanne Eustace centered from behind the goal to a driving Alexander, who beat MacMillan for the 2-1 victory.
Wisconsin outshot UMD for the game, 34-15, but went 0-for-2 on the power play. The Bulldogs were 2-for-5 with the advantage.
“Any time you play the defending national champions you have to play harder than they play and I thought we did that tonight,’ Head Coach Trina Bourget said. “I thought we did everything right and we played a great game. Things just didn’t turn out as we had hoped.”
MacMillan dropped to 4-2-1 on the season after making 13 saves in the loss. Sautter improves to 2-0-1 with her 33-save performance.
“In the locker room everyone focused on their performance and did the best they could,” added Bourget. ” If you thought you’ve done that, you’ve got to be proud of that. You have to realize there is nothing you can do about the past and to move on to focusing about the next series against Mankato. We’ve got to get back and focus about what we can do better next weekend.”
