MINNEAPOLIS — Freshman Elizabeth Giguère scored an unassisted goal 7:55 into overtime on Sunday evening to give the Clarkson Golden Knights their second-straight national championship and their third title in five years.
Giguère got a breakaway and beat Colgate goalie Julia Vandyk with a deke and a backhander to win the game. It was the ECAC Rookie of the Year’s sixth game-winning goal this season. The play looked similar to the one Giguère used to beat Mercyhurst in overtime in the NCAA quarterfinal just a week ago.
“She can make plays that not a lot of players can make,” said Clarkson coach Matt Desrosiers. “One of her biggest assets is the vision that she has. She’s definitely a special player.”
Clarkson has gone from being a team that had never appeared in the NCAA tournament before 2010 to a squad that has now won three of the last five national titles, including the past two in a row. They’ve appeared in six straight NCAA tournaments and three straight Frozen Fours. With the history of Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth, the word dynasty has a lot of weight in women’s hockey. If Clarkson’s not there yet, they’re certainly close.
“I think the (team) before us really laid the foundation,” said senior goalie Shea Tiley. “The (players) that returned (from the 2014 championship team) really showed us how we needed to play. I think that we’ve translated that over the four years. Hopefully, we left our mark on the program.”
The path to the title was more difficult this season. The Golden Knights played into overtime in each of their three NCAA games this season, something no team in Division I or Division III, men’s or women’s, has ever done. It was also the first Frozen Four in any division of hockey where all three games had overtime.
“To win three games in overtime, to win it like they did, just shows the resiliency and the character that we have in that locker room,” said Desrosiers. “To win it back-to-back, it’s not an easy thing to do. We had a bullseye on our backs the entire year.”
It was a matchup of familiar foes as these two had already faced each other three times this season, most recently in the ECAC championship game, but Desrosiers knew that Sunday’s game would be different.
“We knew we were going to get a better Colgate today. We knew that we were going to be in a tough game,” he said.
The Golden Knights dominated the first period for long stretches, attempting 30 shots. Seven of their 15 shots on goal came from in close on Vandyk. They were getting through the defense, moving the puck, and keeping Colgate from doing much of anything in the defensive zone.
Vandyk was once again stellar for the Raiders as she made multiple point-blank saves to keep Colgate off the board early on. She recorded 35 saves on Sunday and a total of 90 saves over the weekend.
“That’s the thing about her (Julia), every game this year she’s just given our team a chance to win,” said Colgate coach Greg Fargo. “She makes the right saves at the right time, giving our team enough time to settle down and get into our game.”
Junior Cassidy Vinkle scored just her fourth goal of the season to give Clarkson the 1-0 lead toward the end of the first period. The Golden Knights forced a neutral zone turnover and had numbers heading back on offense. Vinkle carried the puck and sniped a beautiful shot to beat Vandyk top shelf and give Clarkson the lead heading into the first intermission.
It was a different story in the second period. There was 11 seconds of a power play to kill, but from there, the Raiders seemed to find their stride. Passes were connecting, and they were able to get inside the vaunted Clarkson defense that does such a good job controlling and neutralizing the middle.
“I think we gave them a little bit too much respect in the first,” said Colgate senior Annika Zalewski. “Coming away from that period, we knew we had more in us. We gave them that one, and we wanted to win the next 20. We did that.”
Colgate tied the game just 2:27 into the second period thanks to a beauty of a play from blueliner Olivia Zafuto at the point. She beat her defender and took the puck in toward Tiley. She and Malia Schneider had one defender to beat. Zafuto got Clarkson to commit and dished it to Schneider, who one-timed it back-door into a wide-open net.
The Raiders made effective use of the power play in both their early-season win over Clarkson and their semifinal win over Wisconsin on Friday, but they were 0-for-2 on Sunday.
“The trouble for us was not in zone, but getting in zone — getting set up,” said Fargo.
Colgate was making its first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament, so the trip to the title game was a quite the accomplishment. The only other team to have such a run was Cornell in 2010, which beat Clarkson in overtime in the ECAC tournament to earn the autobid that year. They then beat Mercyhurst in overtime in the semifinal and lost 3-2 to Minnesota Duluth in triple overtime in the title game.
“I don’t think you can ask for much more in terms of the display of talent out on the ice,” said Fargo. “I liked the way our team played tonight. We went for it, and we gave it everything that we had. … We played the game we wanted to play tonight.”
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