Badgers Fall to No. 2 Minnesota
November 01, 2002 | Women's Hockey
Jackie Friesen (Regina, Saskatchewan) scored the lone goal in fifth-ranked Wisconsin's 3-1 loss to No. 2 Minnesota at Ridder Arena, Friday.
The Badgers outshot the defending WCHA champions in the first period, 8-4, but the teams played scoreless through the first 20 minutes.
After Wisconsin failed to score on a power play that carried over for the first minute of the second period, the Gophers went on their first advantage and scored 12 seconds into the power play at 2:12. Krissy Wendell picked up Winny Brodt's blocked point shot and scored the game's first tally.
'I thought it was a real good game,' said head coach Mark Johnson. 'They got a power play and capitalized on it quite quickly. For about four or five minutes they had some energy because of the goal and we lost some energy because of it. '
Melissa Coulombe gave Minnesota a two-goal lead at 11:41 of the second with a point shot that beat a screened Jackie MacMillan (Buffalo, Minn.).
The Badgers crept back in the contest late in the third with a goal at 14:19. Friesen skated out from behind the goal to the left of UM netminder Jody Horak and caught the goalie leaning off the post. Friesen snapped a shot under Horak's glove and brought the Badgers within 2-1.
Later in the third, the Badgers lost control of the puck along the boards to the left of MacMillan. The puck slid out to the faceoff circle where La Toya Clarke picked it up. Clarke hit the far side with a wrist shot and gave UM its two-goal lead back.
'I was still comfortable even at 2-0 and I told the group after the second period if got the game to 2-1 we would be in good shape,' added Johnson. 'We got it there, but they scored shortly after to make it 3-1. '
The Badgers pulled MacMillan with 55 seconds remaining, but were whistled for an interference penalty at 19:19. MacMillan returned to the net to stop one more shot before the horn sounded for the game's conclusion.
'We were a little shorthanded with our defenseman tonight, ' Johnson said. 'Carla [MacLeod] broke her leg last Friday night and we obviously missed her. We also had Sis Paulsen out, our captain, so two of our top defenseman were unable to play tonight. It became a factor in the middle part of the third period. Our defensemen got a little bit tired and they were able to sustain a lot of pressure in our zone, which made us even more tired.'
MacMillan made 24 stops, but dropped to 4-2-1 on the season. Horak made 19 saves to improve her record to 6-0-0.
Wisconsin (4-2-1, 0-2-1 WCHA) looks for a split tomorrow against the Gophers (7-0-0, 5-0-0) at Ridder Arena. The puck drops at 4:05 p.m.
