Playing their first home game in three weeks, the Wisconsin women’s hockey team gave the fans all the action they could have wanted in their weekend series with Ohio State.
Saturday, after giving up a pair of goals in less than three minutes, the Badgers scored two goals in 17 seconds en route to a 5-3 win over the Buckeyes.
Moments after sophomore Brooke Ammerman capitalized on a penalty shot, Geena Prough gave the Badgers a lead they would not relinquish.
Slow starts have been a problem for the team this year, but UW got on the board Saturday just 3:48 into the first period. Located behind the net, Ammerman fed the puck to an open Prough just right of the crease for the easy score.
“Brooke made a beautiful pass,” Prough said. “She fought for the puck and came behind the net and hit it out.”
Freshman Becca Ruegsegger shut out the Buckeyes in the opening period, but OSU got on the board quickly after the intermission. Thirty seconds into the second frame, Teal Bishop extended her stick enough to poke a loose puck past Ruegsegger before the Badger defense could close in.
A little more than two minutes later, OSU’s Rachel Davis found Laura McIntosh alone by the Badger blue line. With no defense in sight, McIntosh was able to take her time against Ruegsegger. Traveling from right to left, McIntosh waited until Ruegsegger made a move down low and countered with an upper shelf wrist shot.
The UW goaltender believes she over-anticipated the play, which resulted in a goal.
“That breakaway goal I committed a little too early,” Ruegsegger said.
Facing a deficit for the fifth time in six games, Wisconsin was quick to respond.
After helping the Buckeyes grab the lead, Davis was called for hooking Ammerman in a one-on-one scoring chance. Ammerman made the most of her penalty shot opportunity, faking a slap shot before moving left and nailing a wrist shot into the back of the net.
“I’ve been using that in practice a lot,” Ammerman said of her move. “She didn’t bite as hard as I thought she would, so I got pretty lucky.”
Since the team practices penalty shots three to four times a week in practice, it came as no surprise to the coaching staff that Ammerman made the penalty shot look easy. According to head coach Tracey DeKeyser, the goal provided the spark the team was looking for.
“It was one to the other, that’s what energy can do. A goal can really create that,” DeKeyser said. “I was impressed with just the emotion on the bench.”
Riding the momentum, captain Jasmine Giles connected on a cross pass that put Wisconsin in position to strike again. Situated at her own blue line, Giles passed to a streaking Kyla Sanders in the OSU zone to set up a two-on-one rush. Situated alone at the left end of the net, Prough capitalized on a one-timer to give the Badgers a small cushion.
“I got a beautiful pass from Kyla; she just slid it right over,” Prough said. “It was a kind of weird angle, but she got it over and I was lucky enough to put it away.”
Friday’s game was equally intense, as Wisconsin battled back from a 3-0 deficit only to see the game slip away in the closing minutes.
Already up by a goal heading into the second period, Ohio State scored two goals a minute apart to put Wisconsin at a serious disadvantage. The lead would remain at 3-0 until Wisconsin mounted a scoring rush of its own midway through the third period.
Saige Pacholok, making her first start as a Badger, put Wisconsin on the board at the 7:12 mark in the third with a rebound shot past OSU goalie Chelsea Knapp.
“I remember Coach Peter (Johnson) telling me jump in the play when you can,” Pacholok said. “I just went straight to the net and buried the rebound.”
Wisconsin’s aggressive play in the third period paid off again when Sanders put a backhand shot past a diving Knapp. With the Buckeye netminder out of position, Sanders was able to finish.
Later, with less than six minutes left in the game and still trailing by a goal, junior Mallory Deluce snapped a wrist shot into the back of the net to tie up the game.
“The third period we played more fearless,” Deluce said. “We moved the puck better, saw the open player right away, we just came out harder.”
In heartbreaking fashion, however, the Buckeyes scored a dagger less than a minute after Deluce’s equalizer. Defenseman Brittany Haverstock turned the puck over deep in the Wisconsin zone, right in the direction of OSU’s Hokey Langan. The Buckeye forward caught Wisconsin’s defense off-guard and finished the play with a shot past Ruegsegger.
“One thing you don’t want to do in hockey is put the puck to the middle ice when you don’t have to,” DeKeyser said. “That’s just an error on our part.”
