Senior captain Blayre Turnbull enthralled LaBahn Arena on Saturday night with quite possibly her signature game at Wisconsin, propelling the Badgers to a 5-0 win over Minnesota-Duluth.
Turnbull created history by netting her first-career hat trick, but the way it was done had never been accomplished in the program’s history.
The Wisconsin captain’s hat-trick came off of three power-play goals.
Turnbull opened scoring at 10:51 in the first period, taking advantage of happenstance when the UMD defender marking her fell down. She then glided in on net and sent a backhander through Kayla Black’s five-hole for the opening goal.
Turnbull drew praise from her teammates and head coach Mark Johnson, who cited the captain’s work ethic and effort as deserving of her goals, especially on the special night where her father traveled from her hometown Stellarton, Nova Scotia to watch his daughter play.
“It’s senior night, (Turnbull’s) dad was in town, and it’s an emotional start to the game,” Johnson said. “For her to go out that way and get a hat-trick on a special night, being a captain and all, you have to be happy for her.”
Badgers goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens was tested early but kept her cool, making a memorable sliding-butterfly save in a 2-on-1 situation for the Bulldogs to preserve Wisconsin’s lead.
Freshman forward Annie Pankowski then opened the lead to two at 17:48 in the first frame after finding the puck in the crease for a backhand when Black left a rebound for the taking, with the Badgers scoring again on a power play.
Turnbull tallied her second of the game 1:22 later in the period to increase the lead to three when she put home an advantageous rebound in front of net.
Evelina Suonpaa came in for the second period in net for the Bulldogs to replace Black, who let up three first period goals.
Turnbull netted her third goal of the night at 9:15 in the third period when she sent a wrist shot into the back of the net through heavy traffic, once more on the power play.
“It’s exciting, but I think the important thing is that we won,” Turnbull said. “We won by more than one. That’s something we’ve been working on in practice with getting pucks to the net.”
Emily Clark brought the Badgers’ tally to five later on in the period by way of a tip-in. The game eased the criticism Wisconsin has been facing recently about its lack of offensive production.
The Bulldogs seemed to drop off energy-wise midway through the second period, leading to a relatively stress-free third period for the Badgers in which they scored twice.
Badgers, Bulldogs battle to scoreless tie Friday
Despite the buzz of the crowd Friday night, there was not much buzz on the ice as the Wisconsin women’s hockey team welcomed University of Minnesota–Duluth to LaBahn Arena.
A defensive battle unfolded before the eyes of those watching, and it wasn’t for the lack of trying that neither team scored until the eventual shootout.
The Badgers put up 41 shots through three periods, many of them originating from odd-skater rushes in which UMD’s goaltender Kayla Black slammed the door shut each time. UMD didn’t play the role of a doormat either, and fired 23 quality shots in return.
Wisconsin’s missed opportunities reflect the trend of the past few weeks. Quite simply, UW has found itself unable to score despite high shot totals. The Badgers averaged about 43 shots per game since resuming play after the winter break, but in the same time have only managed to put up 2.75 goals per game.
The Badgers’ play reflected this early in the first period when Baylee Wellhausen whiffed on a puck sent to her while unmarked just beyond the crease. Many other rushes ended in this fashion; they developed into tips sent just wide and scrums in which Black fell on or covered the puck.
The rest of the first period followed the same scheme, and through a very choppy second period with many stoppages and a third period full of more missed opportunities, the game eventually headed to overtime and the shootout tied at zero.
“Today their goaltender played very well,” Johnson said. “They defend well. We missed the net quite a bit because of that. They do a lot of the little things that make it hard to get second opportunities.”
Several players voiced opinions similar to Johnson’s about UMD’s high quality of defensive play, but in the eventual shootout, the Badgers proved that the Bulldogs were not invincible after all.
After a Turnbull miss and UMD’s Zoe Hickel missing as well, Pankowski scored for UW after she flipped the puck to her backhand across the face of net and past Black’s pokecheck, skillfully placing the puck into the bottom right corner.
The shootout went until UMD’s last shooter, Katerina Mrazova, completely fooled Wisconsin netminder Desbiens. Mrazova stick handled as she glided in on net, pushed the puck on to her backhand and deked, forcing Desbiens to commit to her right side. Mrazova then, while still on her backhand, toe-dragged the puck back on to her forehand and pushed the puck into the net for the equalizing goal.
However, Sidney Mckibbon followed up with a precisely timed wrist shot under Black’s right pad in the fourth round to give the Badgers a 2-1 lead in the shootout. Desbiens then sealed the Bulldogs’ fate with a sliding butterfly save to preserve the win and earn the two points.
“It was a hard-fought battle,” Mckibbon said. “It was a lot like a playoff game. It was a really good win for our team.”
Wisconsin secured second place in the WCHA by taking five of six points from the third place Bulldogs.
Next week the Badgers travel to Ohio State to take on the Buckeyes in their second-to-last series in the regular season, looking to build on their seven-game unbeaten streak.
