The Badgers women’s hockey team took a big blow this past weekend as the reigning champions were swept by the No. 5 Minnesota Golden Gophers — marking the first time the Badgers have been swept since 2018.
Coming into the series, the Badgers had only lost one game this season to Minnesota earlier in the year. But in a stunning turn of events, a Badger squad that had been the No. 1 ranked women’s team all year dropped two consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 2020.
The first game was close throughout, despite the Badgers continually outshooting the Gophers. After a first period that saw no goals, Minnesota was the first team to strike when defensive player Madeline Wethington scored on Kennedy Blair with only seven minutes left in the second.
The Badger’s remained scoreless through two periods despite Minnesota committing three minor penalties during that time. The Wisconsin powerplay was finally able to convert during the third period though, when Daryl Watts capitalized off an Amy Potomak major, scoring her sixteenth goal of the year. Potomak made it up to her team, however, when she scored the game winning goal with less than three minutes remaining. The Badgers were unable to tie it up, giving the Gophers the 2-1 victory. Wisconsin outshot Minnesota 41-22, with goaltender Makayla Pahl collecting 40 saves for the Gophers.
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The next game was a scoring frenzy, comparatively. Senior Brette Pettet started the scoring right away in the first period, before Minnesota’s Crystalyn Hengler answered back one minute later. Caitlin Schneider gave Wisconsin the lead again with three minutes remaining, which lasted all but 14 seconds before Minnesota was again able to retaliate, scoring two more goals and ending the period with a 3-2 lead.
Taylor Heise, the WCHA player of the month for November, gave Minnesota the insurance they needed at the beginning of the second period, scoring her seventeenth goal of the season. The Badger’s weren’t able to come back from the deficit, despite Pettet scoring her second goal of the game during the third period. The game ended 3-4, with the Badgers coming up short again despite outshooting Minnesota 33-25.
Because of this sweep, Wisconsin fell down to third in the USCHO Women’s Poll. It marks the first time all season they have not held the top spot. In-conference rival Ohio State received the same number of points as Wisconsin, putting them at the three spot as well. Minnesota moved up to number two, thanks to their recent performance, while Northeastern takes the number one spot, sporting an impressive 21-2-1 record.
Wisconsin has been a powerhouse all season, but it was inevitable a few losses would occur. Despite this setback, the Badger’s still boast some of the highest scoring numbers in the league and have one of the best defenses.
The Badgers will begin their rebound this week, playing in three games. The games begin with a Friday-Saturday series against St. Cloud State and then end with a make-up game against St. Thomas on Monday.
