Gopher Women Split the Border Battle Beating Badgers 3-1

Wisconsin and Minnesota met Saturday afternoon to finish their series. This game started with Wisconsin getting a solid chance on goal within the first minute, but Sydney Scobee stopped the shot.  The Badgers maintained offense for another couple minutes before the Gophers got going and their first major blitz ended in a mess at Kristen Campbell’s crease. Sophie Skarzynski went to the box for interference at 4:58 and while Wisconsin boxed Minnesota into their zone and had some good chances, they were unable to convert on the power play.

Alexis Mauermann then tripped Grace Zumwinkle at 7:40. On the resulting power play Sarah Potomak made a nice right circle shot on and Nicole Schammel tried to tuck the puck into goal before getting shoved into the backboards. Right after Scobee covered the puck during a flurry and two Badgers crashed into her, shoving the goaltender into her own net, but couldn’t push the puck across the goal line. Skarzynski threw a right point shot into traffic and the puck landed in goal on Campbell’s stick side at 15:44. Schammel and Zumwinkle assisted. Kelly Pannek made a flyby attempt to 5-hole the puck, but got stopped cold. Wisconsin made one more attempt down the center, which ended in a stellar Scobee save.

There were a series of Gopher-Badger collisions near the start of second period, which ended with an Amy Potomak tripping call at 2:02. Minnesota killed the penalty and then had to kill another one, as Olivia Knowles wound up in the box for interference at 4:31. Once they were back to full strength Minnesota carried the puck into Wisconsin’s zone and knocked it around until Patti Marshall fired down the slot into Campbell and she covered up. Then Mekenzie Steffen hooked Catie Skaja behind Wisconsin’s net at 8:44. The Badgers pulled off a highly effective penalty kill.

Schammel’s shot hit Campbell, flew up into the air and then bounced into goal at 12:38. Marshall had the lone assist. Sophie Shirley didn’t like that and so when Britta Curl fed her the puck she flew off with the puck to poked it past Scobee on the doorstep at 12:59. Wisconsin got caught with too many skaters on the ice at 15:55, which resulted in Maurmann serving the team penalty. Wisconsin killed it and went back on the PK at 18:29 when Maddie Rowe interfered with Sarah Potomak. This penalty carried into third period before harmlessly expiring.

Wisconsin soon had a flurry then play turned into a lot of rink racking. The Badgers were batting around some of the Gophers without calls and it looked like Taylor Heise took a fairly hard hit into the boards, but she was soon back on the ice. Scobee continued to pull off some fantastic saves. Then Zumwinkle made a lateral pass to Scahmmel before she flew up the left side and scored from the left circle at 6:08. Skarzynski had the second assist. Wisconsin maintained a coordinated campaign on Scobee and one of the attempts left the goaltender spinning out of her crease as bodies piled up to one side.

Sarah and Amy Potomak made a tic-tac-toe attempt that Campbell denied. Wisconsin continued making runs down either side of Minnesota’s zone and attempted shots on goal, sometimes turning into fairly dangerous play around the crease. One such attempt resulted in a Badger lying prone along the back of the crease and Scobee tripped over her falling, hard, but appeared to be okay after a trainer checked her out. Alex Woken went to the box at 16:29 for checking and during the power play the Badgers used their timeout with 2:49 remaining in the game. Unsurprisingly, Campbell was then pulled at 17:11. Badgers played the rest of the game with the skater advantage, but couldn’t convert again, so Minnesota won 3-1 after Wisconsin outshot them 25-38 and split the series.