The Wisconsin Badgers are national champions. My women’s hockey team defeated Minnesota 2-0 Sunday afternoon in dominating fashion to win our fifth national title in the past 13 years. Star Annie Pankowski shredded apart the Gophers, and our neighbors to the west really never had a chance. (RELATED: Watch ‘Miracle On Ice’ Legend Mark Johnson‘s Wisconsin Jersey Retirement Ceremony) Annie Pankowski finds the back of the net for @badgerwhockey!! Wisconsin now up 2-0 Minnesota. #WFrozenFour pic.twitter.com/juCPgH7Dwo — NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) March 24, 2019 When @BadgerWHockey scores first, it means good things (29-1-1). Well, then, consider this something very good. pic.twitter.com/Lz0lxLDKgh — Wisconsin On BTN (@WisconsinOnBTN) March 24, 2019 I know that I regularly trash women’s sports, but women’s hockey is different. Whether it’s the national team or the top teams in college, those gals are exciting as hell to watch. Just days after our hearts were broken by Oregon in March Madness, my beloved Badgers are back on the top of the world. (RELATED: The March Madness Bracket Has Been Released) What an incredible time to be a Wisconsin Badgers. Five titles since 2006. Mark Johnson really has done something incredible with this program. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Wisconsin Women’s Hockey (@badgerwhockey) on Mar 24, 2019 at 12:53pm PDT Again, I know you’re probably shocked I tuned in for a women’s sporting event, but you just don’t know what you’re talking about if you don’t understand the high level of play in elite women’s hockey. It’s incredibly entertaining and we’re here for every single second of it. Major props to my ladies back home for taking care of business. I couldn’t be prouder of them. Finally, Wisconsin star Sophia Shaver is an absolute smoke. View this post on Instagram A post shared by sophiashaver (@sophiashaver) on Jan 19, 2018 at 1:36pm PST View this post on Instagram A post shared by sophiashaver (@sophiashaver) on Oct 27, 2018 at 9:34am PDT View this post on Instagram A post shared by sophiashaver (@sophiashaver) on Sep 27, 2018 at 5:30pm PDT With women like that on our roster, we were winners before they even dropped the puck. Follow David Hookstead on Twitter<doc-sep>It's the fifth national title for the Badgers. The Gopher women's hockey team fell short in Sunday's NCAA national championship game, losing to border rival Wisconsin by a score of 2-0. Anna Pankowski and Sophia Shaver scored goals for Wisconsin and goalie Kristen Campbell made 27 saves for the shutout. Campbell was named the tournament's most outstanding player. Minnesota finishes with a final record of 32-6-1, with four of the losses coming at the hands of Wisconsin. The Gophers and Badgers split four regular season games and Wisconsin beat the Gophers 3-1 in the WCHA Final Faceoff to win the conference tournament title March 10.<doc-sep>Minnesota has won four of the last seven Frozen Four championships. HAMDEN, Conn. — It's a border battle for the NCAA women's hockey title today as No. 2 Minnesota (32-5-1) faces top-ranked Wisconsin (34-4-2) at the People's United Center in Hamden, Conn. This will be the sixth time the Gophers and Badgers square off against each other this season. The teams split four regular-season meetings, while Wisconsin defeated Minnesota in the WCHA Final Faceoff. The Gophers and Badgers have previously met in seven NCAA tournament games with Minnesota holding a slight edge at 4-3. The seven games include two NCAA Championship games with Wisconsin winning in 2006 and the Gophers prevailing in 2012. The Golden Gophers women's hockey team defeated Cornell 2-0 in the NCAA Semifinals on Friday to advance to the NCAA title game. Senior forward Nicole Schammel opened the scoring with a goal in the second period giving the Gophers the early one-goal lead. They would add an empty-netter by junior forward Sarah Potomak for the final tally.<doc-sep>It’s the game that Minnesota fans have been expecting all season long. The #1 and the #2 teams for the absolute majority of the season playing hockey for sixty minutes to determine who gets to call themselves the 2019 NCAA Champion. The Minnesota Golden Gophers against the Wisconsin Badgers for all the marbles, all the Tostito’s, all of the cheese. It all comes down to one last game for bragging rights, and for a title. Let’s go! The Gophers reached the title game by defeating Cornell 2-0 on Friday. Nicole Schammel got the Gophers on the board in the second period on a rebound goal on the power play and Sarah Potomak added an empty netter to clinch the win late in the third. Alex Gulstene made 15 saves to get the shutout win. But the MVPs were the Gopher defense in front of Gulstene. Minnesota blocked thirty Big Red shots with Patti Marshall blocking six and Sophie Skarzynski five each. They kept the puck away from Gulstene who did her job—getting Minnesota to Sunday. The obvious question then becomes who will Minnesota start in goal on Sunday. Brad Frost has been platooning his goaltenders for most of the season. He gave the usual second game starter junior Sydney Scobee the start in the NCAA Quarterfinal win over Princeton a week ago, and then Gulstene got the start on Friday. If the pattern would hold one would think it would be Scobee’s net on Sunday. But will it? Told #us this morning @kfan1003 he’s going with Gulstene. Thanks for listening — Kevin Falness (@RadioFalness) March 23, 2019 I’m guessing Brad Frost isn’t telling one way or another. We will need to wait until warmups to find out exactly who will start in net for the Gophers. Both Minnesota goaltenders have had split success against Wisconsin. Gulstene is 1-1 and gave up just one goal per game against Wisconsin in the regular season recording a 1-0 shutout in Madison and a 2-1 loss in Minneapolis. Scobee is 1-2 and is giving up 2 goals per game to the Badgers. She gave up three in a 4-1 loss in Madison, just 1 in a 3-1 win in Minneapolis, and then two goals in a 3-1 loss in the WCHA Championship Game. We know who will be in the net for Wisconsin. Kristin Campbell has started all 40 games for the Badgers this season. She is one of the best goalies in the country giving up just 1.06 goals per game and has a save percentage of .937. The WCHA Goalie of the Year and a Second Team All-American is 3-2 against the Gophers this season and has given up just seven goals in five games against Minnesota. Campbell has been perfect so far in the NCAA Tournament in 2019. She led the Badgers to a 4-0 shut out win over Syracuse in the quarterfinals and then backstopped Wisconsin to a 5-0 semifinal win over two-time defending NCAA Champion Clarkson. That game on Friday was a 1-0 game with nine minutes left in the third before the Badgers erupted for four goals in the final nine minutes. As that game shown Wisconsin can score and quickly. The Badgers will roll four lines and have definite scoring threats on three of them just like Minnesota. Senior Annie Pankowski is a deadly sniper on the first line, but the second line of Britta Curl, Abby Roque and Sophie Shirley is the one that has given Minnesota fits this season. Curl and Shirley each have a pair of goals against the Gophers, as does Pankowski. The Badgers third line features a pair of Minnesotans who would love to stick it to their home state program on the biggest stage. Senior Sophia Shaver of Wayzata and junior Presley Norby of Minnetonka both have broken the twenty point mark this season for the Badgers. The Badgers defense also features a pair of Minnesotans who crossed the border in Mekenzie Steffen from Centerville and Grace Bowlsby from Edina. As a whole, these teams are pretty identical. The Gophers have the #1 scoring offense in the nation, the Badgers are #2. Wisconsin has the #1 scoring defense in the country, the Gophers are #3. Minnesota has the #2 power play in the nation, Wisconsin is #3. Wisconsin has the #10 penalty kill, Minnesota is #12. It really doesn’t get much more even then that in a winner take all game. If Minnesota has any edge, it is in the series history. This will be the third time Minnesota and Wisconsin have meet for the NCAA Championship with each team winning one. The Badgers won 3-0 in 2006 while the Gophers won 4-2 in 2012. Wisconsin won the team’s most recent meeting in the NCAA Tournament in the quarterfinals last season in Madison 4-0. However, before that Minnesota was a constant thorn in the Badgers side. Minnesota knocked the Badgers out in the championship game in 2012, and in the Frozen Four semifinals in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Did last year’s win snap the mental block Minnesota had on Wisconsin—or does it still linger in the background. Do visions of Sarah Potomak’s overtime winner in 2016 still run through Wisconsin’s head? These two teams know each other back and forth. This will be the second year in a row the teams have played in the maximum six games a season against one another. Sunday’s game will be the 27th between the two teams in the last five seasons. As Brad Frost told Todd Milewski of the Wisconsin State Journal: “Aside what from pregame meal they’re eating, I could tell you anything else you want to know in regards to their players, their staff, what they’re trying to do, what we’re trying to do,” It’s not about surprises. It’s not about getting caught by something you haven’t seen before. It comes down to execution, working your game plan the best that you can and trying to disrupt your opponents. These two teams are masters at that.<doc-sep>
HAMDEN, Conn. – Wisconsin defeated Minnesota 2-0 in the Women’s Frozen Four title game Sunday, capturing its fifth NCAA women’s hockey championship. The Badgers ended the Gophers’ season for the second consecutive year after winning 4-0 in the NCAA quarterfinals last season. Minnesota has played in nine NCAA championship games; this was its third loss. With five NCAA titles, Wisconsin climbed into a tie with Minnesota Duluth for second-most all time. The Gophers have six. Wisconsin last won it all in 2011. The Gophers struggled to get anything generated in front of the Badgers net. Wisconsin recorded 20 blocks, and goalie Kristen Campbell had 27 saves for her third straight shutout of the postseason. “They were really strong defensively. We were trying to get a lot of shots and we were having a hard time finding those second chances. It’s hard getting really good lucks against that team and they take care in front of the net,” said Minnesota senior Kelly Pannek. Wisconsin’s first goal came in the first period off a great play by Minnetonka native and 2016 Minnesota Ms. Hockey Presley Norby, who scrapped in the corner and won the puck before feeding Wayzata native Sophia Shaver, who beat Gophers goalie Alex Gulstene. The Badgers were particularly dangerous this season when scoring first, going 30-1-1 in those situations. In every Minnesota-Wisconsin game this season, the team that scored first was victorious. In the second period, Minnesota looked to be picking up momentum thanks to two Wisconsin penalties, but that was effectively killed when Badgers senior captain Annie Pankowski extended the lead with a short-handed goal to make it 2-0 Wisconsin. “That was a high-level play by Pankowski,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “Sometimes you’ve got to tip your cap to a great player. That one hurt. That was a huge turning point. We were generating some things on the power play, and then a big-time play there.” Wisconsin senior Maddie Rolfes said the theme of the day for the Badgers was “whatever it takes.” They blocked shots, lifted sticks, deflected passes, broke up plays and kept Minnesota from finding a rhythm in the offensive zone. The Badgers were also successful in limiting pucks to the net and kept the Gophers from having second- and third-chance opportunities. “It really helped to know their game and to know what kind of style they play and to adjust to that, and we went out with the utmost confidence,” said Rolfes.