WCHA Champs
This past weekend the Badger Women's Hockey team traveled to Minneapolis, MN to prepare for the WCHA playoffs. The first opponent being Minnesota Duluth. It's the playoffs and with team's seasons on the line, stakes are high, emotions are lost, and championships are won.
It was one thing going into the tournament knowing this could be your team's last game as well as your opponents last game. This mindset helps you prepare for anything, and reminds you to play your absolute heart out. Fortunately, our team the Badgers overcame the Bulldogs in a 5 - 0 victory Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs season is over.
The next moment was watching who our next opponent would be. After our team cooled down, grabbed a bit to eat, we sat in Ridder arena (Gopher's rink) to watch North Dakota vs. Minnesota. At this point, it didn't matter who our opponent was becasue to be deemed WCHA champs; we needed to win regardless. As time passed, it looked like the Gophers would take the series against North Dakota, and this was the case. The Gophers took down North Dakota 2-0 and ended their season.
The two teams (Badgers and Gophers) prepared routinely for their #borderbattle match up Sunday afternoon for the WCHA championship. Most polls favored, the Gophers to beat the Badgers, but not us. Our team prepared well for those high risk situations. Especially penalty kill. Going against a team who's power play is around 80% is tough. It's tough to defend and do the little things to prevent them from scoring. It's obvious to say, you don't want to face a team with an 80% power play; EVER. However, the Badgers faced the Gopher's power play unit 4 different times, and shut them down each time. Impressive!
As the game went along, both teams had their chances, but at the end of the day Wisconsin did the little things, made the big saves, played defense, and capitalized on their offensive rushes. The Badgers claimed the title in 1 - 0 game against the heavily favored Minnesota Gophers.
(Inside note) It's difficult to beat anyone in their home rink when the crowd is in their favor, sometimes the refs, and even the home team having an advantage and feeling comfortable. But, when you can do something like that - it's special.
