Western Collegiate Hockey Association
Sophomore Kim Martin stopped all 28 Badger shots. |
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Martin, UMD Stop Badgers 4-0 For Women's Title
March 22, 2008
By John Gilbert
DULUTH, MN. --- Minnesota-Duluth coach Shannon Miller said she found herself expressing amazement to herself on the bench Saturday afternoon - and she wasn't alone, as a crowd of 4,031 at the DECC also watched the Bulldogs play a flawless final game to beat Wisconsin 4-0 and win the NCAA women's hockey national championship.
The Bulldogs (33-4-1) were perfect from the net out - but especially in the net, where sophomore Kim Martin stopped all 28 Badger shots to anchor a performance that secured the fourth NCAA title in eight years for UMD, the first since 2003, when the Bulldogs won their third title in the NCAA's third tournament , also at the DECC.
Martin on Friday night learned that she would not win the Patty Katzmaier Award, selected as the top college women's hockey player by a committee. Harvard's Sarah Vaillancourt won it - the sixth Harvard player to win it in its 11-year history. Only two Western players have won it, Krissy Wendell of Minnesota in 2005, and Sara Bauer of Wisconsin in 2006. UMD has never won the award, but it has won more NCAA championships than any other team.
"I'd be very honored to win the award," said Martin, "although I was so nervous about having to give a speech. But I would rather have the national championship than the award. I always wanted to come and play college hockey. And this year, I knew from the beginning of the season we could win it."
Wisconsin (29-8-3) was trying for a third straight NCAA women's hockey championship, but couldn't get over a familiar barrier - Martin and the Bulldogs, who beat the Badgers five times in six meetings, including the WCHA playoff final in a 5-4 overtime thriller two weeks ago on the same DECC ice.
But Saturday, there would be no overtime. Haley Irwin, the WCHA scoring champion as a freshman, scored a disputed goal with 38 seconds left in the first period. Then Emmanuelle Blais shoveled in a second rebound for a power play goal midway through the second period, and Sara O'Toole scored a shorthanded goal late in the middle session to make it 3-0.
Karine Demeule, the lone senior in UMD's lineup, scored with 2:45 remaining in the third period to complete the scoring without benefit of special teams or disputes.
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"I felt that we pulled together a perfect game," said Miller. "On the bench, I was saying to myself, 'Wow. Amazing.' As a coach, you know when your team has a game like that going, and I don't think it would have mattered if Wisconsin had gotten a goal or two."
Wisconsin kept working and trying to counter, outshooting UMD 28-24, but the Badgers couldn't penetrate UMD's strong team defense for many great chances, and when they did, Martin was there, calm, cool, and collected enough that she even smiled at someone standing behind the corner boards while she paused to grab a drink from her water bottle.
"Give them credit," said Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson. "We didn't move the puck well enough to get into the zone with good control even on the power play. They seemed to block shots well, and that can make a big difference, especially against a goaltender who's not giving up many goals."
A year ago, UMD lost 4-1 to the Badgers in the NCAA final. "But last year, we spent all the gas we had to get to the final," said UMD coach Miller.
Two weeks earlier, when the teams met for the WCHA playoff final, UMD jumped ahead 3-0, but Miller said even then she was sure Wisconsin would come back and turn it into another of their almost-ritual one-goal games. It happened then, with UMD winning 5-4 in overtime. But not Saturday. "I didn't feel they had the same fight today," said Miller.
Johnson was asked if he thought a breakthrough by his Badgers would be inevitable. "I had that feeling when it was 2-0, but at 3-0, I don't know," Johnson said. "We made that turnover and they got that short-handed goal.
"I had a very good feeling at the start. The team had worked hard to prepare, they were excited to be here. You have a vision of what might happen, but we had a real difficult time moving the puck. This was not the type of game that suits our style. After two periods, I told the players they had the option of giving them the game or coming back and giving it their best shot to score that first goal. So we threw the kitchen sink at them in the third period."
After eliminating No. 1 ranked Harvard 4-1 in Thursday's semifinals, while UMD struggled to hang on and survive 3-2 against New Hampshire, the Badgers seemed to be in perfect position to make up for a season-full of setbacks against the Bulldogs, with the biggest prize of all on the line.
"I'd certainly like to thank the city of Duluth for putting on such an enjoyable tournament, and the crowd today -- and Thursday -- was very supportive of women's hockey," said Johnson. "We're extremely disappointed, of course, because it is such a long journey to get here, to let it slip away."
Johnson was tactful about the first goal, which came at 19:22 of the opening period, when Irwin scored after a scramble at the Badger net. A long video review followed, and then repeated discussions between referee Scott Leavitt and both coaches.
"Somebody blew a whistle behind the goal line," said Johnson, "and it appeared to me that I heard the whistle before the puck went in. The puck did go in the net, there's no question about that, but there was only one person behind the net with a whistle."
A whistle, even blown by mistake, would negate any goal that followed. And the video review doesn't have any audio, so the long delay couldn't have proven when the whistle blew.
In the second period, Wisconsin goaltender Jessie Vetter came up with a big save on Jaime Rasmussen's power-play shot from the blue line, and also stopped Laura Fridfinnson's rebound. But the second rebound squirted to the left of the net, and Blais quickly backhanded her 17^th goal of the season into the net at 11:48 to make it 2-0.
"Duluth does a great job of crashing the net," said Vetter.
The Bulldogs, who had to kill 11 penalties to Wisconsin's seven, were shorthanded when the Badgers turned the puck over at their own blue line. Penalty killer O'Toole broke free with the loose puck and skated in alone, scoring into the right edge of the net for a short-handed goal at 18:24.
Demeule punctuated the victory for UMD with the only goal of the final session, her 16th.
"It's unbelievable," said Demeule, who is from Montreal. "A lot of hockey players want to win a national championship, but to be able to do it in my senior year, at home, is like a dream come true."