(UW ATHLETICS) ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA – The No. 1 Wisconsin women’s hockey team (32-3-2, 23-3-2) defeated the Minnesota State Mankato Mavericks this Thursday, 7-2, to advance to the championship game of the WCHA Final Faceoff at Lee & Penny Anderson in St. Paul.
Wisconsin now competes against the winner of No. 2 seed Ohio State and No. 3 seed Minnesota in the WCHA Championship on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT. It’s the eight WCHA Championship appearance in the last 10 seasons.
Despite a number of shots on goal in the first period, the Badgers were unable to break through for a majority of the first period. An early UW goal from Adéla Šapovalivoa was overturned after review, but Captain Caroline Harvey came through at the end of the first period, making it 1-0 with just a minute to go.
From then on the Badgers found their scoring ways. To open the second period of play, Kirsten Simms went off the bar for her 23rd goal of the season.
Kelly Gorbatenko made it 3-0 less than two minutes later, before Adéla Šapovalivová continued UW’s streak – scoring UW’s third goal in a four minute span.
The Mavericks tallied one in the second period before Simms collected her second goal of the game, making it 5-1 to end the second.
Gorbatenko wasted no time scoring her second goal of the game, finding the back of the net just 36 seconds into the final period of play.
The Badgers did not stop there, as sophomore Maggie Scannell scored UW’s seventh and final goal.
The Badgers outshot the Mavericks 52-27 and goaltender Ava McNaughton recorded 25 saves.
Notes to Know
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The Badgers are now 69-18 in the WCHA Tournament all-time, and have won their last 11 WCHA Tournament games.
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Head coach Mark Johnson, is now one win away from becoming the first ever NCAA women’s hockey coach to reach 700 wins.
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Freshman Adéla Šapovalivová has scored four goals in the Badgers first three postseason games.
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Caroline Harvey is now two points away from becoming the 10th Badger with 200+ career points.
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Kirsten Simms is two goals away from becoming the fifth Badger to reach 100 career goals.
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UW will now make 17 appearances in the Final Faceoff championship game, and eight of the last 10.
Up Next: UW moves on to the conference tournament championship on Saturday at 2 p.m. (CT). The Badgers will face the winner of the Ohio State vs Minnesota game that is happening at 7 p.m. (CT) this Thursday.
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