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UMD goalie Maddie Rooney dives to block one of her 62 saves to stop Gopher attackers Kelly Pannek and Sarah Potomac (26). Photo credit: John Gilbert

There is no question that the best three teams in women’s college hockey are Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, and Minnesota -- not necessarily in that order. They’ve proved it all season, and they underlined it boldly last weekend in the WCHA Frozen Faceoff at Ridder Arena.

Wisconsin, the No. 1 team almost all season, won the tournament, beating UMD 4-1 in the title game Sunday, but the showcase for the level women’s college hockey has attained came Saturday afternoon when UMD faced Minnesota in a battle between arch-rival programs. UMD won the game 2-1 when Maddie Rooney made a Frozen Faceoff record 62 saves and Lara Stalder batted the winning goal out of the air, a letter-high line drive into the Golden Gopher goal. The goal, at 11:29 of the second 20-minute sudden-death overtime,  made it the longest Frozen Faceoff (semifinal and final rounds) game at 91 minutes, 29 seconds. 

“They don’t even play baseball in Switzerland, do they?” I asked Stalder, named the WCHA’s most outstanding player for the season, before the post-game press conference had started.

“No,” she smiled. “I learned it over here.”

After losing 4-1 to Wisconsin in the championship game, Rooney ended up with 112 saves in two games, and was named most outstanding player as well as to the all-tournament team, where she was joined by Stalder and Wisconsin’s Sydney McKibbon and Emily Clark at forward, and UMD’s Sidney Morin and Badger Jenny Ryan on defense.

On Tuesday, Rooney, who played boys high school hockey at Andover, got another reward, being named to the women’s national team, where the head coach will be Duluthian and former Hobey Baker Award winner Robb Stauber.

Exhausted or not, the UMD women poured onto Ridder Arena's ice after the 2-1 double-OT victory over Minnesota in the WCHA semifinals. Photo credit: John Gilbert

The only downside to an exceptional WCHA tournament is that Wisconsin remained No. 1 and UMD No. 2, but Minnesota was inexplicably dropped to No. 6 by the NCAA selection committee just so they could justify saving travel expenses. NCAA tradition was that tournament selections had the priority of trying to avoid same-league match-ups in the quarterfinals, but after UMD won the first three NCAA tournament titles, that rule was forgotten. So while No. 8 Robert Morris will play at No. 1 Wisconsin, No. 5 St. Lawrence plays at No. 4 Boston College, and No. 7 Cornell plays at No. 2 Clarkson, dropping Minnesota to No. 6 means the Gophers get to bus it to Duluth to face UMD again -- again! -- at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. 

Stalder’s double-OT goal brought as much relief as elation to the Bulldogs, who played to exhaustion Saturday, and found exhaustion came much sooner on Sunday. Coach Maura Crowell -- named WCHA coach of the year a day earlier -- gambled with her first line of Stalder (23 goals) and captain Ashleigh Brykaliuk (17) flanking center Katerina Mrazova (9), against Minnesota.  

The game had added drams because UMD was ranked No. 2 behind Wisconsin nationally, but Minnesota finished second between Wisconsin and UMD in league standings, and thus got the last change with home ice in the league semifinals. Crowell was pretty successful playing her top line against Minnesota’s high-scoring first line with Kelly Pannek (19 goals) centering Sarah Potomak (19) and Dani Cameranesi (18).

Crowell insisted she played all three lines quite regularly, the third line’s shifts were short and the top line understandably was on the ice far more. The Gophers, with more depth, were fresher throughout, and that became a huge factor as the game spilled over into overtime.

The great equalizer was Maddie Rooney, UMD’s brilliant sophomore goaltender, who has never been more brilliant. The Gophers stormed to a 17-6 edge in shots through the first period, but Rooney kept it a scoreless game. In the second period, UMD got a power play and Brykaliuk made it work, circling out at the top of the lot and when she got open for a shot, she instead fired a hard pass to Mrazova, whose first try was stopped by Gopher goalie Sidney Peters, but who flicked her own rebound up and over the fallen goaltender.

The 1-0 lead was huge for UMD, but it lasted only 1:07, and then Potomak carried up the left side, veered in against the defense, and snuck her shot through Rooney for a 1-1 tie. And that was it. The teams battled through a scoreless third period, and when I spotted Stalder back on defense, I thought it was an interesting move, possibly to give the Swiss star the chance to skate less and still play as much.

In overtime. The Gophers had far more firepower in the first 20-minute overtime, outshooting UMD 20-8, but again, Rooney was impenetrable, and the teams went back to the dressing rooms for another overtime. By then, Minnesota had a 58-35 edge in shots, and as the second overtime it appeared the only question was how many times Rooney could block a shot, dive, and block a rebound -- a sequence she repeated over and over, magically getting to some threats.

“They had a couple breakaways in the first overtime,” Rooney said. “On the first one, I anticipated her cutting across, and on the second, I got my toe on the shot.”

UMD defenseman Catherine Daoust was injured earlier in the game, which, Crowell indicated, was her primary reason for moving Stalder back. But at 11:29 of the second overtime, it didn’t matter any more. Mrazova and Brykaliuk generated a threat, and when Mrazova’s shot popped up nearly shoulder high at the crease, there was No. 21, just in the nick of time, arriving from the point to swat in her winning goal. 

Afterward, someone who obviously didn’t know that former coach Shannon Miller originally recruited Stalder as a defenseman, asked her how she felt she played at defense. “After three or four shifts back there, I guess I moved up,” Stalder said. 

And everyone from coach Crowell to her teammates and to all the Bulldog fans watching were awfully glad she decided to charge the net.

“What a hockey game!” said Minnesota coach Brad Frost, whose Gophers won the first two games against UMD this season, but lost twice in Duluth. “We had three breakaways, and outshot them 20-8 in the first overtime, and had 119 total shot attempts in the game.”

The gritty Bulldogs also blocked 28 shots, in addition. While the Bulldogs also mustered 41 shots, there is no doubt they were more exhausted, but they came back full of fire Sunday afternoon for the league final.

Again Rooney was brilliant, and after a scoreless first period, UMD’s Sidney Morin -- named the league defensive player of the year -- scored with a screened shot from center point on a power play. But the well-rested Badgers, who had beaten North Dakota 2-1 in the semifinals, tied it on a goal by Sydney McKibbon. Annie Pankowski broke the tie at 0:33 of the third, and the Bulldogs had nothinbg left Sarag Nurse made it 3-1 with a shorthanded goal for the Badgers, and Pankowski scored again to complete a 4-1 victory.

The UMD loss did nothing to blunt the ecstatic feeling of the Gopher game in the semifinals, however. “It was an unbelievable game,” said Crowell. “Dynamic players going back and forth on both teams. The Gophers played fantastic, and we weathered a lot of pressure.”

And the Bulldogs’ reward? They get to do it all over again in a one-or-done scenario Saturday.