A repeat feat for Johnson, Badgers
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- This rink has been good to Mark Johnson.
It was built in 1979. Johnson played here in 1980 when the US Olympic team won its miraculous gold medal, and yesterday, on the same surface, the Wisconsin women's hockey team dominated the University of Minnesota-Duluth, 4-1, to win its second national championship in two years as Badgers coach Johnson improved his record at the Olympic Center to 2 for 2. Once called the 1980 Rink, it's now Herb Brooks Arena.
"I've got a pretty good record going here," he said.
Wisconsin's Sara Bauer, 5 feet 5 inches and about 110 pounds, maybe 105 after the weekend's two games, was Most Outstanding Player for the second year in a row. The quiet, contained Bauer, a senior center from St. Catherines, Ontario, was a tiny, formidable force, bulldozing through the Bulldogs like a 6-footer, and sloughing off defenders as smoothly as she deflected postgame compliments. She set up the Badgers offense and worked indefatigably on defense. It was left to her coach to mention that she broke a couple of ribs four weeks ago when she hit a goal post in a game, then just picked herself up and kept on going.
Bauer could only say, "I dunno," when asked how it felt to win a second national title. But she opened up a bit to explain why she didn't feel any pain from the broken ribs when she was on the ice.
"There's something special about playing hockey," said Bauer, the 2006 Patty Kazmaier Award winner. "You have an injury, you don't think about it out there. You just get out there and play."
Duluth is the only team that beat Wisconsin (36-1-4) this season and in four matchups the Bulldogs (24-11-4) had done a good job of restricting Bauer. Wisconsin won two games by a goal, lost one by a goal, and the teams tied one. But Bauer had a goal and two assists by halfway through the second period yesterday as the Badgers took a 3-0 lead.
"You just can't say enough about her," said senior defenseman Meaghan Mikkelson. "I didn't even know she broke her ribs until about a week later. She came in the next day and practiced just like she does every day. To have someone like that as a leader is huge for us."
Bauer won a faceoff in the Duluth zone to set up a power-play goal at 9:00 of the first, Jinelle Zaugg picking up the puck to rip a shot between the pads of Duluth freshman Kim Martin. The 20-year-old Swedish goalie, who led her team to a silver medal at the Torino Games in 2006, has been nursing a knee injury and missed the previous two games.
But Duluth coach Shannon Miller, whose team won the national title in 2001, 2002, and 2003, thought her goalie played well enough. The rest of the Bulldogs were out of energy even before the first puck dropped.
"It was obvious to me that we only had half a tank," said Miller. "You can feel it in the locker room and on the bench. We just didn't have that spark."
A couple of kids from Massachusetts doubled the Wisconsin lead at 7:24 of the second when freshman Meghan Duggan of Danvers passed the puck out of the left corner to Erika Lawler of Fitchburg. Lawler sent a wrist shot between the goalie's pads. Bauer made it 3-0 at 11:56, taking advantage of some Duluth confusion in the neutral zone to receive Mikkelson's pass and send it sharply into the top right corner.
Duluth looked defeated. But the Bulldogs rebounded with a power-play score at 14:23, Emmanuelle Blais tipping Noemie Marin's right point shot past Wisconsin's Jessie Vetter. That was the end of a remarkable streak for Vetter and the Badgers, 422 minutes 36 seconds of NCAA Tournament play over two years without allowing a goal. Wisconsin had not allowed a power-play goal since Feb. 11.
"I was just disappointed the margin went down," Vetter, a sophomore, said.
So were her teammates. Off the center ice faceoff, Lawler spun off into the Duluth zone on a clear breakaway, aiming a shot inside the right post post. Martin made the save but Jasmine Giles was crashing the net and stuffed in the rebound, only 10 seconds after the Duluth goal.
"Obviously the fourth goal was crucial and huge in a lot of different ways," Johnson said. "Scoring creates energy. They scored on a power play and before they can sit down, it's 4-1 instead of 3-1. That's the sign of a team that responds to a little bit of adversity."
Twenty-seven years ago, Johnson walked away from Lake Placid with the forever-special experience of the Olympic title.
"This town is very special to me and I wanted to do the same for them if I could," he said of his players. "The memory is something they can cherish. Every time they look down at the ring on their finger, they can relive the memory for the rest of their lives." 