Missed chances haunt Wisconsin women's hockey in loss to Minnesota Duluth

MADISON – Getting shots wasn’t the problem for Wisconsin Sunday. Finishing them was the hurdle.

The second-ranked Badgers women’s hockey team owned a 44-26 edge in that statistic Sunday, but none of that helped the bottom line in a 3-2 loss to sixth-ranked Minnesota Duluth in front of 2,273 at LaBahn Arena. The Bulldogs broke a scoreless tie with two goals during the first 5½ minutes of the third period and then fought off UW’s comback attempt to win here for the fourth time in the last six games.

Wisconsin, meanwhile, lost for third time in four games and dipped to 13-3 overall and 9-3 in the WCHA.

Duluth freshman Hailey McCleod, who entered the weekend leading the NCAA with a .973 saves percentage, turned away 42 of Wisconsin’s 44 chances.

“We had 17 shots on six power plays. You’ve got to credit the goalie at some point,” Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson said.

Freshman Cassie Hall and senior Casey O’Brien scored for Wisconsin. Senior Britta Curl assisted on both plays to become the 14th player in program history to reach 150 points.

Hall’s goal cut the Bulldogs’ lead in half at the 7-minute 33-second mark of the final period. O’Brien’s score came with 3 seconds remaining and left the Badgers in need of a miracle to force overtime.

“Just in the dirty areas around the net we’ve got to find it in ourselves to finish a little better,” sophomore Caroline Harvey said. “We were battling up until the end. You could see we never gave up, but when we’re facing a goalie like that you’ve got to find a way to score on her.”

Duluth (10-3-1), 7-5) capitalized on a rebound opportunity and a 3-on-2 chance for its first two goals.

Hall’s goal, however, got UW back into the game and with 12½ minutes remaining there was plenty of time to even the score.

And the Badgers almost did. They got four quality chances during a power play midway through the final period but couldn’t push that second goal across.

Duluth made then pay with 5:20 remaining when Jenna Lawry gave Duluth 3-1 lead, UW pulled goaltender Ava McNaughton with about 3 minutes to play but didn’t get anything out of the 6-on-4 advantage until final seconds.

“It’s a game we could have easily won, but sometimes the game doesn’t pan out the way you'd like it to pan out because of different reasons and one was certainly the power play. We didn't capitalize,” UW coach Mark Johnson said. “It was OK. You can’t say it was bad. It was Ok, but that one in the third period, you’ve got to capitalize on that one. That one wins you the game.”

The loss leaves Wisconsin in a second-place tie with Minnesota, adding a little more juice to the series when the teams play Friday and Saturday in Minneapolis.

“I think we’re a little frustrated with ourselves,” senior Casey O’Brien said. “I thought for the majority we played a really good game. I thought we had a lot of good chances, tons of shots, but we did have some lulls that led to turnovers, (that) led to their goals.

“I think we’re just going to use this as a learning opportunity moving forward, let it hurt for a little bit but we’re going to forget about it and move on.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Missed chances haunt Wisconsin women's hockey in loss to Duluth