MADISON – Wisconsin’s five Olympians returned to the ice Friday, Feb. 27. Their presence was immediately felt.
The top-ranked Badgers women’s hockey team shut out Bemidji State, 7-0, at LaBahn Arena in Game 1 of a WCHA first-round playoff series. UW’s Olympians combined for nine points and four goals in the victory and junior goaltender Ava McNaugton recorded her seventh shutout of the season.
Wisconsin (30-3-2) can complete a sweep of the Beavers (6-26-3) at 3 p.m. Saturday.
“It’s nice to see kids that have been away from us for a while have success in the first part of the game and the first game itself because that gets them back up to speed and into a good place instead of maybe having a game where things don’t go very well (and) you get frustrated, you get down on yourself,” Badgers coach Mark Johnson said.
The game went about as expected. Wisconsin defeated Bemidji by an average margin of six goals in a season sweep. Friday UW set the tone with three goals during the first 16 minutes, its best start in five games against the Beavers.
Here is a rundown of how Wisconsin’s Olympians fared in their first game back.
Four of those points came during the first period. Three came on Sapovalivova’s first goal of the night.
The play started when Simms took a cross ice pass at the top of the right circle from Harvey and dropped the puck to Sapovailvova at the goal line. Her shot from the right side went off a Beaver’s skate into the goal to give the Badgers a 3-0 edge at the 15-minute 42-second mark of the first period.
Sapovailvova admitted she caught a break.
“I wanted to pass the backdoor to Laila, but I hit her skates and it went in,” she said. “So, it counts. It’s still a goal, but I didn’t want to do that.”
Sapovalivova’s goal followed scores from juniors Laney Potter and Cassie Hall during the first 9 minutes of a dominant first period. UW owned a 20-2 edge in shots on goal to equal the Beavers’ total for the entire evening.
The only drama came with 1:25 in the second period when Bemidji State’s Hailey Armstrong was awarded a penalty shot that McNaughton had no problem stopping.
“After odd minutes and odd practice times in Milan, it was nice to just kind of step right back into it and get into the playoff flow and know that I’m confident in the net and kind of back like I never left,” McNaughton said. “It was definitely great to have a great game, regardless of if it was shut out or not. It felt good in the net. So it was a good start to the playoff run.”
Johnson agreed, though he also feels there is another gear for his players to reach, particularly for Harvey and Edwards, who ranked 1-2 in minutes played for Team USA.
4:39 “They played good tonight, but there’s still another step in both of them and part of that is the emotional drain of what they’ve experienced and what’s transpired in the last week of their lives,” Johnson said. “And all of a sudden you’ve got to jump back on the ice and play a playoff game. That’s asking a lot, but they did well.
“It’s nice to get them back into our fold. But, you know, there’s more in their tank. And hopefully, you know, tomorrow we might see a little bit more.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin shuts out Bemidji; Olympians make immediate impact in return
Reporting by Mark Stewart, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
