The Wisconsin Badgers outshot Bemidji State 33-11 over the final two periods and scored five straight goals to take the first game in their weekend series with the Beavers.
Bemidji got on the board first with a deflected goal on a power play. Jacqueline Kaasa took a shot from the top of the zone that was deflected somewhere between the circles. It arced up over three players, including Campbell, and found the back of the net.
It looked like the Badgers tied it just a few minutes later on a confusing play where the ref first waved off a goal and then seemed to call one scored. After an officials review that lasted more than five minutes, the goal was waved off and Bemidji State took a 1-0 lead into the locker room after one period.
After a first period where the teams looked pretty evenly matched and Bemidji had more than a few opportunities to open up their lead, the Badgers seemed to find another level and dominated play for the final 40 minutes.
“I’m not discouraged and I don’t want them to be,” said Bemidji State coach Jim Scanlan. “It’s a process. This is another learning experience for a young team, and this is a very difficult place to play against a very good team. We’re going to have to put this one behind us and come out tomorrow with the same kind of energy and the same kind of passion and see if we can’t carry that through 60 minutes.”
Things were getting chippy at the end of the first frame, and that continued as the teams hit the ice in the second. The Badgers evened the score 4:13 into the second, and it seemed to electrify the team and the fans. Presley Norby carried the puck over the blue line on the near boards and found Lauren Williams making a perfectly timed route to the far post. Williams tipped it in to make it 1-1.
That seemed to wake the Badgers up after a somewhat lackluster first period. They outshot the Beavers 17-5 in the second.
“You make a couple of adjustments, you play a little smarter and the end result is you play down in the offensive zone more than you do in your end, which is the fun part of the game,” said Badgers coach Mark Johnson. “The nice thing is we capitalized on some of our opportunities. Overall, the last two periods were good, and that’s where we need to start tomorrow night.”
Maddie Rolfes tallied the game-winner with just under eight minutes elapsed in the second. She took a long shot from just in front of the blue line on Deters’ right side and it made its way through traffic and into the back of the net.
Two minutes later, Abby Roque extended the lead and put herself atop the national scoring leader board when she buried a rebound off an Alexis Mauermann shot. In a play that echoed Williams’ goal, Brett Pettet carried the puck in down the near boards and tried to hit Mauermann as she came off the bench. Deters made the save, but Roque was able to circle back and bury the rebound to make it 3-1 Wisconsin.
Once the Badgers had their momentum, Bemidji had a hard time containing them. Wisconsin extended their lead with a power-play goal from captain Claudia Kepler. It was another tally that showcased the Badgers’ passing, as Mekenzie Steffen had the puck at the point before passing it to Grace Bowlby at the far post. Bowlby slid it across the goal mouth to Kepler, who had a wide open net to bury the puck in.
Sophia Shaver made it 5-1 with a beauty of a play where she stole the puck in the neutral zone, ending a Bemidji counterattack. She took it in herself and slotted it past Deters on a sharp angle to extend the Badgers’ lead.
Rebounding after giving up the opening goal was an important step for the Badgers in their early-season growth.
“I think today was our best game so far. … I just think everybody started jittery,” said Roque. “Once we got rolling, moved the puck around and then those goals started to go in, I got hype and everybody on the team kind of got hype. (It was good) starting down a goal and finishing on a 5-1 win, knowing that when you’re behind, you can get up front and win the game.”
