Wisconsin Badgers Win WCHA Title With Last Minute Heroics

The Wisconsin Badgers and Minnesota Golden Gophers sat tied 3-3 through 59:35 of the WCHA Final Faceoff championship game. With the puck on WCHA Player of the Year Casey O'Brien's stick, she found fifth year forward Sarah Wozniewicz who scored the game winner with only 25 second left in the game.

“Obviously, an exciting finish for us," said Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson. "But I say it's a typical Minnesota-Wisconsin game, whether it's in the regular season or in this tournament or the NCAA tournament. I hope the fans enjoyed it."

“Every time you play Minnesota, you have to come ready to play," said Wozniewicz. "They're such a good strong physical team and every time you play them, we have to bring it up a level and I think we did that well today.”

O'Brien opened the scoring in the first period, before Alli Franco tied the game only 20 seconds later for Minnesota. Later in the first, Josefin Bouveng gave Minnesota the lead heading into the second period. 

In the second, Vivian Jungels tied the game less than a minute into the frame. Maggie Scannell gave Wisconsin the lead at 8:04 of the second period. In the final minute of the second, Minnesota's Natalie Mlynkova tied the game yet again.

 The game would remain tied until Wozniewicz's winner in the dying seconds.

"A disappointing result and a heartbreaker in the way that it happened," said Minnesota head coach Brad Frost. "But, man, I'm proud of our group, not just for getting a win yesterday but to compete and battle in the way they did today, having Wisconsin right on the brink. Obviously, super disappointed that we couldn't finish it off, but they left it out there, and there's not much more you can ask for as a coach. Proud of them, and looking forward to extending our season next week, and trying to get to the Frozen Four."

The two teams will now prepare to compete for an NCAA national championship.