Abby Roque has scored 53 goals for the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team. Only a few have produced the sigh of relief for the Badgers that her third-period solo effort did on Sunday.
Denied on a penalty shot and a 5-on-3 power play earlier in the game, the Badgers trailed by a goal and were entering desperation time in their quest for an equalizer.
Roque, a senior center, took care of it herself, scoring on her own rebound of a wraparound try during a 1-on-3 rush to give the second-ranked Badgers a 1-1 tie with No. 6 Ohio State.
Ohio State’s Andrea Braendli gave the Badgers fits, stopping the first 35 Badgers shots before Roque found a few inches of space between the goalie and the left post with 9:14 remaining.
“I looked up, she didn’t have that corner blocked and I figured I’d better do this right away,” Roque said. “I don’t think she was expecting a third shot, so I was lucky enough to get that one off fast when she was still adjusting.”
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An announced Fill the Bowl crowd of 14,361 at the Kohl Center — the second-largest ever to see a women’s hockey game in the U.S. — then saw Britta Curl score the biggest goal of her career that won’t count toward her statistics.
Curl beat Braendli from the right circle in a 3-on-3 overtime to give the first-place Badgers the extra point in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings. They have a three-point lead over Minnesota with two games to play.
“This is a really hard team to come back against,” Curl said. “In the locker room, we were trying to say that we’re tired of people saying that we can’t play from behind, so let’s go out there and prove people wrong.”
The Badgers honored first responders in the sixth Fill the Bowl game and first since they drew a sellout announced crowd of 15,359 in 2017.
Coach Mark Johnson wore his son Patrick’s firefighter’s coat behind the bench.
“When I was about 8 or 9, I always wanted to be a firefighter,” Johnson said. “Well, I got to be one for two hours today. The coat’s a little heavy.”
Roque, who also played in the 2017 game at the Kohl Center, said she didn’t fully appreciate the size of Sunday’s crowd until an Ohio State timeout in the third period.
“I was sitting there, drinking water, and I looked up above coach, and I was like, oh, there are a lot of people here,” she said. “When you’re in the game, it gets hard to remember that. You hear the noise; you don’t look around and think, wow, this is so many more people than LaBahn. You just feel the energy.”
After a 3-1 victory on Saturday, Ohio State (18-8-6, 11-6-5-0 WCHA) quieted the big crowd 3:14 into the Sunday’s game when Hartland native Tatum Skaggs scored her second goal of the weekend and 13th of the season.
After allowing the first goal of the game only four times in the first 29 games of the season, it has happened in UW’s last three contests.
UW (26-4-2, 16-4-2-1) is winless in three games (0-2-1) for the first time since January 2015.
For most of Sunday’s contest, Braendli looked like she was going to make it the Badgers’ first three-game losing streak since October 2012.
She stopped a Sophie Shirley penalty shot in the second period after the Badgers’ leading goal-scorer was hooked from behind by Ohio State’s Madison Bizal on a breakaway.
It was UW’s first penalty shot since Annie Pankowski scored against Minnesota on Feb. 20, 2016. That series in Minneapolis also has the distinction of being the last time before this weekend that the Badgers didn’t lead at any point in a two-game set.
Less than four minutes after Shirley’s failed attempt, a roughing penalty to Ohio State’s Emma Maltais gave UW 43 seconds of a 5-on-3 power play.
The Badgers attempted two shots during that span — Roque’s try was blocked by Liz Schepers and Braendli stopped Daryl Watts’ sharp-angle effort from the right of the net.
“They score three minutes into the game on their (second) shot, and you’re playing uphill,” Johnson said. “The 5-on-3 power play we had, we were OK on it but you’re looking to create a goal to create energy, get the crowd into it.”
Not long after Roque hit Shirley’s skates instead of her stick on a 2-on-1 rush midway through the third period, the Badgers finally had their breakthrough.
Roque went alone up the right side and had her initial shot blocked, then cycled around the back of the net before Braendli stopped a second effort. The puck came right back to Roque, who fired between the goalie’s blocker and the post.
With both teams running on fumes in the 3-on-3 overtime played only for the extra WCHA point, Curl hit the top right corner from the right faceoff circle before being mobbed by teammates at center ice.
“I told the team after the game that was a real gutty effort,” Johnson said. “On that big ice sheet, the second day, you put a lot of energy into it. It was just nice to see everybody go home with a smile on their face.”
Ohio State 1 0 0 0 — 1
Wisconsin 0 0 1 0 — 1
First period: OS — Skaggs 13 (Schepers, Bizal), 3:14.
Second period penalties: Bizal, OS, 4:17; Freiburger, OS, 6:20; Maltais, OS, 7:37; Edwards, W, 14:20.
Third period: W — Roque 23 (Norby), 10:46.
Overtime: No scoring or penalties.
3-on-3 overtime: W — Curl (Watts, Buchbinder), 1:36.
Saves: OS (Braendli 11-15-11-1) 38; W (Campbell 6-6-6-3) 21. Power plays: OS 0-for-1; W 0-for-2. Att. — 14,361.
Photos: Wisconsin gets extra point after 1-1 tie with Ohio State