Looking back on an incredible Frozen Four and Wisconsin's late rally for its 8th NCAA title

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Uscho dot com. Hi everyone, Welcome to the podcast. Todd
Moluski and Nicole Hasey here from us echo dot com,
recovering from a long weekend at the Frozen four in Minneapolis.
An exciting weekend, three really good games and congratulations off

(00:27):
the top. Here to Wisconsin the twenty twenty five national champions,
their eighth championship. A heck of a finish. We will
get to all of that everything from the weekend. But Nicole,
how are you doing? I mean, this is a lot,
It's a long season. It's a really intense weekend. When

(00:49):
you talk about two games Friday, Pattycaz Saturday and the
championship game Sunday, how are you feeling?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
I slept a lot today. I should ask you you
did you have to? Actually, because I'm self employed, I
got to take the day off. I just some phone interviews.
But I was lucky not to chill out.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah, but it's not going well.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
No, I'm good. It's uh, it's always this weird. I mean,
by the time we got to the championship game, the
the semifinal, that first semi Jesus, by the end of
the semi final day, that first semifinal game felt like
it happened three days earlier, and like thinking of when
some of the press conference are like, when did that happen?
I don't know, it all starts to run together, but

(01:31):
it's just this like massive build up and like not
that it's a lot town because it's not, and those
games certainly weren't. But it's just alsen, it's over, and
you're like, oh so that It is just always a
weird kind of abrupt end to the season that way,
but no, it's uh, yeah, it was nice to sleep
in today.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, I hope you were able to, uh for our
listeners out there, You're hope it will check out our
extra episodes from Minneapolis. We had uh one with some
interviews with players, and then we had one with an
interview from with Casey O'Brien, the Patty Caz winner. Today,
we're gonna go through things as they happen, so well,
our first segment is gonna be about the semifinal games.

(02:12):
We're gonna talk about Patty Kaz, and then we're gonna
have a whole segment about that championship game, because man,
it needs it for everything that went down in that one.
But let's let's start with that first semifinal game, Ohio
State jumps out to a two nothing lead, Cornell comes
back with two goals in the second period, and Joy
Dunn takes over in the third period to get Ohio

(02:33):
State a four to two victory over Cornell. That that
seemed like a a let off the gas by Ohio
State for a few minutes and Cornell took advantage, but
the Buckeyes got it back pretty quickly. Is that how
you saw it?

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah? And I think also a shaking I think Cornell
was they didn't start how they wanted they you know,
they came out in you know, five minutes. That game
was almost out of hand for them. So I think
coming out it was a matter of both Ohio State
letting off a little in Cornell picking it up or
at least finding themselves and finding their game a little

(03:12):
bit more, you know, sort of after that first period
it kind of like, ooh, this could be a long
day for Cornell. So so kudos to them for tying
that game back up and getting themselves back into it,
because yeah, I don't know if it was the fact
that they haven't really been there before the crowd, who knows,
but it was definitely, you know, not the game they
wanted to play. And even you know, coach Doug Dara

(03:34):
afterwards said, you know, like that's that's not who we are,
that's not what, you know, what we wanted in any way,
shape or form. So yeah, I think there'll be a
great learning experience for them. They're not losing too many
players to graduation, so I think there's a lot to
build on there for Cornell. You know, they're young, goaltending
is sort of the solid base for them, and so yeah,

(03:55):
and then the other I think was I think that
experience is part of what I mean lett Ohio State
to play as well as they did in the National
Championship game.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Right it felt like the worst possible start for Cornell,
kind of Webster scoring about two and a half minutes
into that game on Friday, because Cornell wanted to play
a low scoring game. We know that, we know a
low event game would have benefited them, but right away
you're chasing, and then Brooke Disher makes it to nothing
about four minutes later. Then the chases is really on

(04:26):
for Cornell. But I give them credit for You'll have
to tell me more about this, because I didn't see
either the Cornell goals as they happened because I was
outside for the red carpet entry for the second game.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
That's right, I forgot about to see. This is how
Love was texting you, like you might want to stay outside.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Were right on red the doors, and I hear the
goal horn go, and I hear the goal Hordon go again,
and I'm scrolling on social media to find out who's
scoring here, and suddenly it's too too And that's the
way it went to the third period, I mean, and
so for Cornell to pull that back the way they
did two quick ones Lily Delianitas with one Caitlin Yelkolms.

(05:06):
I'm apologizing Jock Ems. I believe, I'm not Jock Comes.
I believe with the second one just over a minute apart.
Really credit for the big redy getting that together.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, Jockam's just got a turnover. It had nothing but
wide ice in front of her. And kudos to her.
I think I asked in the postgame, like, what are
you saying to yourself? I just imagine when it's in
such a big situation, you've just scored, You've got all
the momentum. I mean, she had to have every emotion,
every adrenaline, all of it just pumping, and you know
when you've got you and open ice and like, this

(05:40):
is a shot you have to make. You know, we're
gonna talk about this more, I assume, But I just
I kudos to her for handling that and just scoring
and putting the pucket in a really crucial situation, because
I just imagine that it's it's got to get really
hard to stay focused and do like do all the things,
little things you're supposed to do, which is you know
why you practice them nine million times, so they come

(06:02):
naturally in those types of situations. But I don't have
the nerves to behave that well in that kind of situation,
I don't think. So kudos to her for scoring that goal.
And then yeah, they you know, they held on to
that tie for a while. I thought like, this is
going to become an interesting game. And then coming out
of that thirty intermission, it was all Ohio State again.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, sixteen to seven shots in the third period for
Ohio State, and that was a pretty indicative representation of
how it looked there. Joy Dunn, who scored the championship
winning goal in the third period against Wisconsin last season.
National Rookie of the Year last season comes through again
with two goals in the third period about four minutes apart. Again,

(06:45):
so ohose. They able to strike twice within a few
minutes to get a lead and then get some insurance.
And I thought they really sealed things off really well
defensively after that, didn't. You know, their fur check is
really good when they get going, and they were able
to play the way they wanted to play there and

(07:07):
get to the end. And you know, it doesn't always
have to be the prettiest thing, but you get a win,
you move on to the championship game, and that's a
check you know you did your job.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, absolutely, And I think this is a team you've seen,
you know, recover really well over the course of the season.
I think about that game against Minnesota or they came
out and had was it six goals and the third
This is something that I expect to see from them.
I don't. I don't feel like they're really ever, really
out of a game, and any time like momentum has swung,
I know that they're capable of getting it back. And

(07:39):
you just rarely see them score like one goal and
be done sort of throughout the game, like there's when
they score, it tends to come in bunches, like it's
like they tilt the ice.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, all right, So for two Ohio State in the
first game on Freya's second game, Wisconsin and Minnesota the
border battle, the sixth meeting of the season between the two.
Wisconsin had won the first five, but it was the
Gophers that got out to a lead on Friday, Peyton
Hemp scoring about fourteen minutes in the first period. But

(08:10):
the Badgers got that one back pretty quickly with a
power play goal from Leila Edwards and it went one
to one into the first intermission, and that's where Wisconsin
took it over into the second period, KK Harvey scoring
a really nice goal there to give the Badgers a lead.
I mean, we really need to rewind a little bit,
I guess to the first period.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
I feel like you have skipped a whole bunch.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, And maybe that's where we should have started this
whole thing, because Abby Murphy gets gets a hold of
KK Harvey with an elbow and after the you know,
away from the play, after the puck left kind of situation.
Nothing called on the ice I believe, or was there

(08:55):
a call. I don't believe there was called.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
The rest didn't see it right stop, they didn't see it.
So there was nothing called on the ice because that's
part of the reason that it was its stayed of major.
I believe right they couldn't do more. And that was
the explanation given we had we had. I was pause
here to say we had a whole lot of things
that made everybody look in the record book and nobody
or in the rule book. And I'm not sure anybody

(09:18):
ever looked in the right spot me except for you, Todd.
But like we Todd went and asked about a rule
of the championship game and they came back and gave
us the wrong rule number, and then like talking about
what was capable or what was possible in this call,
it was like, well, you can't do this, you can't
do that.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
It just felt like it was a quiz on the
NCAA rules and nobody paths.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Part of the problem is that they're in the rule book.
The part that's written about what you can do for
video replay should really reference the rules themselves that you're
looking to over the things you're looking at.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, they're sort of written differently.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Right, so there's a part and then there's the actual
rule part, so there are two different sides there. But
so the Badgers don't score on that five minute power
play and that felt like a potential turning point there. Uh.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, Badgers have the number one power play in the country,
the Minnesota penalty kills not super high ranked and and
at that point Badgers don't know if KK Harvey is
coming back. I mean, I think we should emphasize, like,
this is a play where like on the replay, when
KK pushes the passes the puck away, like Abby Murphy's
not yet in the screen, so she comes from from

(10:26):
way off off screen and just absolutely levels KK. Uh.
So that was, uh, that was the turning point. That
was a huge talking point for for the semi final day.
I guess we can, you know, let everybody take what
they want from that, but it was it was just
a huge play. It happened behind the refts. Nobody saw it.
U UW had to call for a coach's challenge to
even get the penalty the major penalty called.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah. I heard from people around Twin Cities on Saturday
asking how was that not an ejection? And the ex
play I got, you know, not directly from one of
the referees officiating the game, but someone who has officiated
a lot of games and supervised officials and said that
the principal point of contact wasn't the head, It was

(11:11):
a shoulder and then it rode up into the head.
So that doesn't necessarily equate to an injection. And it
being late and it being away from the play doesn't
necessarily factor in to an ejection. I mean, obviously in
women's hockey there's no hitting, so anything there would have
been a minor penalty, but it elevated the major with

(11:32):
the indirect contact to the head. So that's why there
was not necessarily you know, meeting the qualifications or the
requirements for an ejection on that play. That's what I was, right.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
There's not really like level like there's not really targeting
because all hits early. There aren't levels of hit penalties,
right because hitting or no hitting, those are your options
in women's hockey. But yeah, I mean, I think pretty
sure that's a targeting penalty in the men's I don't know,
it was. It was not great. It was not a
great look for Abby and then you know, of course

(12:04):
later on in the game, Caroline Harvey hits her into
the boards, and then we're reviewing that and like, arguably,
like where do you figure out, Like is this as
bad as the one we only had be a major before?
It just ended up being referee semantics. It was not ideal.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Yeah, I mean, that's never what you want in a
game of this nature, a semi final game. You know,
winner goes to the championship game. You don't want the
referees playing too big of a role in it. And
I think that that comes into their minds. I'm sure
when they're deciding is this a major or a major?
An injection to Minnesota's leading scorer, you don't want.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
The coming five minutes into the game or something like that.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
I mean it was early, right, So okay.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
Anyway, so going backwards, Wisconsin doesn't score in the power play,
Minnesota killed it. They get the momentum and they score first.
So peyton hemps goal puts the Gopers on the board
first with about five minutes left, and first, as you mentioned,
then they Wisconsin answers back on a shorthander after even here,

(13:07):
if you got it, two minutes for hooking and yeah,
that's how we ended the first Yes, right.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Sounds cracked. I'm looking at the box score, you know,
me too, leaving all these things that I'm missing. What
am I missing out of all this? But so the
Badgers do take a lead in the second period and
it is Caroline Harvey with the goal that goes ahead,
and I'm sure that had to feel really good for
her to come back and score after I mean, she

(13:34):
was off the ice for a few minutes. Now, there
was she missed the first shift of the power play,
but there was also a pretty good stretch of time
where they were reviewing it. So she was down the
tunnel in the locker room being looked at for I
don't know, five five, six, seven minutes.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Maybe yeah, because I had people asking because Mark Johnson
after the game talks a little bit about how she
was disoriented coming back to the bench, and so I
had people asking about like, well, did she go through calls?
And because in theory she wasn't off the ice that long,
but with the review and everything, there was more time
past than people thought.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Right. She told me after the game she was fine
after she got a chance to reset. So you know,
whatever that means, take take that for whatever you think
it to mean, you know, having a chance to get
away from things for a minute and you know, take
a few breaths or did she need to fully I
hope she went through, you know, a good lookover from
the medical staff, because yeah, needed.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
There were two There were two different plays in this
game where both teams I was, I was curious about
the concussion protocol happening. Let's put it that way. I
don't I know. I feel like in college sports in general,
or in you know, high level sports in general, concussion
protocol is always a little bit of a question. And
in this game it was a little like, I don't
did they I don't know. I hope they did.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
So.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, but obviously KK real fired up. I mean I
talked about this with a lot of different people. I
mean Abby Murphy's whole goal is to get under people's skin.
You know, That's what she's doing. She wants to get
in your head and interrupt your flow. Of all the
people on the Badgers, I don't think KK is the
player that you could do that too. I just don't
think she gets lets that stuff get to her in

(15:13):
the same way. There are players on the Badgers that
you could that Abby could have rattled and KK isn't
one of them, and then she turned around and scored
that goal, and it felt like, well, yes, that is
what's going to happen when you take off KK.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yeah. And so later in the second period, Kirsten sim
scores from Alacey Eden assists put a pin in that
for later for a Wisconsin lead, but Josphine Buvang puts
the Gophers back into it three two less than a
minute later, so that those were like shift the next shift,
it felt like, got this big boost. Minnesota took it

(15:46):
right back and that was really important for them. But
a really weird play in the in the last ten
seconds fifteen seconds of the second period ends up with
an injured Minnesota player La Hubert I believe was at
one end of the ice, Abby Murphy staying there to
get the refer to try and blow the whistle. I

(16:08):
believe this was. This is all at the other end
of the ice from us, mind you, so we only
saw this from from a distance.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
But yeah, when we say other than that, we were
literally like back behind one of the goals, behind all
of the stands, right like you are as far as
possible from that far goal where it felt like all
of the action happened this weekend. So when we say
we didn't see it, and the Wi Fi wasn't good
enough for any of us to be running the we
normally have a tablet up watching the stream, so we

(16:37):
really didn't get to see a lot of this stuff,
particularly on Friday.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
But so at the other end, that rush comes along
and it's basically four on two because they're playing four
and four at that point, and Casey O'Brien ends up
scoring with two seconds left to put Wisconsin up four
to just a massive goal at that point. To go
in with a two goaliad instead of a one goal
lead in the second intermission just felt like huge change

(17:00):
of that game.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, so Ella Huber was coming around from behind the goal.
The defender started kind of pinching her in and she
got tripped up on the net or the post. It
was not great. Yeah, I mean even Brad Frost said,
you know, like it was it wasn't a penalty. It wasn't.
I mean, I don't think he explicit he said, wasn't

(17:23):
a penalty, but he said, you know, she she ran
into the back of the the goal. So yeah, just
unfortunate and Abby, you know, staying back with her just
made a huge, huge advantage for the Badgers and it
felt like that was a massive turning point. And this
game was probably more half and half with with Gopher
Wisconsin fians, but it was. It was a lot of

(17:43):
Wisconsin fans too, and that really brought the crowd into
it and made it loud.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah it did. And then the Badgers finished off in
the third period, Leila Edward's getting her second and third
goals of the game, last one into an empty net
for six to two wiscons and win. So the Badgers
finished six and zero against the Gophers this season, which
is pretty remarkable. That's you know, uh no one's ever

(18:12):
done that before when win six times against the Gophers.
But it was just kind of another step in the
road for for the Badgers to get to that championship
game they they beat. I was looking back at it.
In their playoffs, they they needed to beat Minnesota, Duluth,
Minnesota in the w c h A final face off,

(18:33):
then they got Clarkson, then they got Minnesota. All those
teams are the then and Ohio State where they played
in the final. The only other teams that have won
NCAA championships. So their role is, uh, you know teams
that you know have some some winning pedigree, not necessarily
all of them recently. You know, Duluth hasn't won in

(18:54):
quite a while. But uh, those are the teams that
have banners. And so for Wisconsin to go through all
of them is you know, tells you it wasn't easy
for them.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
No, and I mean this, you said, you know, no
teams gone six. No, I don't think the Badgers have
ever swept the Gophers, regardless sort of of how many
games it is. And didn't you say this, this is
the win that gives them one above the Gophers in
the all time Yeah. They never led the all time
series until this win.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
They've never led in the all time series between Wisconsin
and Minnesota until after this game, right.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
And I mean it ended up again Wisconsin coming from behind.
There was just there was a lot to this game
coming into it. There's so much history between these two teams.
There's sort of even more so than Wisconsin Ohio State.
There's no secrets here. Brad Frost and Mark Johnson have
been coaching each other against each other about as long
as some of these players have been alive, and the
Gophers were fired up. The Gophers were real fired up

(19:51):
by that loss in the WCCHA final, not because they lost,
but because they felt like they were in that game.
They lost in the final twenty four seconds, and so
it was just this man of confidence boos like, yes
we do belong here, Yes we can play with and
beat the top team in the country. They were going
to come into this game with a very different attitude
than they had in you know, the four regular season games,

(20:11):
and so it was it was a pretty big statement
from the Badgers to come out with that six to
two win. I think.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah. All right, So that was Friday. We will get
to the Wisconsin Ohio State Championship game a little later on,
but next we'll talk about the Patty Kasmire Award. Stayed
with us on the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast,

(20:36):
Todd Molluski and Nicole Hazy here with our season wrap
up edition, well really the Frozen four wrap up edition.
And part of that Frozen four weekend was the Saturday
presentation of the Patty Kasmire Award, done at the McNamara
Alumni Center, a really nice building on the University of
Minnesota campus. We knew that award was going to Wisconsin

(21:00):
player because the Badgers had all three finalists. Casey O'Brien,
Lil Edwards, and KK Harvey were announced as the top
three vote getters, and throughout the show, you know, the
build up was there too. You know, they're they're sitting
next to each other. We heard later that they were
kind of, you know, making jokes with each other, and

(21:22):
you know, everyone wanted the others to win and who
is gonna do it and those kind of things, and
it ends up it's Casey O'Brien from Wisconsin, the twenty
twenty five Patty Casmier Award winner. If you missed our
interview with her, you can go back into the archives
and check that out from Saturday on the either on
US e h O dot com, or uh wherever you

(21:44):
get this podcast. I would be interested in your thoughts
Nicole on I guess just just how that played out
and how, uh you know, when you've got you know,
three players from the same team, there's gonna be you
feel like there's going to be some like I'm disappointed.
I'm happy for my teammate, but I'm disappointed for myself.

(22:09):
What did you feel about how that all played out
that way.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
I mean, either they faked it really well or they
really believed that like it was okay. Whoever took it
I think particularly, I mean, it's definitely one thing coming
from Casey, who has said the words we before me
probably nine million times this season. I mean, poor goal
from day one was the national championship. Everything else was superfluous,

(22:34):
and uh that's you know, part of why she came back.
And I would just say that, like, I don't know
if it would have rung as true hearing you know,
I do believe that they all said that. No, but
you when you're hearing it from someone's voice, but hearing
it from Casey, I absolutely believe she would have been
happy for either of the other two, particularly since they
had won their semi final game. At that point, they

(22:55):
were playing for a national championship. That's what she was
there for. This was a bonus, I think, you know
she I don't think anything she did was in order
to try and whin a Petty Casmier award this season.
I think that all just kind of came naturally. The
other two, you know, have more time, there's that, and

(23:16):
they just all get a like this group was disgustingly
close in a way that was like never raghing false
or fake or was he Every team will talk about chemistry,
every team will talk about how their friends, Every team
will talk about trust in the locker room. But I
will say it did they told us that throughout the
season without ever having to say those words. In the

(23:37):
ways that they talked about each other in the post
game and the way that they were playing, you could
tell that that trust was there and that they really
believed that anybody on their team could have been the
big like make the big play. And so yeah, I
believe it from Casey for sure, which is not to
say I don't believe it from the other two, but
being that she was the one that was up there,
but she was right. I mean, those two were the
first ones that she hugged. You know, they were teasing

(23:59):
her afterwards, pretending to be the paparazzi, you know. And
I think while I mean, like I said, I wrote
the over a fiftyear press, I wrote, you know, sort
of the case for each player, and like I wrote
Kk's and I was like ready to give her the
award myself, even though like last year, I voted for
Casey first, like, I think Casey is the correct winner,
but like then I was breaking down all of the

(24:20):
things that make KK so great, and I was like, oh,
stopped myself into this one. And obviously Leila just continues
to do ridiculous things. Even in games where you're like, oh,
like there was you know, a turnover, a stake order,
she's still coming back and doing what she does, and
you're just like, all right, well that's inevitable. But yeah,
I mean, do you do you agree it didn't It

(24:41):
didn't sound false to me, and I really believe that
they would have all been happy. I think they were
just really happy it was gonna be a badger.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah, it's I mean, you never really know, you know,
people you know can can say one thing and feel
something different. We see that all the time. But I
do get the impression that, you know, regardless of how
much any of them, speaking specifically of Edwards and Harvey,
how much either of them you know, wanted to win it,

(25:09):
they really were happy and knew that Casey O'Brien was
a deserving winner of that award just for how she's
you know, been not only a really incredible scorer, you know,
racking up points, but also in leading the team and
putting that like you mentioned the wi before me out there,

(25:32):
every time she's on the ice, when she's speaking up
in the locker room, those kind of things matter, and
those kind of things, you know, teammates notice, and I
know there was a lot of a lot of happy
people that she got recognized with that award, considering you know,
she she was up there last season, and you know,

(25:53):
she she said she wasn't. You know, it wasn't something
that really crushed her losing that award, but you know,
she had to be disappointed in you know, not coming
away with it in twenty twenty four. But yeah, I
think that it was the right choice. Ended up being

(26:15):
the national leading scorer by well by the end of
its sixteen points, which is not a small feat.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
One of the most assists in I mean, she's she's
top ten in NCAA history. And for people who haven't
been here a whole long time, there are records from
the first tenish years of nc women talking that are
just never going to get touched, like the hundreds of
points and just you know, it was a couple teams
really dominating in one or two players on those teams

(26:44):
sort of scoring a whole team's worth of points. Yeah,
And so the fact that she is in like top
five in some of these categories now just really like
drove home to me. She was doing something that, like,
the game has changed so much since the last time
anybody did some of that stuff.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Smart enough to know how to do ERA adjustments. But
I'd really be interested to know how that would work.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
What would like that it's readsheets in math, which absolutely
is your real house. So if you don't think so,
the rest of us are.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Out of it. I'm sure it. Give me done is
just not something I know how to do. Yet, Oh
give me, give me some time. I guess I was.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
One thing I wanted to say too, is that I
hadn't thought about and also I think would just be
really hard to sort of write about. But I was
talking to Casey, I think, for when I wrote her
Patty profile for the Pattycas website, and I was asking
her about things coming very easy to the team and
like how they're able to play free. And I think
an underrated thing that she did this year was keep

(27:41):
this team on track. There could have been a lot
of cockiness, There could have been a lot of ego.
When things are coming that easy, it could be easy
to sort of forget all your basics. And like, when
I was asking her about that, with like sort of unprompted,
I was like, Oh, it's so nice they're getting to
do this. She's like, right, but we still need to
do it in the way that we're taught, Like we
still need to play badger hockey and like focus on
the details. And if you can still do some of

(28:03):
that stuff above and beyond that, great, But I can
imagine being the presence in the room that's trying to
keep everybody focused when things are going so well and
when it feels like you're on top of the world.
It's not an easy task, especially for someone that is
like kind of a first time leader, not a naturally
very like super loud person. So I think looking back

(28:24):
at what how that team kept their composure this whole
season and didn't sort of get too big for their breitches,
I guess I think Casey deserves a lot of credit
for that.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Yeah, it's one thing, you know, the coach is saying
something you know and kind of pointing things out, but
you hear that so much that I don't know, if
you know it's not that they get tuned out, but
it means more when the when the players are saying
it themselves and when they're doing the the reinforcement or
the redirecting or those kind of things that need to

(28:59):
happen throughout US Sea. I mean, this is a long season.
We know that it's it's you know, six months, it's uh,
you know, be more than that when you talk about uh,
summer workouts and everything like that, it's a grind. And
and to be able to to keep going through that
and and you know, have the success that Wisconsin did,
you know, only one loss going into the Frozen four.

(29:22):
You know, it really speaks to how those those leaders
and you know, uh Casey O'Brien and KK Harvey or
co captains this season for the Badgers. Uh, you know,
it speaks to how well they did in just keeping
keeping like you said, keeping that that room on message
and keeping them kind of going doing the things they

(29:42):
need to do. Even when you know you're in a
game that's you know, six nothing after two periods, you
don't you can't fall into the bad habits. That's always
been the thing Mark Johnson preaches that. You know, it's
as much as wallet.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Of those stories.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
Oh yeah, we're getting there, and it's it's all about
you know, even if you're everything's going well, don't let
bad habits creep in. Yeah, that's a that's a really
important thing that this team didn't do.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, and again, both her and KK are more lead
by example type people, So the fact that they were
the co captains, I think both of them had to
grow really personally and as people, uh this this year
to find the balance. And and they had those two
and then Layla and Lacey as their associate or assistant
however you want to wearing the ash. That's for very

(30:37):
different personalities. But what they did is every one of
those personalities touched somebody in the room, so they were
meeting the players where they were and I think that
is one of the reasons this team was was really good.
You know, KK could talk about, you know, that first
Olympic experience and it not going how she wanted to,
and then having coaches give her the confidence and all
of the different experiences, and Lacey being you know, the

(31:00):
ball of energy and the sort of comic relief when
it needs to be. But each of them has gone
through different stuff and so having that very diverse leadership
group I think made a big difference in terms of
being sort of able to individually give their teammates what
they needed when they needed it.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
We'd mentioned Mark Johnson's press conferences.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
They were an adventure.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, they were entertaining. It was an adventure, long, winding,
long and winding road. So he talked about golf, he
talked about fishing.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
I mean, get the fish in the boat is a
markism from way back.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Right like, and that's not necessarily just his, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
That's right like, that's that's his way of saying, like,
you know, complete the task, You've done all the work
sort of thing. But we we got that into an
extended metaphor for four days this week, and even stood
up to show us the size of the fish after
the National Championship game.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
There's some you know putting form and about you know, grip, And.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
The most annoying part is he always brought it back
to a point that actually made sense.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
That's what it blew my mind. On Saturday, I didn't
think one of his stores was going anywhere other than
you know, I think that one was fishing, but I
can't be sure.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
I thought that one was into fishing into the hotel
room the.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Right the hotel rooms where he he said he didn't
have heat I think.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
And apparently just stayed there and didn't tell anybody, Like Mark,
you could tell somebody.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Went into where that also happened at Bimigie and Omigie
is where he loves to have Walleye because that's a
a staple there and they have that for breakfast before
the Friday game every year, I guess.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
And then they were staying at the Graduate in Minneapolis,
which has Walleye wallpaper. It's like repeating, friends, It's like
the type of stuff you see in your nightmares. I
would just like to point out that I will I
will go with Mark on that because the repeating, like
I've seen it in Penn State too, where it's the
Cats over and over again, Walleye is even more disturbing.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
And from there it went into Sunday pregame. We show
up and the meal that they're serving is Walleye, and
it was just like a what who's bugging this here?
And who's reacting on the food based on what people
are saying in the trench?

Speaker 2 (33:24):
I mean, what's the point where someone asked Nady Muzzer
all if she'd had with the Walleye and Bubbidgee. I mean,
Mark was not the only crazy press conference, to be fair,
he was just consistently I feel like all of the
non like there's a lot of ops people in the room,
and I feel like all of them were very over
Mark by the end of the weekend.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
It was funny. You know sometimes when Mark's when they
do this, they usually give an opening statement and then
the student athletes talk and the students leave the in
between days the Saturday press conference, Kristen Sims and Ava
McNaughton had to sit there through some of the Marks
and Kirstin couldn't stop laughing and Ava looked so done.

(34:03):
So that was I mean, it was just one of
those like if Mark is so revered and he is
such a legend, and then then also like let me
tell you all this silly stuff about this man, like
what a privilege. It was both ridiculous and like, I know,
I'm going to tell that story forever. So he also
after the National championship, I was when I was on
the ice with my Cara and he came up to

(34:23):
me and just started chatting, and I was like He's like,
how about that. Huh? Would you have had the goal
to take that penalty shot? Like? He just was super
chatty and I was like, aren't you busy? So Mark
Mark had a weekend. I don't know, he was just
having a good time.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Oh well, when you're at that position, you should should
be able to enjoy itself. Okay, that gets us through Saturday.
When we come back, we'll talk about the Wisconsin versus
Ohio State championship games. Stay with us on the podcast.

(35:00):
Welcome back to the podcast, Todd the Least Game. Nicole
Hasey with you to wrap things up this weekend. Our
our final part here is exclusively on the national championship game,
because this is going to take some time.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Itself.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yeah, Wisconsin and Ohio State for the third straight season.
Wisconsin won it in Duluth in twenty twenty three, Ohio
State in Durham last season. I mean, so you had
that set up, you had both teams that felt like they,
you know, could get this done. You know, Wisconsin had
a little bit of a chip on it so shoulder

(35:35):
all season from you know, feeling like they they should
have won that game last season and didn't. Ohio State
looking to defend that title and beat the only team
that you know, the team that had one loss all season,
they're the ones that beat them.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
So they had their own chip because they felt like, well,
we're the defending champions. We you know, we didn't get
the respect for that. Were not number one. Nobody thinks
we're gonna win, So they had their own chip. It
was a very very interesting lead up, a lot of.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
Build up into that. So teams that obviously know each
other really really well have played a lot over the
last three seasons relevant and beyond that, you know, the
four times in the regular season of course that they play,
but this one felt like it was gonna be a
really good battle. Last two seasons they were, they were tight,

(36:31):
they were tense, they were one nothing games, both of them.
And this one was tight and tense for a lot
of different reasons. It started in the first period with
another shorthanded goal you mentioned, uh, the the one that
Laila Edwards scored in Wisconsin's win over Minnesota. Well, Ohio

(36:51):
State got on the board first, with Joy Dunn making
an amazing route through.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Four work made them look like they were standing stick.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Players, you know, one kind of at the the defensive
blue line to win the neutral zone and then going
around KK Harvey in the in the offensive zone to
score with a nice move around Ava McNaughton to put
Ohiose State up one nothing, and that's a a key goal.
But the Buckeyes didn't get to enjoy that lead at

(37:22):
all because Badger's slan the powerplay, Leila Edwards picks the
puck out of out of the neutral zone, comes in
and scores twelve seconds later, and so.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
The momentum swings there were unbelievable, right because it had
been a tense first couple of minutes. Wisconsin gets the
power play, much like we had said during the semi
final with Minnesota, Wisconsin number one power play. Ohio State's
penalty kill I think it's twenty fourth, Like it's it's
pretty low for such a top break team, and so
that was like, oh, here's this great opportunity for Wisconsin.

(37:54):
And from the first puck drop, Joy goes and scores,
and it's like, oh, you know, things got spicy. And
then immediately like we're still typing that up and Layla
scores and again on the other end, so we're like, oh,
what happened? I don't even know. So, yeah, that was
a lot. I mean, should have known the rest of
the game, but like, yes, it was like, oh okay,

(38:16):
so that's how it's gonna be.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Yeah, And so that that carried on as a one
to one game for about six minutes until Sloan Matthews
scored for Ohio State, give him the Buckeyes a two
to one lead that they took into the first intermission,
and they came out and I guess we should we
should get into the fact that Wisconsin wasn't Wisconsin helped

(38:41):
him out on some on on on that Sloane Matthews goal,
that was a kind of a careless play by Leila
Edwards in the neutral zone and Sloan picked the puck
off or stick, went in on two on one and
and fired that one home. And that was a you know, Wisconsin,

(39:02):
I guess from the Ohio State side of it, they
are able to make something out of nothing quickly with
their speed. A lot of players are able to turn
things that would normally just be maybe a two on
two rush into a two on one rush. And that's
what they're able to do a couple of times on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
Yeah, I mean, you say Wisconsin helped them, but I
think you could even go back and say, like Ohio
State was playing such that they forced they were forcing this.
I mean I would I mean, we're still doing the recap,
but you know, spoiler alert if you don't know what's happening,
But I would argue Ohio State played what like fifty
nine minutes of really great hockey. I mean, they dominated

(39:40):
that game. They had Wisconsin on their heels. They still
everything Wisconsin wanted to do. Ohio State stop them from
doing like they they couldn't gain any momentum. They were
you know, Ohio State owned the neutral zone, so like
you know, on this particularly, Yeah, it was like a
bad turnover from Laila, but it was that same pressure
and taking away time in space and all the things

(40:00):
that Ohio Stated did all game and this was just
the first of one. And then also it was just
a beautiful This game was all about Snipe city man,
I all around. I mean, come back to this at
the wrap up, but like goodness, this weekend was a
showcase of what makes women's college hockey so great, not
just like even And I was saying that before we

(40:22):
got to the ridiculous ending that we had I mean
there was just some gorgeous shots and goals and puck
handling and finess and the skating of joy on that
shorthand and all the things that I think people need
to know that this is what women's college hockey looks like.
That's what we saw, and so it was so awesome
to see that on display in this game. But yeah,
that goal wasn't like because Wisconsin, I mean, Wisconsin turned

(40:45):
it over because Ohio State forced it that at Wisconsin
was was Yeah, it was struggling, and that was just
sort of the first big clue was how easy it
was for Sloan to pick off that puck, take it
pretty much right off Layla's stick, and go right in
to net.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
And so who took to tune one lead into the intermission,
and they added to it right off the bat and
the second period a kind of Webster making a really
nice play to force another turnover right off the opening
face off, carrying the puck around the net, getting kind
of a shot end goal that bounces back out, and
Emma Petchial just rip that one from the left circle

(41:21):
into the top corner to put Ohiose State up three
to one. And that's a you know, a stamp on
you know, if you're going to start a period strong,
you can do it something like that and take a
two goal lead against a team that's you know, hasn't
lost in twenty six games. I mean, that's a that's
a pretty good position to put yourself in. Up three

(41:42):
to one at that point.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Yeah, absolutely, And it was one of those where like, okay,
then right after not right after that, but shortly later
Wisconsin gets one back, but then they don't like they're
not scoring, they have plenty of time entire third period,
a lot of the second and and like that that
one goal different was just an absolutely huge part of
this game. And so yeah, that that was a bit

(42:05):
of a heartbreaker. It's like, if you're a Wisconsin fan
and they go in down to one, you want to
see them like, Okay, they've Ohio States making them look bad.
They're stopping everything, like Wisconsin needs to adjust and they
come out and score ten seconds in. That's just like,
oh goodness, like this could get ugly right right.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Wisconsin did get one back about five minutes later, when
when Kirsten Simms fed KK Harvey for a nice shot
on the right side kind of in the slot and
that got it the three too, but like you're saying it,
it stayed three two, and it felt like Wisconsin was,
you know, trying all sorts of different things, different line comboys.
I mean I started writing down the trios that were

(42:46):
out there, and I seven, yeah, that over the course
of it, and they were not ones that I remembered
seeing over the course.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Of you know, right, Mark Mark mixes up his lines.
That's you know, I feel like a line sheets of
mere suggestion from from Mark Johnson. But even even this
was like we can tell you that Mark changes stuff
a lot, and this was this is extreme even for him.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Yeah, and I really thought Ohio State did a great
job of you know, with a the one player deep
four check. You know, Wisconsin was not able to get
out of their defense zone easel. There were no passing lanes,
there were no skating lanes. It was it was an
impressive job by the Buckeyes of of clogging that up.

(43:29):
And even if they did get up to the line,
then the neutral zone was was a challenge. It was
there was a lot of dump and chase by Wisconsin,
which is not something you see a ton of because
they're usually able to carry the bucket into the zone
and set.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Up no And it was an effective sort of time
waster for Ohio State too, right, putting that strong fore
check on Wisconsin was taking you know, minutes to get
out of the zone or to even get out from
behind their own net, and really like even attempt to
break out. It just it. They were absolutely just smothering
Wisconsin and it I mean, I think I said this

(44:02):
to start when I recaps, but it's unfortunate for Ohio State. Now.
The maybe like counter to that is the problem is,
particularly as we got into the third, is that Ohio
State was not necessarily pushing on offense. They were pretty
content to keep with their for check, but they weren't
really pushing for a goal, or at least it didn't
feel that way. And then the lader it got and

(44:25):
they were kind of packing on even more. In front
of that, I feel like when the game goes into overtime,
they had a hard time flipping back to be the offensive,
like to do what they had been doing to start,
because of what they had done in the second and third.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
Oh yeah, so all of those things carry into the
third period and Wisconsin's trying all these things. Ohio State,
it's doing a great job of fending it off. And
then the Buckeyes get called too many players on the
ice with a minute fifty left, and that's a you know,
you're putting the best power play in the country out there.
And and then with the eventually with a McNaughton pulled

(45:03):
for a six out four and that which.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
They didn't do until the power ever play happened with
a minute fifty left in regulation. That's when the call
was made, and it was under a minute when Mark
finally pulled a b I believe.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
I had think I remember Adam minute on tan or something.
One was five something around there. But you're right, yeah,
he did not do that right away. He waited to
make sure there was gonna be some possession there and uh,
not a buck put coming down, you know, for you know,
they can shoot and not get called for icing since
they're shorthanded. So yeah, but I.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
Still felt like, well, I can't believe he let it
go this long like they did it. They had possession
and he still didn't paller.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
I mean, Mark Johnson is old school in a lot
of ways, right, And so yeah, the tendency these days
is to pull the goalie earlier and get more chances
with it.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
And yeah, he would know, like he would say, they're
the whatever penalty hill were the number one power play,
I dressed my players, YadA YadA, like you know how
that conversation would have gone, right.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
So eventually you know, the puckets are on Amanda Teeley
for Oose. It makes a couple of incredible saals on that.
I remember one on Leila Edwards. I think she didn't
have her stick at that point and she still got
a blocker on on at her at the her right
post or her right right.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
At this point, it is like six five badgers, six
badgers crowded around the net just sort of like it's
just nothing but people in sticks within five to eight
feet of the net front, like it's just chaos.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
Right, And so in all of that there, the puck
slides through the crease and Maddy Wheeler for the Buckeyes
is down on her stomach in the crease and has,
at at one point we see the overhead angle of it,
has her hand over the puck and is trying to
slide it out kind of like you would with a
like an air an air hockey, Yeah, slide forward with it, right, but.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
She kind of pulls it to her side and underneath her.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
Yeah, and so it doesn't get called on the ice.
Eventually there's a save made, puck is held with eighteen
point nine seconds left on.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
The clock, and you clocked this right away.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Layla goes, Layla Edwards goes. I think she said something
to a referee, but then goes right to the bench
and is like waving to get the coach's attention and putting,
like making a motion of a hand on the puck.
You know, obviously I can't hear what she's saying, but
it's pretty clear she was saying that someone covered the
puck or someone had a hand on the puck in

(47:35):
the crease, which is a penalty shot. And so the
Badgers challenged that based off of that. I don't think
they got the word from upstairs from their video replay
people they change.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Well, I'm pretty sure Marked did that just based on
Layla I mentioned. I talked to him on the ice
for a second. The first thing I said is Layla
told you to challenge that, and he said, yeah, we
didn't have it, But Layla, Layla said we had to
and you know, at eighteen point nine seconds left, what
do you have to lose?

Speaker 1 (48:02):
Nothing else? That's the time out even longer than a
timeout probably, so you get a little time to let
your players, you know, rest up and get focused for
what's gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
But wait, so wait there, how do you feel about this?
I mean ninety two million discussions on the internet. Is
that a penalty? Did she cover the puck? Did she
gather it the puck? Doesn't or the rules don't say
closed hand anymore? So, like what is your interpretation of
that play and whether or not that penalty should have
been called?

Speaker 1 (48:31):
As I understand it, any hand over the puck in
the crease should be called as a penalty shot. And
so if you look at it that way, that that
was pretty clear. It doesn't have to be necessarily held
to the ice or in a freezing motion like a
goalie would you know, with with her glove over the puck,
any hand over the puck, Now you could kind of
fist bump the puck out, and I believe that's completely legal.

(48:55):
You could do it that way. But anytime your glove
is over the puck as a player, as a skater
in the crease that as I understand the rule, and
I can't say I've ever officiated in a game, so
I don't know for sure, but I do read the
rule book, and then as far as I know that
having the glove over the puck is what triggers that

(49:15):
being a penalty shot, and that we saw that as
we remember now a little bit later, we saw that
a couple of years ago in Madison with between Wisconsin
and Ohio State in overtime of a game, that same
call was made.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
Yeah, and it's one of those where like people were
finding old record or old I keep saying record book,
old rule books, like well it says you have to
have a closed hand. That's not what it says, just
a few different things. And I also had someone say
that it wasn't for that she got a penalty shot,
Like that's how the rule is written. If this is
called that's a penalty shot, there's no interpretation on that.
It couldn't have been a minor penalty. Like mark, the

(49:50):
coaches can say they would rather take a penalty, but
like you're the coach, the team that earns that penalty
can choose a penalty shot or.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
A power play that happened, yes, and it's complete this
different situation. I think that team is trying to protect
the lead. Yeah right, this would rather have the two
minutes where they could, you know, but yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Had people questioning why why did she get a penalty shot?
Why would they choose to? Like, why would the refs
let them do that? Like that is all the rules written,
there's no there's no changing that.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
So after the review, the referees do say that, yes,
that's a penalty shot. And so we get this a
little extra delay because there's some discussion going on the bench.
I think Nadine Mazral has the referees over there and
it's talking with them, and we looked down at the
Wisconsin bench and you know, later we saw this on TV.

(50:39):
Later we didn't see this happened directly, but Mark Johnson
says who wants it? He says who wants it? Twice?

Speaker 2 (50:45):
He says it twice?

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Yeah, And then you see in the camera frame Kirsten
Simms right arm go up. And before that, from what
we know now, as soon as there was said it
was going to be a penalty shot, everyone on the
bench was kind of pointing at simms.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Yeah, so this whole thing is really interesting because it's
turned into Laura at this point, right, And like, I mean,
good for Kirsten because she she was the hero. She
did all of the things in this game, but also
in the Boast game press conference, you asked her like
coach says, you want it, your hand goes up, what's
going through your mind? And the first thing Kristen says was,

(51:25):
I can't really say it was like my initially my choice, right,
I mean it was it was like the most non
like I didn't don't. It's so funny because you have
to have the confidence to do that. And Mark Johnson
goes on to talk about this a bunch about how
the player doing this has to be confident, and he's
saying all that after Kirsten, like first question of the
press conference goes, I can't say it was like initially

(51:46):
my choice, and then she said that everybody on the
bench is saying simsimsims, you do it, and she goes
so I was like, you know what, whatever, I was like,
coach is gonna need to see my hand to go
up for me to actually go. So I guess after
everyone just really instilled confidence with me, but it is
like the most twenty something year old answer to like

(52:06):
this whole situation. And so there's also just something really
funny of the lore now of like he asked and
her hand went up, but actually she was was it
initially my choice? I don't know. The whole thing is
just like delightful and just could not have happened, Like
you couldn't have written this up.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
No, there's in all the things that have happened at
the end of games that I've seen that you know,
you and I have seen a lot of games over
the years. I can't ever remember anything this unusual happening
in the last minute of a game of this magnitude.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
No, I'm pretty sure if you submitted that the Hollywood
split script, they tell you it was too cliche and
too unbelievable. Like the whole thing, and you made a
good point in the stadium after the game. The production
value of this, the way that ESPN showed this, the
fact that we were in Ritter that has set up
for this, like the fact that we had that camera

(53:02):
angle to see Mark saying that to get those real
like all the cameras at Ritter are above the benches,
like in a regular broadcast of a regular season game,
we wouldn't have seen any of that, so I just
kind of want to. We have complained a lot about
broadcasts and various different things, So like, kudos for that
because the reaction shots that who Wants It moment, all

(53:24):
of that happened because of the production that was put
on on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Yeah, they nailed that one. I haven't had a chance
to go back and watch the full game yet, but
the pieces that I've seen and obviously used on social
media and everything have been really well done. And so yeah,
definitely credit to ESPN and the and the crew there
for getting that one right. They met the moment. I mean,
that's really all you can hope to do in those

(53:49):
situations is that you have a moment like that and
that you're able to come through with it. And it
looked like that they they definitely did on that one.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
So back to the ice, who Wants It? Hand goes up,
Everybody on the bench is hyping her up. She has
a moment with Casey O'Brien where Casey really hypes her up,
and those two I mean in Casey's Patty accepted, she feet,
she said me and Sims share a brain. Those two
are are very close. They you know, have elevated each
other's game, and in the middle of the chaos of

(54:19):
what's happening right there, they like kind of share a
quiet moment. And afterwards sim said, you know, Casey just
really gassed her up and like made her prepared to do.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
That, and then I remember it being like really eerily quiet,
I mean as she takes the puck. Yeah, I don't
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
We should say, like, you guys, there was a single
section in Ritter that was Ohio state, A single section
that is it that was a ninety plus percent Wisconsin crowd.
Gopher fans sold their tickets and I mean that was
it was loudly Wisconsin fans, and so you know it
is it's under twenty seconds life. The game is like this,

(55:00):
This is this team that people have felt were like
destined to be in this point. They're down by a goal,
Like you can can just need to like set this
scene of what it's like to be in this arena,
in this moment when like they are handed this opportunity.
I shouldn't say that makes it sound like it was
not correct. It was the right call, even maybe Musrol
said it was the right call for that handcovering the

(55:22):
puck in her post game. So anyway they're in the
this is just like we all had our stories written
for the game to be over in eighteen seconds going
the other direction, and so the tension in that room
was was a lot.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
So rewind a couple seasons back in February of twenty
twenty three, the I mentioned this earlier. There was a
penalty shot in overtime of a Wisconsin o'house say game
at Lebon Arena regular season game. So obviously not the
stakes that we were talking about here, but same situation
of a player covering the puck in the crease, so
anyone can be chosen to take that shot, and at

(56:00):
that point it's freshman Kirsten Sims who goes out there
to try and win that game, and she goes on
a path, she takes the puck, she kind of does
an arc to the right as you see almost all
the way to the boards, kind of around wide. Yeah,
so the right hand circle comes in the net and
starts with the shot fakes and the forward forehand backhand.

(56:25):
So she's doing the exact same thing. On Sunday, we
went back and watched and kind of compared the two shots.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
Yeah, I don't know, did you say that it's Telly
a net for this one two years ago as well?

Speaker 1 (56:35):
Its Teey two years ago. Correct, So same same players
on both ends. And uh, it's like four or five
touches back and forth, forehand, backhand, and in twenty twenty three, Uh,
Sims finishes on the backhand and goes up high and
scores for the Badgers to win that game. So as

(56:56):
you're looking at it with that in mind, what she
does on is she kind of fakes that backhand again
and it looks like Teeley bites on it, probably remembering
that this is what she did a couple of years ago.
We've got this institutional knowledge here. But Sims brings it
back to forehand and then she's got the entire she's
got the puck around Teely's left leg, and she's got

(57:18):
the net to wrap it into it. And it's just if
you think about all everything that's wrapped up into that,
beyond the fact that she you know, was either volunteer,
either she volunteered or to be able to make a
move like that on bad ice twice now, So you know,

(57:40):
in overtime, the ice is bad. At the end of
the third period, the ice is pretty bad, even though
they get shovels out at the TV timeouts and and
take care of that that part of the ice, that
pucking bounce, that puck can go on edge, that puck
can do a lot of things you don't want it
to do.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
And she even just back to the I mean, outdoor
ice is different, but the shootout frozen confines like every
one of the Badger's Olympics, like couldn't control a puck.
So again, same goalie, same team you're against, Like you
can't help have that in your head and think about
like how poorly that penalty shot, those penalty shots went,

(58:18):
like they're the context of what's happening here is layers.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Yeah, and so, but it's a goal and so it's.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
Three ice in her veins.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
I mean, honestly, I mean, you think about and this
play has gotten a lot of traction on on social
media and throughout the sports world for uh, for good reason.
I mean, think about everything that's wrapped up into that.
And she goes out and and buries that shot and
doesn't just bury a shot. She makes the moves, keeps

(58:50):
control of the puck and scores. And my first thought
was back to the twenty eighteen Olympics. I know it's
you said, it's not exactly the same move, but just
the back and forth left the right, left the right
finish with the goalie pulled.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
The goalie out. Yeah, it looked a lot like the
the Lambou. Oops, I did it.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
Again, correct? So then it's it's three to three and
we're headed overtime and the last nineteen seconds come, well,
let's put this on the power play.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Put a pin on that for a second. After the game,
Nadie Muzral agreed that it was a penalty for covering
the puck. She had considered calling her challenge to say
that Simms had moved the puck backwards, which you are
not allowed to do. Again, we're getting into some serious
semantics of NCAA rules.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
Here, right. The NCAA rule, as I believe, it's the
same in the NHL. I don't know if the wording
is exactly the same, but the puck has to be
moving toward the goal at all times, so there's some
question there of Okay, so if you decide to pull
it back to get it on your stick to flip
it up. Does that negate a shot or is so

(59:59):
I think the there's some leeway brought into that where
really what they're trying to avoid is the and this
is spelled out in the rule you can't do this
spinerama goal where you stop and turn and bring the
puck around you. That would be what they're trying to avoid.
So the way it's written, I mean, that's a real
gray area of what's legal and what's not in terms

(01:00:22):
of it has.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
To be super open to interpretation. And I would imagine
so somebody asked me specifically about this, and I'm like, friends,
I don't see a lot of penalty shots, like we
just we don't have a ton of them. I don't
watch a ton of the NHL or anything, so like
in terms of I mean, isn't the puck always going
to come back a little like you're that momentum of
a shot? And so I don't know the semantics or

(01:00:44):
like the what the standard is to be allowed in
this situation. I am absolutely not the person that should
be talking about this one because I just don't underste
or I don't have the knowledge of seeing a ton
of other penalty shots to know sort of like what
normally is allowed in terms of how moving side to
side and if it goes back and forth. Nadine said

(01:01:05):
that they thought that it had gone backwards, but they
didn't their video people didn't feel like they had strong
enough video evidence for it. And had Nadine lost the
challenge there? Okay, So if she challenges it and she wins,
the goal comes off the board. If the shot there's
no retry, that's it. So then she still But if
she loses, she has already used her time out, so

(01:01:28):
then it becomes a minor pedalty, meaning that she has
two players in the box, right, and then Wisconsin would
have also had their goalie pull, So then you are
talking six on three with twenty seconds left.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Well, if she would have lost the challenge, the goal
would have stayed, so wouldn't have it would have been
three three?

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
It was they would have, but they would have been
it would have been a five on three power play. Sorry,
so many things happening.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Right, It's so tough to keep track of all this.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
But and so she didn't deem it worth taking that chance.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
That would have been a huge risk at that point. Yeah,
and they decided against it, and it's you know, you've
you have to to kind of play your your gut
at that point because.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
Well, sure in twenty right now, how we know it
turned out, but her team had dominated this game. Like,
I don't think if I'm Ohio State in that situation
that I'm too scared of going into overtime and having
a tie game because I've watched what my team's done
for fifty some minutes. And yeah, again, it's just the
the zealousness of that too many player penalty, like somebody

(01:02:32):
just got really excited and got over the boards and
it wasn't really close, you know, and then the covering,
like it's just really unfortunate after the game that Ohio
State had played, that just you know, a couple of
small things made this huge difference. And then at that
point when you come out for overtime, it's a brand
new game in Wisconsin's got all this excitement and momentum,
and Ohio State had said I can't remember which player

(01:02:55):
said it, but like they tried to come out each
period like it was zero zero, Like their mentality every
time was that either they were down or they were
they were tied, like to play each game or as
particularly after letting I think Cornell in in that second
period of the semi final. But yeah, it was it
was a whole new ball game when these teams came
out for overtime. And as I mentioned before, I think

(01:03:16):
there was just something about the fact that Ohio State
hadn't really actively been playing offense for twenty ish minutes
if not more, of this game.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
Yeah, I think there was some of that. I mean,
they did have the Bakays did have a chance in
the first minute of overtime, the pucking.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
Right, they had the first push and that one shot and.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
That was that was kind of yeah. But so then
we get about three minutes in, uh, Lacey Eden gets
the pucket in the neutral zone for the Badgers, comes
up the right side, gets a shot on that that
Teeley kicks out with the right pad, but that goes
almost directly to Kirsten Simms uh coming down and that
on the left side and she it's not an immedia

(01:03:59):
thing like she she got it onto the right part
of her stick to be able to shoot it, but.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
She had joy donees there and you know, interrupts it
a little and Kirsten does have to handle it, I'd agree.
But the thing about what I couldn't stop thinking about
is that, you know, what that goal is exactly what
Wisconsin has done all year and what had stopped them
from doing for for sixty minutes. It was the fast rush,
It was you know, the second person being able to

(01:04:24):
collect that rebound. It was leaving even leaving up that rebound.
Teeley does tend to give up more rebounds, but Ohio
State have been really great about clearing out in front
of her. So just everything about that goal is is
what Wisconsin wanted to do and what hadn't been able
to do all game.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
Yeah, and sims Bury is it for the overtime winner.
The building of erups like as you mentioned it, it
was like ninety percent Wisconsin fans in there, which was
you know, we were I think I mentioned you at
some point that you know, if you've there's been a
lot of people that have wondered, could there ever be
a frozen four or in Madison? And if you want

(01:05:04):
to know what it would feel like, that was it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
I mean, I mean there won't be one at allab
and it doesn't have enough seats, let's put it there.
But yeah, and this is as close as it is.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
It Yeah, yeah, it was. I mean I've been in
some some really heavily tilted neutral site quote unquote neutral
side games, more of them on the men's side. I'm
thinking about the two thousand and six National championship game
between Milwaukee, Boston College and Milwaukee. I'm thinking about the
two thousand and two championship game between Minnesota and Maine

(01:05:35):
in Saint Paul and the home team winning both of
those games, and Minnesota won that two thousand and two
game in overtime, and it felt like like those are
the memories that came back. Wisconsin one and six on
the men's side two to one, but had to you know,
fight off a last second the post by Boston College

(01:05:57):
in two thousand and two, Minnesota one in overtime, and
I just remember though, the levels of noise in those
buildings at that point. That's what came to mind for me. Uh,
at ridder on Sundays, and you know the ridder, the
roof is a lot lower and so that noise.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
The windows, Yeah, it just really holds that noise.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
There, right, And and that to me was you know,
one of those just deafening moments that you'll remember of
of just you know, when a when a fan base
lets loose, you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Know, after the after the penalty shot, and then at
the way and both I will say too when honestly
one of the loudest moments is when the teams came
out from warm ups. Yeah, I had I had filled
goosebumps a couple times this weekend, and I like want
to be clear that this wasn't just because it was
Wisconsin fans, like, this was the coolest college hockey environment,
college women's hockey environment I've ever been in. What Sunday

(01:06:53):
reminded me of was the gold medal game in Utica
that also went to overtime because of a too many
player penalty, too many players person sims. So there was
there was a lot of parallel there, but just the
the because that in Utica you had some Canada fans,
but a lot of US fans went to It was
just everything and it had I can't believe I've gotten

(01:07:15):
to be I would have told you that's the best
game I've ever seen in person, and now I'm wondering
if this replaced it, particularly because that was a silver
metal loss. And so yeah, I don't know, but the
fact that I got to see those two games in
less than a year in person is I'm a really
lucky person. Let's just put it that way. But the
the joy of people watching women's college hockey at the

(01:07:38):
absolute highest level of the game, living up to a
bunch of the hype to watch the wider sports world
clue into this game when Sims hit that penalty shot, Like,
there was other things happening on my social media feeds
until that happened, and then this is all anybody was
talking about. It just it was such a cool day
for women's college hockey. Friends, Hey, women's college hockey. This

(01:08:00):
was really I don't know that I'll ever forget that
sort of regardless of outcome, Like I had all those
moments and those thoughts before we got to this cuckoo,
bonkers ending. So yeah, I just I wish, I hope
that we get this in the future in other locations,
and it's not just when it's Minnesota and and local

(01:08:21):
teams are playing. This is this is what it should
be like at this level, and uh it was. It
was a really cool thing to be in the building.
I only regret that I didn't get to enjoy it
from all like things kept happening in bunches in these games,
and so it was like, oh that happened, Oh that happened.
Like I don't know that I remember the cheer from
the Badgers winning because I immediately put my head down
and started typing. I much more remember the cheer from

(01:08:43):
when they were warming up. It's just it's hard to
to have all that happening at once, because, like I said,
we'd all had our stories written a different way. So uh, yeah,
there was.

Speaker 1 (01:08:53):
There was.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
It necessitated a lot of work. I didn't get down
on the ice until much much later after turning in
some some prolem stories. I do want to mention I
wanted to say it before. I think maybe the thing
that isn't going to come out of talking about this
with Kirsten Sims is the the assists she had on
KK Harvey's goal in this game was a bunch of
stick handling. She she pulled the puck back, she got

(01:09:15):
around a defender, she's falling over to feed that to KK.
Then obviously all the touches and the really pretty move
on the penalty shot, and then again the touch and
the controlling the puck that it's not like the rebound
came right to her and she just had to put
it back into the net. There was like a bit
more to it than that. And so just Curston sims masterclass.

(01:09:36):
We know how good she is with puck handling, but
goodness was it on display in all the smallest ways
when she was also doing some pretty major stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:09:45):
Yeah, I wanted to point out that, you know, you
mentioned that. I think that the penalty shot kind of
brought some more attention than that game at that point.
And I would imagine a lot of people, you know,
either clicked down in that game or turned to turn
the channel to it once they saw that. And so
that there's a NCAA championship game going to overtime, you know,
next goal wins the title. And we saw ESPN reported

(01:10:07):
that their viewership was up twenty two percent over last
season's championship game. Now they they don't publicize what those
actual numbers are, and I know that's still on the
small side.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
Well, you put it on in ESPN U. And it's
also like one of the busiest sports weekends.

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
Of the right. You're also going on this men's basketball,
women's basketball, You've got co Race, auto racing going on,
You've got all these things happening on a Sunday afternoon,
and but for that to get even the boost that
it did.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
It felt like total saturation. Sure like it released containment containment.

Speaker 1 (01:10:45):
The same two teams as it was last year, So
you've got a pretty good control there on on you know,
fan bases. But I feel like that was a really
important step to be made. And you know, the unfortunate
part is that now it's six months again before we
we get any more games to try and build off
of that, and you know, twelve months before we get

(01:11:06):
a game of that magnitude on ESPN you to have
to see how how things look. But I mean, it's
just a an incredible weekend of results of performance, like
you talked about, of skill on the ice. I don't

(01:11:28):
know about you, but I ran into a lot of
people that our listeners to our podcasts.

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
So everybody was so nice. Thank you. I'm so awkward
when you do that, and I don't know what to see,
but thank you. But we do. I promise you. I
go home and tell my husband all about every one
of you. It's really nice, we really do. I just
it's it's a very strange situation. To be in.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
Yeah, and so you know, thank you for listening all
this season. We've we've got more episodes coming over the
next couple of weeks. I just want to highlight. Next
week we're going to be back talking kind of a
more thirty thousand foot view of the season as a
whole and looking at some of the awards that US

(01:12:10):
ECHO will come out with. Well, let's be honest, Nicole
will come out with the next week. She does all
the work on these, including all the writing, and.

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
She's taking a couple of day break before a.

Speaker 1 (01:12:22):
Well deserved break. Yes, and so we'll talk about those
next week, and then the following week or the week
Athro I believe it's the following week we'll talk about
the World Championship in Chechia, which is happening in.

Speaker 2 (01:12:35):
Tons of collegiate and players and collegiate commitments. Yeah, I
feel like I'm not saying well, but I think, like
I think people know or understand from me that, like
my goal is always to get more people paying attention
to this game. That I just I love the players,
I love the dynamic, I love everything about this and
so you know it's why I write intro posts. It's
why every week victory press. I'm trying to like sort

(01:12:56):
of hand on a planner. Here are the lakes, here's
how to watch, here's why these games are going to
be exciting. So to be doing that over and over
and have been doing that for years and wanting to
get these players the attention I think they deserve. To
see that come to a little bit of fruition this weekend.
I don't, by any means think we have reached any
sort of like Plateau or Naedy or anything like that.
But to see this style of hockey go out and

(01:13:21):
show everybody what they're capable of and see it reach
a wide group was just like it was the happy.
It was like the most joy I could have to watch.
And like I said, that was even before I mean
I think I said in the first period, like I
want I want a video of this game in my
pocket to show to people when they say women's hockey
is no or women's college hockey is no good either one.

(01:13:41):
It was just Ohio State was perfect. I mean, I
know Nadine wouldn't agree with that. I'm sure there's plenty
of things you want to work, but they executed their
game plan and it was a fast game and it
was so pretty and both the semi final games had
it too, and so I just really just want to
stress that, like I hope people understood and appreciated and
that's why I'm so geeked out that this was just

(01:14:04):
an amazing showcase of this sport and what makes it great,
and not just because of a mere collanding of a game.
So I hope that, like you said, it's it stinks
a little bit that this is the end. And now
we've got quite a bit of downtime, but again, never enough,
because it's you know, mid March, we'll be I'll be
working on our previews when by the time we get

(01:14:28):
to August. So yeah, but I just we appreciate you
all so much for coming on the ride with us
for this season and listening and giving us questions and stuff,
and it was very cool to meet so many people.
Sometimes it's really hard when we're removed in the breath box,
but we appreciate you all so much, and I hope
that you all enjoyed this as much as I did.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
I can't say any better than that. So I think
that's where we're gonna wrap this up this week. Thanks
everyone again, check back with us next week for the
wrap up, and make sure you can go and read
everything at usc h O dot com and Victory Press
that Nicole has put together over the last week. A
lot of great stuff, even if you were there, stuff too. Yeah,

(01:15:12):
well you know I've got stuff there too. Thanks a bunch.
I hope you enjoyed everything that we had from the
Frozen four. Let's do it again next season in state college.

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
What do you say, I already was looking at hotels
so planing on it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:30):
Yeah, you probably should this far in advance, given what
that happened last time.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
That's only a little bit of a joke, friend, exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
All right, that's it for us this week for Nicole.
I'm Todd. Thanks for listening to the podcast.

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