By Shereen Siewert | Wausau Pilot & Review
The sixth-ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey team will advance to the 2023 NCAA Frozen Four after an upset win over third-ranked Colgate on Saturday.
Wisconsin in Saturday’s regional final successfully killed off five penalties against Colgate, the top team in the country for power-play goals.
Nicole LaMantia, Casey O’Brien, Vivian Jungels and Laila Edwards each scored as the Badgers (27-10-2) took down the Raiders (32-6-2) on the road. Cami Kronish made 13 saves for her 19th win of the year.
Head Coach Mark Johnson’s pride in his team is clear.
“I’m really proud of the group,” Johnson said. “We had some adversity in the middle part of the season. It’s no different than a lot of the teams I’ve been a part of, either as a player or a coach. It’s a long season and you’re going to have good nights, you’re going to have opportunities to have success and you’re also going to have some adversity. The big thing is how do you navigate through that and how to come out of it in a positive light.”
Next, the Badgers will head to their 14th Frozen Four appearance where they will face No. 2 Minnesota this Friday, March 17 at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth. The semifinal game will either be played at 2:30 p.m. CT or 6 p.m. CT and will broadcast on ESPN+.
This will be the sixth matchup this season between the Badgers and Minnesota. Junior Casey O’Brien said the team will approach this week’s challenge with confidence.
“It doesn’t matter how many times we’ve beat them or how many times they’ve beat us, the NCAA playoffs are just such a different game than anything we’ve done before,” O’Brien said. “I think we’re just going to stick to Badger hockey because we have so much confidence that we’re at our best and we can beat any team.”
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