Gophers earn another chance at Women's Frozen Four title

When the Gophers gave up a season-high five goals in last year's NCAA championship game loss to Clarkson, no one took it harder than goaltender Amanda Leveille.

But 12 months later, the Gophers are back in the title game, and Leveille is the biggest reason they're still standing.

Wisconsin soundly outplayed the Gophers for the first 25 minutes Friday at the Women's Frozen Four, but Leveille delivered a flurry of spectacular saves.

After falling behind early in the second period, the Gophers reeled off three quick goals, plenty for Leveille in a 3-1 victory before a sellout crowd of 3,400 at Ridder Arena.

"Wisconsin was awesome all night, and if it's not for Amanda Leveille, I'm not sure we win that game," Gophers coach Brad Frost said.

The victory sent the Gophers (33-3-4) to their fourth consecutive championship game. On Sunday, they will play Harvard, a 2-1 winner over Boston College in Friday's other semifinal.

The Badgers (29-7-4) bowed out against the Gophers in the NCAA semifinals for the second consecutive year. After being on the wrong end of the rivalry for years, the Gophers are 16-0-2 in their past 18 games against Wisconsin.

"I think that's pretty incredible, because they're such a great team," said Gophers junior Hannah Brandt. "I don't know what it is. I think we've just found a way to win those games."

Wisconsin ranked fifth in the nation in scoring with 3.54 goals per game this season, but the Badgers scored exactly one goal in all five meetings with the Gophers.

Less than one minute into Friday's second period, Annie Pankowski beat Leveille with a strong shot off a faceoff to give the Badgers the lead.

Minnesota knew the score could have been worse.

"The first 10 minutes, we were really on our heels," Brandt said. "I knew it was going to be a good day for [Leveille] because it easily could have been 2- or 3-nothing.

"I think that's the best game I've ever seen her play. And she's had a lot of good games, so that says a lot."

Midway through the second period, the Gophers finally came to life.

Brandt set up a play in the Badgers zone with a pass to Maryanne Menefee atop the right faceoff circle. Menefee took a shot, Dani Cameranesi whacked at the rebound, and the puck kicked to Brandt, who buried it for her team-high 33rd goal of the season.

Two minutes later, Gophers defenseman Megan Wolfe took a high shot from the point, and Menefee made a waist-high tip, bouncing the puck past Badgers goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens.

Leveille made another thrilling save to keep Wisconsin from tying the score.

Then, the Gophers got their first chance to run the nation's top power play against Wisconsin's top-ranked penalty kill. After some nice passing, Kelly Pannek scored the third goal with assists from Menefee and Brandt.

Leveille finished with 34 saves. With a host of scouts for the Canadian national team on hand, the Kingston, Ontario, native put on quite a show.

"Last year was hard that we didn't win," Leveille said. "But our coach always tells us, 'You can't base a season on one game.' So tonight I think we all played really well.

"I've been in a big game like this before. We all have."

And thanks to her performance, the Gophers will have another big one Sunday.