Saturday night at Ridder Arena, a male fan raised a sign asking Minnesota women’s hockey sophomore Krissy Wendell to be his valentine. However, it was two lesser-used players who were feeling the most love after the 2-1 win over Wisconsin.
Wendell opened the scoring in Saturday’s game, increasing her consecutive point scoring streak to 17 games.
But senior forward Jerilyn Glenn tallied the game-winning assist – her third point of the season – and junior goaltender Brenda Reinen stopped 27 shots in her fifth start this season to beat the Badgers, and improve her record to 5-0.
Glenn thought she played approximately three minutes during the weekend, but was prepared to hit the ice when her number was called.
“I was ready mainly to just play defense,” Glenn said. “My role out there is to not let them score, and when I get the opportunity to score I want to capitalize on it.”
Glenn did just that at 6:43 of the third period. The Ham Lake, Minn., native picked up a loose puck at the blue line and fired a pass to junior forward Noelle Sutton, who was lurking on the doorstep and put home the game-winner.
“We were just forechecking in the zone and I got the puck,” Glenn said. “I saw Noelle breaking to net and I hit her and I didn’t even know if she scored because I didn’t see.”
Although Glenn could not see what happened, she definitely heard the boisterous crowd of 1,869 erupt when Sutton lit the lamp.
“She went out there and made things happen with the opportunity she was given,” Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson said of Glenn. “I threw her out there to give (freshmen defender Maggie) Souba a rest and she was right in the thick of things, and working hard so we put her back out there and she ended up getting the assist on the winning goal. It was a great moment for her and our entire team.”
Glenn scored the first-ever goal at Ridder Arena last season, but a game-winning assist to remain atop the WCHA was a nice feeling as well.
“I’ve had a lot of great things that have happened over my career here,” Glenn said. “But this is definitely one of the great things.”
Minnesota held on to record the win, but in the second period the Badgers turned up the offensive pressure, testing the Gophers’ defense on numerous occasions.
Wisconsin had nine shots on goal in the period, including seven attempts in the slot area that Reinen turned aside each time.
Wisconsin defenseman Carla MacLeod scored an overtime goal Friday to knock off the Gophers, but was unable to get in the scorebook Saturday thanks in large part to the netminding of Reinen.
The Badgers had a flurry of chances in the second stanza. In one instance, MacLeod broke in on goal midway through the period, but her backhand attempt was denied when Reinen slid over to make the play.
Minnesota had some areas it wanted to improve on as a team after falling in overtime to Wisconsin on Friday, but the strong play in net was also a key part to salvaging a split.
“We tried to provide more support for the puck carrier,” Halldorson said. “The other element was Brenda Reinen had a great game in net.”
