This is much better than anything UMDBulldogs.com really can do:
Koizumi Ends Boston College's Night
Minnesota-Duluth senior nets game-winning goal at 14:19 in double OT
March 17, 2007
By David De Remer
Special to CSTV.com from USCHO.com
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - Back in 2003, Boston College was off the women's college hockey radar. The Eagles were at the bottom of Hockey East. Their coach, Tom Babson, was better known for his acting career than his hockey career.
Meanwhile, Minnesota-Duluth was reloading with its first recruiting class since graduating the program's inaugural class that won three NCAA titles.
Both programs have done a lot of growing up since then, and the result was what was witnessed in Lake Placid Friday night--one of the most thrilling Frozen Four games ever played.
Senior Jessica Koizumi ended the 4-3 UMD win at 14:19 of double overtime, when she and her linemates cleanly executed a well-practiced play that gave her a clear lane to the net.
It was Koizumi's second straight overtime game-winner for UMD. She buried the puck as a BC defender backed into goalie Molly Schaus, who finished with 47 saves on 51 shots--her third multiple overtime game of the season.
The game was a microcosm of the career had by UMD's senior class. Three times on Friday night BC went ahead with a one-goal lead, and three times UMD came back to tie the game, the last coming with 4:20 left after BC had held the 3-2 lead for more than a period.
The UMD seniors had to overcome failure in their first seasons, just missing the Frozen Four each time. The fourth time has finally been the charm.
The word "comeback" has been deeply engrained in UMD's players this season. The Bulldogs were 1-7-1 in a nine-game stretch prior to winter break.
Shortly thereafter, Koizumi tore her MCL and her college career seemed to be over. But her teammates helped her believe she could come back, and she did.
"I was crying when I found out the news, and I didn't expect to come back, so this overwhelming," Koizumi said. "I'm the lucky one scoring the goal, but our whole team is playing amazing.'
The UMD senior class is full of redemption stories. Goalie Riitta Schaublin had been an All-American for two straight seasons, but she had been on the short end of UMD's postseason attempts, and this season she was losing marquee playing time to freshman Kim Martin, the star Swedish goalie who upset the U.S. in the 2006 Olympics.
But Schaublin worked through that challenge, and UMD coach Shannon Miller went with her in the NCAA Tournament one more time. So far this tournament, Schaublin has been perfect on 21 shots faced in overtime.
Another tale is Noemie Marin. Shannon Miller calls her the heart and soul of her team. In the final minute of overtime, UMD fans nearly had heart attacks when Marin slammed into the wall after faltering on an odd-man rush, and she could not stand on her right leg. The initial read from the doctor was that she was unfit to play, but Marin protested, and she was cleared after another look.
"She's the toughest kid on our team," Miller said. "Obviously, she could play and she finished the game strong."
For BC, the game was the culmination of a long period of growth in four seasons under Tom Mutch, the former assistant of the 1998 U.S. Olympic Team (Miller, on the opposite bench, was head coach of Team Canada at the time). The fruits of his recruits paid off one-by-one throughout the evening.
Juniors Deb Spillane, the star forward of his first class, scored first. Meghan Fardelmann and Becky Zavisza, his top-scoring sophomores, struck with the second and third goals, respectively. Then freshman goalie Molly Schaus kept the Eagles in the game from then on.
Schaus may be a freshman, but she has more experience in some sense than any goalie in the history of the game. No women's hockey goalie has ever played multi-overtime games three times in one season, but Schaus did it against Harvard in the Beanpot semifinals (triple overtime), Dartmouth in last week's NCAA quarterfinal (double overtime), and then this game against UMD. Losing these games was an unfamiliar feeling for her.
"I asked my coach, `What does it feel like to end a game in regulation,'" Schaus said. "It had been a while."
Schaus was just one of many players on BC who has grown up a lot this season. With only a handful of seniors on the roster, and Mutch still yet to bring in his fourth recruiting class, there's still plenty of room for his program to grow.
"Some of the kids will remember this game for a lifetime," Mutch said. "They're taking memories out of here that they will tell their kids. When they've graduated, and they're having tough days, they'll remember these moments handling pressure. That's what college athletics is all about. They're growing up right before our eyes."
The sport of women's hockey is growing up right before our eyes, too.
Five years ago, the NCAA women's tournament was still four teams. It would have been a pipe dream to say that in 2007, there would be an eight-team tournament with enough parity for four of the first six games to go into overtime and three of them into multiple overtimes--a grand total of 137 minutes of extra time. The fans of women's hockey could not be more excited to see this story of growth unfold.
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