Re: Greatest Moments in Frozen Four History
1973, The Badgers came within five
seconds of never having a shot at the title
at all. That’s how much time was left on
the Boston Garden clock when Wisconsin
tied Cornell 5-5 to send the semifinal game
into sudden-death overtime. Wisconsin had
made an incredible comeback after Cornell
jumped out to a 4-0 lead midway through
the second period. The Badgers narrowed it
to 4-2 on goals by Norm Cherrey and Dennis
Olmstead, but Cornell scored their fifth
goal only 40 seconds into the final period.
Then started the Wisconsin comeback.
Junior Gary Winchester scored midway
through the period to narrow Cornell’s
lead to two goals and with 3:11 to go senior
Jim Johnston scored to bring Wisconsin
within one goal. With 43 seconds left in the
game Badger coach Bob Johnson pulled
goaltender Dick Perkins to put a sixth skater
on the ice. With the Wisconsin net wide
open, freshman center Dennis Olmstead
continually won important face-offs as the
Badgers controlled the puck. Cornell never
even got a shot on the Wisconsin open net
and coach Johnson said afterwards, “We
never lost our poise.”
Even with the seconds ticking
down to zero, Olmstead passed in front of
the Cornell net to sophomore Dean Talafous
who poked it in and the game was tied
5-5.
The unbelievable comeback
continued into overtime, and at one point
Cornell had a two-man breakaway, but Perkins
made the save. With 33 seconds left in
the overtime period, Olmstead centered the
puck to freshman Steve Alley, Alley’s shot
was blocked, but the rebound came to Talafous
and this time he scored the winner.