UND junior Becca Kohler (left) races down the ice last Saturday at Ralph Engelstad Arena. Photo by Nicholas Nelson/The Dakota Student.

For the UND women’s hockey team, this season was about enduring growth.

On Saturday, the season more than wins and losses came to an end when Wisconsin defeated North Dakota 4-1 in the 2015 WCHA Final Face-off tournament at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

“It is by far the most growth of a group start to finish I’ve ever been a part of as a coach and maybe as a player,” UND coach Brian Idalski said after North Dakota’s season ending loss to Wisconsin. “I have a lot of respect for our leaders, our captains and our seniors. We had to play a little bit different than what we have in the last few years. They embraced it. They’re a good group and there is a lot of heart in that locker room. Unfortunately, we weren’t labeled a ticket to the final levels here.”

North Dakota’s six-game winning streak, along with the team’s season came to an end Saturday evening. The team (22-12-3) is now out of the Pairwise rankings for a chance to enter into the national tournament. The winner of the WCHA Final Face-Off receives an automatic bid into the year’s final tournament, but it won’t be North Dakota.

“I thought we came out with a lot of heart,” senior captain Andrea Dalen said. “We didn’t get the bounces we wanted, but I thought we kept going the whole game and I’m proud of the team for that.”

Wisconsin scored in every period on Saturday and had a 3-0 lead over North Dakota before senior Tori Williams was able to get the team on the score sheet with under five minutes remaining in the game. Shots on goal were 27-26 in North Dakota’s favor, while Amsley-Benzie stopped 22 that came her way.

The Green and White had chances to score on three power play chances, but came up empty handed on all three attempts.

“Success isn’t dictated by what your record is,” Idalski said. “These kids, dealing with adversity and with teammates being injured and another losing their father — those are traumatic things for anybody, and for them to turn around and play a hockey game on top of that, it’s experience that is going to serve them very well as adults. So when you start to talk about success, that’s a success.”

“Those kids are going to have some memories and some friendships that are going to span their lifetime, that’s pretty cool,” Idalski said. “A hockey game, at the end of the day, really isn’t that important.”

North Dakota completely turned its season around after losing nine games in the first half of its schedule. Coming out of the holiday break, the team went on a run in which it went 13-3-1, shutting teams out in seven of the team’s 13 victories.

“I’m really proud of the team for that,” Dalen said. “ … to come out and have a streak like we did, it was really fun — a lot of momentum in the team. It’s good memories.”

Idalski is proud of his team.

“I got very close with this group,” Idalski said. “It’s unfortunate that it didn’t end the way that we would have liked it to, but that’s a solid group of people, not only in our locker room and on the ice, but in the classroom and around the community. I’m really proud of them.”

Ben Novak is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].