SPORTS
Badgers to face Bobcats after layoff
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Also by Dave McGrath:
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- Month off in store for Wisconsin (December 8, 2006)
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- Wisconsin cruises past Quinnipiac with pair of blowout wins (January 17, 2005)
- Badgers receive break before continuing road trip (December 14, 2005)
by Dave McGrath
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
The No. 4-ranked University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team finishes this week of classes just like everybody else: thankful for the break ahead. While the Badgers won’t compete again for more than three weeks, they will be getting back to work a little earlier than the rest of the student body.
The Lady Ice Badgers (13-4-1, 9-4-1) will have two series before the spring semester and the second half of the conference schedule gets underway. The Badgers will look to improve their standing in the WCHA in the second half, as they are currently in third with 19 points, trailing Minnesota-Duluth (24 points) and Minnesota (26 points).
Wisconsin gets back on the ice Jan. 7, when they play the first of two games against Quinnipiac on the road. It will be the first meeting ever between the two programs.
The Bobcats are struggling this year, having only four wins this season and having gone winless in their conference, College Hockey America. The recipe for the Quinnipiac disaster has been relatively simple as they have had shaky goaltending coupled with an inability to put the puck in the net. In 17 games, the defense has given up 68 goals, surrendering five or more goals on seven separate occasions. During the same period, the Bobcats have only scored 35 goals and have been limited to one or zero goals eight times.
The offensive leader for Quinnipiac is freshman Aimee Whittaker, who has provided nine goals and four assists this year for the Bobcats and has been a bright spot in a dark season. No other player has scored more than nine points for Quinnipiac. Defensively, the Bobcats have been even worse, allowing a slew of shots on goal while not contributing at all offensively. The Badgers will probably see both senior Catherine Lapare and sophomore Janelle Wolitski in goal, as the two have played about the same number of minutes this year, though neither has been very impressive, with save percentages of .873 and .849 respectively.
After Quinnipiac, the Badgers return to the Kohl Center for only the second series since October, as they host Minnesota-Duluth the following weekend in a series that could very well set the tone for the remainder of the season.
With UW trailing Duluth in the WCHA, and the series beginning a WCHA gauntlet that has the Badgers playing North Dakota, Minnesota State and Ohio State as well as traveling to Minnesota for round two with the Golden Gophers, the games with the Bulldogs will be as important as any for the Badgers the rest of the way.
Minnesota-Duluth swept the Badgers in Duluth when the teams met Nov. 5 and 6. The Bulldogs were able to escape with two one-goal victories despite being out-shot by the Badgers in both games, as UW was unable to overcome early leads built by the Bulldogs. The Badgers look to even the season series in Madison, but the task will not be easy.
The Bulldogs’ (13-1-2, 11-1-2) lone loss came on the road to Minnesota and has been the only setback for a team that has dominated WCHA competition. Superb goaltending by sophomore Riitta Schaublin has been the driving force, as she has been the top goaltender in the conference through the first half of the schedule, posting a conference-best (among primary goaltenders) 1.37 goals and a .951 save percentage.
As well as boasting the top goaltender in the WCHA, the Bulldogs bring a high-octane offense to the Kohl Center, led by the three-headed monster of senior Caroline Ouelette and sophomores Noemie Marin and Jessica Koizumi. Ouelette, the WCHA’s fourth leading scorer, has tallied 13 goals and 24 assists this season. Marin has scored a team-high 16 goals in only 14 games, and Koizumi has notched 12 goals and seven assists from the second line.
The defenders for Minnesota-Duluth are also top-notch, killing off more than 89 percent of power plays to stand as the league’s best penalty kill. Although the blue liners haven’t scored many goals for the Bulldogs, senior Julianne Vasichek has 17 assists this season, second among conference defensemen.
The Badgers and Bulldogs are very evenly matched, scoring and allowing almost equal amounts of goals through the season. Although Minnesota-Duluth will have the conference’s top goaltender between the pipes, Badger netminders Meghan Horras (Sr.) and Christine Dufour (So.) are no slouches themselves, as they are both in the conference’s top four in GAA and save percentage.
The series could give the Badgers the momentum they need to burn through the second half of the season and will hopefully find themselves higher up the WCHA totem pole by season’s end.
