After last year’s Wisconsin women’s hockey team finished the season with an impressive 33-5-2 record and earned the 2012 WCHA regular season title, this year’s squad has some big skates to fill as they began this season with an 8-4-2 start.
Dealing with a handful of injuries and several lineup changes, head coach Mark Johnson has a positive outlook on the rest of the season. Johnson explained you cannot control injuries and never know when they are going to come.
He also said the teams that reach the final games of the season have usually been healthy throughout the season.
“As we approach this season, obviously a couple things are thrown at you, and you try to work around them,” Johnson said at his weekly press conference Monday. “So you get ready for games, you put lineups together, you put in different positions and you try to move forward.”
The Badgers are coming off a competitive weekend split with Ohio State, a series that began with a 4-2 win Friday night. Wisconsin netted its first goal on a penalty shot and strong special teams play allowed them to escape with the win.
On Saturday afternoon, the second game was a different story as they fell to the Buckeyes on the road, 3-1.
“We weren’t able to capitalize on our opportunities,” Johnson said. “We had quite a few of them, and it seems when we have a setback it usually is we’re not able to get the puck in on a regular basis.”
Heading into this week’s practices ahead of St. Cloud State, the team is still making adjustments and looking for areas to improve.
Johnson said he is proud of the way the team has competed and his team has been practicing hard, factors he said will give his players a chance to win any game they compete in the rest of the year.
“The games that we haven’t been successful in are the games we haven’t been able to score goals in,” he said. “We went three games without scoring a goal [earlier this month].”
The competition in the WCHA has continued to improve this season, as Johnson said even four or five years ago some of the conference’s squads were not as deep as they are now and present new problems for every opponent.
As their opponents have improved, the UW women’s hockey head coach said his team has done its best to follow suit.
“Certainly when you graduate people that have the magnitude of some of the players that we have, those are tough kids to replace,” Johnson said. “As I mentioned the efforts are there, we have good character kids, we’re younger then we’ve been in the past. With that you have some growing pains, but you give me three more goals we probably have three more wins.”
Johnson was also asked if LaBahn Arena – the new home arena for the Wisconsin women’s hockey team – feels like home yet for the coach and his players.
“Everybody is getting more comfortable. It’s Thanksgiving, and we are certainly thankful for what we have over there. I’m sure [UW men’s hockey coach] Mike [Eaves] can say the same thing. As we continue to practice, as we continue to go there on a daily basis and play more games, it really becomes a place that you are very fortunate to have.”
With few injuries and an impressive start to a new season, Johnson said his young team, loaded with eight freshmen, will continue to look at how it can continue to develop chemistry and improve as a unit.
Two of the most important ways for the Badgers to do so are taking greater advantage of their power plays and creating more opportunities on the offensive side of the ice to score.
“If we are able to do that, whether it’s against St. Cloud State or the following weekend against Minnesota and then North Dakota, that’s when we are going to be successful,” Johnson said. “So look forward to the competition both Friday and Saturday afternoon against St. Cloud.”
