Returning to the ice after an off-weekend, the Wisconsin women’s hockey team is preparing to make quick work of the Minnesota State Mavericks when they come to visit Madison this Thursday and Friday.

The Badgers (9-2-1, 7-2-1 WCHA) find themselves in an unusual situation with a Thursday night game. Many, if not all, team members will have classes that afternoon, keeping the team from having a normal practice before the night’s game. Instead, the team shifted its schedule by a day and practiced Sunday.

The high level of play at which NCAA level programs perform requires a heavily regimented system, and there are concerns over how breaking it for this weekend’s series could affect the Badgers come game time.

“It becomes a school issue,” Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson said. “The kids will be going to school all day Thursday, and as I told them after practice, it’s your ability when you come to the rink to really focus in on what you have to do to be successful … it’s going to be their ability to come in and take their school hat off and put on their hockey helmet and go out and perform Thursday night.”

However, Friday’s game has Johnson even more worried.

“Friday becomes a little bit more challenging because you play in the afternoon, so some of the kids are coming right from class into the locker room, warming up, putting their gear on and practicing,” Johnson said.

Even with scheduling concerns looming over the No. 3 ranked Badgers, the luck of the draw seems to be on their side. Minnesota State (0-9-1, 0-7-1 WCHA) will come to Madison having played and lost heavily to North Dakota, Minnesota-Duluth and Ohio State already. The Badgers have already beaten those three teams by an average of 3.4 goals.

Despite being significantly favored against Minnesota State, a lack of aggression and intensity will not be on display for the Badgers as they look to finish strong while closing in on the mid-season winter break. With only three more series before the break, Johnson emphasized continuing to keep the hunger and determination the team has shown so far, especially during a series against a lackluster opponent such as Minnesota State.

The intensity he desires will surely be provided as Wisconsin senior captain Blayre Turnbull and her Team Canada teammate, freshman forward Emily Clark, return to Madison with the excitement of winning the 2014 Four Nations Cup. They, along with the rest of Team Canada, defeated fellow Badger freshman forward Annie Pankowski and Team USA 3-2 in a shootout to decide the championship game this past weekend.

With Turnbull, Clark and Pankowski back in the Badgers lineup, the offensive firepower that was missing two weekends ago against North Dakota will surely be reignited. All three expressed their excitement to dress in their Badgers uniforms again and play this week.

The transition back to collegiate level hockey has provided these select players with many things to take away from competing on the national stage. As they expressed and elaborated on, many different facets of their respective skills and talents have improved since.

When talking about the differences between the two levels of hockey, Pankowski stated very clearly how she feels that the game’s intensity increases at the national level and how it helped her.

“The speed, the game is a lot faster,” Pankowski said. “I think I can try to translate that over to playing here at Wisconsin. The game is played at a faster pace, thought at a faster pace, so there is a small adjustment there, but overall it is the same game.”

Having played and competed admirably at such a level, Pankowski has already proven that she is capable of taking on the heightened competition seen on the national stage. Thinking and operating faster on the ice will heighten her game to a new level, and with 12 points on the season (two goals, 10 assists), that new level could propel the Badgers to an NCAA championship that has eluded them since 2011.

The already impressive offense that operates under Johnson would benefit from a faster and quicker forward contingent, and Pankowski is not the only impressive freshman forward in the Badgers’ arsenal. Clark has been playing complimentary to Pankowski all season, lighting up opposing goaltenders for four goals and five assists. The two freshmen are second and fourth in points for the Badgers, even with missing the series against North Dakota two weekends ago. With the experience gained from the Four Nations Cup, this freshman duo will raise their game to new heights, as Clark stated.

“Being a young player, I got a lot of new opportunities. I got a lot of experience playing with the older girls,” Clark said. “Knowing what level I now have to compete at all the time is now very important.”

The Badgers and Mavericks will start their two-game series Thursday at 7 p.m. before finishing the series Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. Both games will be at the LaBahn Arena.