If the Badgers were looking for an easy road challenge to remove the bad taste from their mouth, they couldn’t do much better than Bemidji State. The Beavers, who were 2-29 last season, are also winless this year. In fact, dating back to last season, Bemidji State has lost 15 consecutive games, only two of which have been decided by one goal.
Bemidji State went 0-4 against the Badgers a year ago and have not recorded a victory against UW since 2001 when Wisconsin’s program was still in its infancy. Since then, the Badgers have dominated the series with the Beavers. In its 30 previous games, Wisconsin has recorded 28 victories and two ties.
Nevertheless, Wisconsin interim head coach Tracey DeKeyser knows her team will not overlook Bemidji State.
“We remind them that they have the potential to beat any opponent,” DeKeyser said. “We’re the team that works for [the] 60 full minutes — if we don’t, they will.”
According to senior captain Jasmine Giles, the team appears ready heading into the weekend series.
“We just got to take it like we take any normal game,” Giles said. “If we go up there and just lollygag, we’re not going to get much out of it.”
If the Badgers plan on returning to Madison with two wins, the play of their goaltenders is going to be huge. Wisconsin has had mixed results at the goaltending position so far and have used two different goaltenders in their first two games. Alannah McCready was the starter for season opener, but after a 2-0 shutout at home, DeKeyser named freshman Becca Ruegsegger the starter for Saturday’s game.
DeKeyser has not named a starter for this weekend, but Ruegsegger will likely start at least one game in the series. Ruegsegger was the last player on the ice after Thursday’s practice, but DeKeyser is leaning toward splitting the starts again like last weekend. Although DeKeyser will try to mix the lineups for the second series of the season, she is aware of the dangers of changing the rosters.
“If you keep changing things, you can’t develop chemistry,” DeKeyser said. “That’s the hard part.”
Regardless of who UW names as the starter, Ruegsegger will be ready to contribute when her name is called.
“We just need to do little things right,” Ruegsegger said. “Just kind of play the way we always play.”
If Ruegsegger plans on being successful against the Beavers, she will have to go up against Erin Johnson, Bemidji’s leading scorer. Johnson scored a goal in each of Bemidji State’s previous games.
Although Johnson has excelled early in the season, thhje rest of her offense has yet to provide support. She is the only player on the team to score a goal, and both goals occurred at the end of the game. Still, the team will be giving their full effort against Johnson and her teammates.
“We take care of competing first and foremost, because that’s what we can do,” Giles said. “We can out-skill them, but if we don’t outcompete them, we’re going to come home unsuccessful.”
