The Wisconsin women’s hockey team, which matched wins with visiting Ohio State this weekend, split its third consecutive series. Like their previous two series against Bemidji State and North Dakota, the Badgers dropped Friday’s game and rebounded with a win Saturday.
Badger hockey fans, who saw last year’s team lose just two games all season, may be surprised to see the Badgers surpass their loss total from a year ago before November. Friday night games have been the issue to date, as Wisconsin has struggled to establish early weekend success in each of their three series of the 2009-10 campaign.
Interim head coach Tracey DeKeyser continued to praise her young Badgers despite the Friday night struggles, and remains confident time will help hone this Wisconsin team into a more refined, mature unit.
“I think we just need a couple games to figure out who we are,” DeKeyser said. “I think we figured out what our roles are. They’re not going to be consistently like this.”
To realize the Badgers’ struggles, one must look at the team’s surprisingly poor power play statistics. Wisconsin is 1-for-19 on the power play this year — just 5.3 percent. On the other hand, the Badgers have had an effective penalty kill, stopping all of their opponents’ 19 power plays.
Senior forward Mallory Deluce, who came into the weekend tied for the lead among UW scorers with two points, expressed her discontent with the UW power play’s inability to convert following Friday’s game, during which the Badgers were 0-for-8 with a man advantage.
“We’re getting the chances, we almost had a lot of goals on [the power play],” Deluce said. “I’m happy it’s improving — we’re getting pucks on the net but it would just be nice to finish.”
The Badgers hope progress will come with time, especially with the re-emergence of sophomore Brooke Ammerman, who was an integral part of last year’s UW offensive juggernaut. Ammerman notched 27 goals, including seven on the power play.
After a slow start, Ammerman had a penalty-shot goal in Saturday’s 5-3 UW win.
The sophomore acknowledged after Saturday’s game that she was relieved to have made progress after the of the struggles of a slow start to the season. She said it also gave UW the momentum necessary to split the series with a pesky Ohio State team.
“I wasn’t expecting a penalty shot,” Ammerman said. “It tied the game up, and from there we were really able to attack.”
Hosting Minnesota next weekend at the Kohl Center, the Badgers will need to rebound and prepare for their toughest opponent to date. The UW-Minnesota rivalry inevitably raises the stakes of a series, but considering UW’s recent vulnerability, a good performance next weekend would be an even bigger step for Wisconsin.
Another highlight from the weekend was the play of junior forward Geena Prough, a first-year Badger after transferring from Merrimack, who scored a pair of goals for Wisconsin in Saturday’s win. Prough expects Wisconsin to continue to adapt to its new lines and systems as they fight to maintain their reputation as one the WCHA’s best teams.
“We have a new team this year, we have a lot of new freshmen,” Prough said. “It’s a lot of new chemistry that we have to work out. I think we’re getting there; this win helps.”
While Saturday’s victory may temporarily soothe the season’s early frustrations, Wisconsin will need to cure its opening game blues if the Badgers wish to remain near the top in the competitive WCHA.
DeKeyser credits a certain magnitude of Wisconsin’s struggles to her team’s battle with identity and the unfair responsibility of being compared to last season’s championship squad.
“We don’t have last year’s team, we have a different group,” she said. “It is the added mental stress of always trying to constantly compare yourself [to 2008-09].”
