After a grueling October schedule against four-straight ranked opponents, the Wisconsin women’s hockey team welcomed November.
The Badgers have only faced one opponent so far this month and are coming off a bye week. This weekend, Wisconsin hits the east coast to face Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.
The RPI Engineers have stumbled to an early 3-7-4 overall record so far this season. Although RPI is one of the weaker opponents Wisconsin will face this season, it’s important for the team to remain focused and not overlook the Engineers.
“We have to focus on ourselves, and if you don’t look at anyone’s record, it’s just a team that wants to come out and try to beat us,” junior forward Brianna Decker said. “They probably know our record, and I don’t know if that intimidates them, but I think that if we just focus on ourselves it doesn’t matter who we are going to play.”
RPI plays in the Houston Field House, which has the same rink dimensions as the NHL. The Badgers’ Kohl Center is a larger rink that’s practically Olympic sized, so it will takes some adjustment to get accustomed to the smaller rink. Two weeks ago, the Badgers played on a smaller rink at Ohio State, which will help them in New York this weekend.
The Buckeyes’ NHL-sized rink didn’t slow down Wisconsin, as the Badgers won both games 3-1 and 2-0 in Columbus.
Senior captain Hilary Knight knows that regardless of the opponent, it’s always going to be a tough series, and she believes playing Ohio State will help the Badgers this weekend.
“You go into every week as a battle, and you have to work hard and get the puck and put it in the net,” Knight said. “There are a million things we can work on in any game, and I think Ohio State was a great resource for us to see a smaller rink and see what we do in a different atmosphere.”
Not only does RPI have a smaller rink, but the Engineers also have an interesting way of managing their goalies. Freshmen goalies Brianna Piper and Kelly O’Brien have alternated playing RPI’s 14 games this season, and have played well with save percentages over .900.
Taking advantage of RPI’s inexperience in net and rotation of goalies figures to be crucial for Wisconsin.
“We have to get a lot of shots off right away in the first period and play hard and not take it easy on them because they are going to be nervous,” Decker said. “We just have to get a lot of shots.”
Wisconsin welcomes back Knight, Decker and Stefanie McKeough from the Four Nations Tournament in Sweden. The competition is an annual international tournament between the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Finland. UW’s competitors didn’t miss any playing time, since the tournament took place last weekend when the Badgers had the week off.
McKeough is an Ontario native, and was honored to represent Canada in the tournament.
“It’s a dream, and it is nice to have all of your hard work recognized, but it also motivates you to work even harder,” McKeough said. “Once you put on that Maple Leaf or for Americans, the USA, it is very different and your mindset changes and they are your teammates for the week. You have to adjust the mindset and focus on working with them to hopefully win the tournament.”
