Few players influence the outcome of a team sport more than the goalie in hockey. The best in the business can carry an entire team through rough patches, while great teams have fallen to early demises when their top goalies have gone through untimely cold spells. The goalie is the stabilizer that every team builds out from, and for the past four seasons Jackie MacMillan has played that role for the Wisconsin women’s hockey team.

Now that MacMillan has graduated, the Badgers face life without a number one goalie. With a trio of players vying for the chance to fill MacMillan’s shoes, Wisconsin has found themselves riding a merry-go-round of goalies. When, and if, the ride stops, may play a huge factor in the Badgers reaching the NCAA Frozen Four for the first time in the program’s history.

Of the three contenders, sophomores Meghan Horras and Jessica Bernal each have only a few games worth of experience at the collegiate level, while freshman Christine Dufour has been playing the role of number-one goalie for the past few seasons below the collegiate level. Thus far Horras and Dufour have seen the most action, playing in a fairly regular rotation, while Bernal has had just one opportunity to show what she is capable of.

With the rotation seemingly set for the moment, the Badgers are relying on either Horras or Dufour to learn on the fly and lay claim to the job. Whoever gets the chance will face a baptism by fire, as the Badgers cannot afford youthful mistakes if they are to achieve their ultimate goal of reaching the postseason.

“The luxury that we don’t have is that we don’t have games that we can, for whatever reason, look at goalies,” head coach Mark Johnson said about the goalie rotation. “To get into the [NCAA Frozen Four] you have to be in the top four at the end of the year, and that’s all power rankings. You can’t lose a game along the way because you’re trying to experiment.”

With every game so important to Wisconsin, the goalies face plenty of pressure to perform well each game. Getting the chance to play just once each series would seem to add to that pressure, but Dufour claims otherwise.

“[Playing one game a week] is more motivation than pressure,” she said. “We have a competition between us to be the starter.”

Horras agrees with Dufour’s assessment of the situation.

“There’s a little pressure and motivation knowing you get to play, but you also compare to [Dufour] after each game,” she said.

The status quo is fine with Horras, who knows that her hard work is paying off at the moment.

“I’m just happy to get the chance to play. It’s tough when you practice everyday and then don’t get to do anything,” she said.

The competition has its good and bad points, according to Johnson.

“Last year, you knew you were going to get good goaltending when you needed it. [MacMillan] was a stellar goaltender and had a good year and a great career,” Johnson said of the stability MacMillan brought a season ago.

Johnson then commented on the importance of the competition this season, saying “It presents competition in practice and keeps everybody in the picture, whereas last year [Horras and Bernal] knew they weren’t going to play much, and that changes people’s attitude and that changes people’s work habits.”

Sitting at sixth in the national rankings with a 7-3-0 record this season, there is reason to believe that Wisconsin has a very realistic shot at reaching the Frozen Four. With the first third of the season already gone, the rotation might start to look a little more one sided as the goalies start to separate themselves. Dufour, who played in both games this past weekend as the Badgers swept Bemidji State, also had a strong showing in a win last weekend against Ohio State. Dufour sports a 1.51 GAA and a 4-1 record, with the one loss coming against top-ranked Minnesota.

Horras, who is 2-2 on the season with a 1.75 GAA, saw her spot in the rotation skipped after an admittedly poor performance against Ohio State.

Even with Dufour starting to show herself as the top goalie, Johnson will not be so quick to decide on a number-one goalie.

“To say someone is the number one right now would be unfair to the other two players because they’ve all worked hard and made some strides,” he said.

Johnson said that no decision on a number-one goalie was imminent and that who was going to play was a “week-to-week and game-to-game decision” based on who was playing well in both practices and previous games.

The Badgers’ merry-go-round seems to have slowed with Dufour’s recent strong play, but it certainly has not stopped.

“I don’t even know who will play next weekend yet,” Johnson admitted.