Following two straight weekends on the road, the Wisconsin women’s hockey team (9-3-0, 5-3-0) returns home for a two game series with the St. Cloud State Huskies (2-6-0, 0-4-0). The two teams are moving in opposite directions as the Badgers are riding a five game winning streak in conference play while the Huskies have lost their last four in a row. The games will be played in the Badgers’ home away from home, the Eagle’s Nest Ice Arena in Verona, due to scheduling conflicts at the Kohl Center.

St. Cloud State started their season off with four non-conference games and three exhibition games before starting their WCHA season when they were swept in successive weeks by Minnesota and Ohio State. The Huskies have struggled to find offensive production as they have recorded just 18 goals in their first 8 games.

Sophomore Ashley Stewart leads St. Cloud States attack with five goals and four assists. Behind Stewart, two defensemen have seven points apiece for the Huskies as Tina Ciraulo (3 goals, 4 assists) and Kobi Kawamoto (2 goals, 5 assists) account for a hefty portion of the offensive load.

Defensively the Huskies are allowing far too many opportunities for their opponents, as they give up nearly 33 shots per game. While St. Cloud is creating chances of its own, averaging 26 shots per game, the discrepancy has led to a slow start for this team.

Behind the defense SCSU has a trio of goalies who have seen playing time this season. Senior Ellen Brinkman has gotten the most ice time, but her 3.45 GAA and .886 save percentage has not led to many victories as she is just 1-4-0 on the season. Laurie St. Jacques and Brie Anderson should also see time in the net this weekend against Wisconsin.

While St. Cloud State searches for their first conference win, Wisconsin is not a likely victim based on past performances. Through the history of the series, UW has posted a 13-3-0 record all-time against SCSU. St. Cloud did take one of the four games from the Badgers last season, but it was the Badgers who won convincingly using a seven goal second period to put the Huskies away 9-2, featuring two-goal games for current Badgers Carla MacLeod and Nikki Burish, in the teams’ last meeting.

The Badgers are coming off of a sweep of Minnesota State-Mankato this past weekend. The two wins have pushed Wisconsin up one spot in the USCHO poll to sixth in the nation. The Badgers continue to eye the top four as only those teams advance to the NCAA tournament in women’s hockey. A big reason for Wisconsin’s success this season has been their stingy defense that has allowed teams to get only 16 shots per game off. The Badger’s goaltenders have stopped nearly all of those shots allowing just 1.6 goals a game. Conversely, the Badgers’ offense has been clicking lately as they create 40 shots a game. While only scoring 3.2 goals per contest, the opportunities are there for the offense to put up big numbers as they get more comfortable together as a group.

Wisconsin’s Karen Rickard leads the team in scoring with nine points on the season. She is also tied with Jackie Friesen for the team lead in goals with six. Junior captain MacLeod has only played in seven of the Badgers’ 12 games this year, but she still has tallied a team-high seven assists and is just two points behind the team leader in points. Freshman Sara Bauer also has seven assists.

In goal Wisconsin has turned to freshman Christine Dufour the past five games, after rotating the goalies earlier in the year. Dufour has responded to the increased playing time by giving up just four goals in the past five games. After starting a bit slowly this season, Dufour has settled into her role and with each game has looked more and more like a top-flight net minder. The Badgers will need to reach many of their goals this season.