The Lady Ice Badgers travel to Mankato this weekend for a matchup with WCHA opponent Minnesota State. The Friday-Saturday series will be Wisconsin’s last of the first half of the season, as it will not return to action until Jan. 7.
UW looks poised to head into the break on a high note, as the Badgers have enjoyed complete series domination over the Mavericks. Wisconsin is 19-0-1 all-time vs. Minnesota State, including a 10-0 record at Mankato.
After a promising season last year, which saw the Mavericks move into the nation’s top 10, the team has since regressed back to its WCHA doormat ways of old. Minnesota State is tied with St. Cloud and North Dakota for fifth in the conference with nine points.
The biggest reason for Minnesota State’s woes this year has been a toothless offense that has scored only 27 goals in 16 games — worst in the conference. The Mavericks figured to be an offensive minded team with their top three scorers returning from last year, but that has not been the case whatsoever. Senior forward Melanie Salatino leads the offense with five goals and six assists on the year and freshman Amanda Stohr has been a bright spot with five goals and five assists in her inaugural campaign, good for fourth among WCHA freshmen.
Beyond Salatino and Stohr though, no player on the roster has tallied more than three goals. The leading freshman scorer from last year’s squad, Autumn Conway, is in the midst of a major sophomore slump, following up her eight-goal, 11-assist season with only one goal and two assists so far.
The defense hasn’t helped out the offense at all, contributing only two goals all year (Badger senior defenseman Molly Engstrom has five this year herself). The blueliners have been able to limit opponents’ shots on goal and have played well on the penalty kill, killing off penalties at an 82 percent rate, fourth in the WCHA.
Freshman Kerri Wallace and junior Amber Sharratt are the leaders on defense for Minnesota State and are also responsible for the only defensive goals this year.
The Minnesota State goaltending has always been the strength of the team and that hasn’t changed this year, despite the departure of All-American Sherri Vogt, a four-year starter for the Mavs.
Vogt has been ably replaced by the tandem of freshman Brittni Kehler and sophomore Laura Brennan, who have played almost equal minutes. Both have seen action in seven games thus far this year. Their stats are also almost identical and the two have combined to post a .906 save percentage and a goals against average of 2.86 — very solid numbers considering WCHA competition. However, when paired with a 1.69 goals per game offense, the goaltenders are often left out to dry by the forwards.
Despite the history and the numbers, UW players are not going to take Minnesota State lightly.
“I don’t think we are overconfident. You just never know with them. I mean, last year we had a few pretty good games and if we hadn’t scored on them early, you never know what could’ve happened,” senior forward and assistant captain Jackie Friesen said. “I think that we just treat them as any other team and go there and play hard and hope to continue our unbeaten streak with them.”
Head coach Mark Johnson is looking to keep the players’ focus intact to avoid an upset.
“You certainly don’t want any kind of letdown, especially after two great games against Minnesota, so we are just trying to keep our focus,” Johnson said. “The easiest thing is to relax right before you get to go home and with finals. You can’t afford to be distracted at this point, after all we’ve done.”
Johnson is convinced, however, that the biggest opponent the Badgers will face this weekend is themselves and believes that if his team plays well, it should come out of Mankato with four points.
“As my message has been all year, it is irrelevant who we are playing. It only matters how we come out and play.”
