The No. 2/3 Wisconsin women’s hockey team travels into uncharted territory this Saturday as it heads to New Hampshire to take on No. 4/5 Dartmouth in the first NCAA tournament berth of the program’s six-year history. After narrowly missing a chance to play in the Final Four last year, finishing the season ranked fifth, the Badgers topped off the best season in UW history by nearly upsetting top-ranked Minnesota for a WCHA title, making themselves a lock for the newly expanded eight-team tournament.

“I’m really excited, and I think we’re all ready,” said senior defender Molly Engstrom. “Everyone’s been saying, especially for us [seniors], ‘It’s been four years in the waiting.'”

Both the Badgers and the Big Green fell in their respective conference-title games the last time on the ice. Dartmouth lost last Sunday to fellow Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League opponent Harvard 4-1, while the Badgers did so in more dramatic fashion, tying the game up with two goals in the last 50 seconds of play, only to lose to the Gophers in overtime two weeks ago.

The two teams are somewhat evenly matched on offense, with Dartmouth taking the edge, scoring at a 4.62 goals-per-game clip, while the Badgers have averaged 4.51 goals per game this season.

But Wisconsin clearly holds the advantage on defense, with team leaders Engstrom and Carla MacLeod heading a defensive force that has held opponents to just 1.49 goals per game. Compared to Wisconsin’s mark, Dartmouth’s 2.12 opponent scoring average looks bloated.

Wisconsin does have the disadvantage, however, of not having played in two weeks. The WCHA championship game was March 6, and they haven’t played since.

Dartmouth, on the other hand, played Sunday, and will still have their playing legs under them. Head coach Mark Johnson doesn’t feel that this will be a problem, though.

“They’re in good shape and good condition,” Johnson said of his players. “You try to push the right buttons and do the right things and get through the week, and we were able to do that and have some competitive situations.”

In formatting the tournament, the NCAA opted to maintain bracket integrity and match teams according to their PairWise Rankings (PWR). This involves flying four teams to their opponents’ home arenas, as opposed to matching the teams in a way that would minimize travel, which is what the NCAA originally planned.

“For the integrity part of it and doing what’s best for women’s hockey, they did a nice job of pairing people up,” said Johnson.

The tournament seeds only two teams, No. 1 Minnesota and No. 2 University of Minnesota-Duluth, so that those two teams can’t meet until the final. The rest of the teams are matched according to the PWR. Providence will play at Minnesota, St. Lawrence will play at Duluth, and Mercyhurst will visit Harvard. With three teams in the tournament, the WCHA is very well represented, and there is a chance for an all-WCHA final if Duluth makes the final along with either Minnesota or Wisconsin.

“It’s a feather to our league, and it’s a feather in our cap here at Wisconsin because we’ve made a step upward,” explained Johnson.

The Badgers go into the tournament playing arguably the best hockey the young program has ever seen. After spending years as the outsider while perennial conference favorites Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth made the dance, the Badgers have cemented themselves in the upper echelon of women’s hockey. It didn’t become official, however, until the Badgers upset the Bulldogs in overtime in the conference semifinals and then took heavily favored Minnesota into overtime in the championship game.

“I think we really have something to be proud of, playing for this program, and I think anyone here is going to feel the same way,” Engstrom said. “We’ve got some respect now, and that’s important.”

But the Badgers will be the first to tell you that, while they have achieved a first in school history, they are not done yet.

“You go into it with the mindset that you’re going to win,” Johnson said, “and not just be happy that you’re part of the NCAA tournament … It’s a situation where everybody wants to gain that respect.”