With only six series and 12 total games remaining in the regular season, the Wisconsin women’s hockey team finds themselves as the No. 2 team in the entire country in the USCHO.com poll, and as the No. 1 team in the WCHA.
Following back-to-back victories over Minnesota-Duluth last weekend, the Badgers hit the 20-wins mark this season, bringing them to an impressive total record (20-1-1 overall, 14-1-1 WCHA).
This season has been a star-studded, record-breaking and exhilarating journey for UW thus far. One can only expect this semester to bring even more excitement and intensity to the ice. But it hasn’t been without its lessons.
There have been a few undeniably pivotal games, performances and finishes that can be reflected upon when defining this season so far. Johnson has stressed the importance of learning and building from each game, especially from losses.
Two series in particular have served as those learning experiences through which the Badgers will need to extract key gains from as this semester’s campaign rolls forward.
The first came as a crucial series sweep of the No. 3 Minnesota Gophers, a team that Wisconsin lost its previous 18 matchups against.
For as good as the Badgers have been the past few years, losses to Minnesota always showed that they were not the team to beat.
Winless against their neighbor since 2011 and hungry to eradicate that enormous losing streak, along with the team’s No. 1 ranking needing legitimacy, Wisconsin struck in overtime to break Minnesota’s hearts.
Wisconsin would win the following day as well, completing the series sweep.
The win legitimized Wisconsin, it showed they were capable of sticking out a long, hard-fought game and coming out victorious. Among other things, the wins also showed how good this team can be — what they need to work toward every week, no matter the opponnent.
Sitting at 18-0-0, Wisconsin held women’s college hockey in its hands. But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.
One week after their triumph over archrival Minnesota, a tough series against North Dakota dealt the Badgers their first loss and tie of the season.
It was a necessary loss to halt the numbness that constant winning can bring about. The Badgers needed to be humbled and reminded of what losing felt like in order to make sure they continued to dominate in this coming semester, with a chip on their shoulder.
The small blemishes on Wisconsin’s record have seemed to only motivate the team, as shown in their 5-1, 3-1 sweep of Minnesota Duluth during the opening week of this semester.
As UW head coach Mark Johnson put it, there’s a renewed energy surrounding the team.
“It’s like the beginning of the season, there is that little bit of step in their skating, the smiles on their faces, they’re excited to come back and certainly excited to start our second half,” Johnson said.
Johnson also highlighted how his players will have to knock the rust off in respect to bringing last semester’s play and intensity back to the ice for 2016.
“It’s like riding a bike,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t take long to get back to where you need to get back to, now with our ability to do it against an opponent.”
The first challenge of this semester comes at home for the Badgers in a rematch against North Dakota set in the La Bahn Arena Jan. 23 and Jan. 24 — where that renewed energy will be tested against a bigger, more physical team.
And while North Dakota may be the sole team the Badgers have fallen to, Minnesota certainly gave UW the biggest stumble during the team’s hot start.
Earlier this season in the first battle with the Gophers, an abrupt score by Sarah Nurse ended both a gritty overtime struggle on the ice and a six-year winless drought for Wisconsin against their border rivals.
But in this semester’s upcoming clash Feb. 19 and Feb. 20 in Minneapolis, the Badgers are going to have to hit the road to battle Minnesota on their home ice.
Given that this series will serve as the final two regular season games for both teams, it would be hard to imagine the Gophers dropping even just one of those two games without putting up a real fight.
For the Badgers, two players to keep on high alert as the team skates into the New Year are sophomore forward and leading goal scorer Annie Pankowski, as well as standout junior goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens.
Whenever these two play to their full capacity at the same time with Pankowski attacking on offense and Desbiens protecting the net, Wisconsin becomes one of the toughest teams to beat in the country.
