[media-credit name=’GREG DIXON/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]

After a disappointing 4-0 loss to Minnesota-Duluth in the NCAA championship game last year, the UW women’s hockey team is looking forward to opening the 2008-09 season at home this weekend against Quinnipiac.

“From a coaching standpoint, we’re anxious to get it rolling here,” head coach Mark Johnson said in his press conference Monday. “In a perfect world, you’d like a few more practices, but that’s the window we have to work in.”

Practice started for the team last Saturday with the red and white scrimmage held at the Kohl Center. With only a week of practice before the start of regular season play, Johnson knows that it’s an uphill climb getting his team ready and prepared to begin the season.

“It’s challenging, it’s difficult. But it is what it is,” Johnson said. “I look at the next two weeks and those practice times to go through things and really get ourselves solidified before we have to go down to Ohio State. We just don’t have a lot of time to get these kids educated other than through game experience.”

Luckily, the team enters the 2008-09 campaign with plenty of experience. With only four freshmen joining the team this year, Johnson hopes that the team’s returning players — four of whom won gold medals as members of the U.S. team that competed in the world championships in China last spring — will be able to compensate for the short preparation time with their experience.

“Erika Lawler, Meghan Duggan, Jessie Vetter and Hilary Knight will be part of a group that have gold medals in their back pockets and the experiences that hopefully help lead our team to where we want to go this season,” Johnson said.

Championship game loss motivates returning players

The Badgers’ bid for a third-straight NCAA title was thwarted last year in the championship game by Minnesota-Duluth, but Johnson believes the loss will only work to inspire the returning players.

“When you do come a little bit short, the players may be a little bit hungrier,” Johnson said. “So those kids that are coming back, those kids that went through last season won a lot of hockey games and did a lot of great things. But when you do come a little bit short, I think you come back with a little more fire, a little more hunger in your belly.”

The Badgers finished last year with a 29-9-3 record.

Freshman to play significant role on defense

Freshman defenseman Brittany Haverstock, fresh off her participation for Team Canada in the U-18 series, is expected to play a significant role for a team lacking in defensive depth.

“In the one scrimmage we’ve had, Brittany has shown she has a chance to be a really good player,” Johnson said. “Obviously she’s young, and she has a little bit of international experience so she may be ahead of some of the other kids coming in who haven’t had that experience. She’s a good skater, she’s got great skill sets, and I think as she starts to mature and gets comfortable with college, she will have a chance to be a really good player.”

Haverstock, a native of Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, played for the Stoney Creek Junior Sabres of the Provincial Women’s Hockey League before joining the Badgers this year.