This past March the UW
women’s hockey team was aiming for its third straight NCAA championship, a feat
that would have solidified them as one of the greatest programs in recent
memory.

In their quest to defend
their back-to-back titles, however, the Badgers ran into the Bulldogs of
Minnesota-Duluth, who topped Wisconsin 4-0 in the title game. It was just UW’s
ninth loss of the season, and only the second time all year they failed to
score a goal.

It would be
understandable if that bitter memory still resonated in the minds of the
Badgers as they prepare for the 2008-09 season. But as head coach Mark Johnson
admitted, the championship loss is a thing of the past.

“To be honest, I don’t
think I’ve hear anybody mention it,” Johnson said. “It’s a new year. We start
off fresh with a whole new group of players that have to work together to try
to get themselves back into position to what this team did last year.”

Johnson’s team seems to
have erased most of that game from their memories as well — whether selectively
or not.

“When I think about it,
it was one of those games where I don’t really remember much about it,” senior
forward Erika Lawler said. “There wasn’t much flow. They kind of got an awkward
goal to start off the game, set us back on our heels a little bit. … It was
just a very weird championship game.”

For senior goaltender
Jessie Vetter, the way the season ended has added fuel to what has proven to be
a heated rivalry.

“You definitely think of
it from time to time, maybe circle when we play Duluth again,” Vetter said.
“We’ll have another chance at them in the conference. They’re just a good team
to play.”

Wisconsin won’t face
Minnesota-Duluth until late October. Instead, the Badgers have their sights set
on their first opponent of the new season — Quinnipiac, who comes to the Kohl
Center this Friday and Saturday night.

UW last faced the
Bobcats in the opening series of the 2006-07 season, when they pulled off
victories of 3-0 and 5-1 for the weekend sweep.

“They’re just a scrappy
team,” Vetter said of Quinnipiac. “They’re not going to give us anything, so
we’re going to have to work hard to earn a victory this weekend.”

Vetter and co. have just
a week of official practice to prepare for their first series. The practices
couldn’t have come soon enough, though, as the Badgers have been anxious to hit
the ice again.

“We’ve been practicing
for a while, whether it be captain’s practices or last week we had the
unofficial bag-skating practice where we just skate and skate,” Lawler said.
“The energy’s there, and we’re all working really hard for the common goal. I
think it’ll all fit together pretty well this weekend.”

“Practice gets a little
boring when you don’t have games, so it’s going to be very exciting to have
games this weekend,” Vetter added.

When they hit the ice
Friday night, the Badgers will be carrying the tag of the No. 2 team in the
country, according to the USA Today preseason rankings. Sitting behind the team
that beat it in the championship — Duluth — Wisconsin starts the season right
where it left off in the polls last season.

But like many coaches,
Johnson doesn’t pay attention to the numbers.

“What usually happens is
the team that won it — unless they lose everybody on their team — they’re going
to be No. 1 because they’re the champions. Obviously, we were second,” Johnson
said. “You look at what Minnesota had on their roster; you look at some of the
other teams in our league where they’re continually getting better. But that’s
healthy for our sport. Anybody can beat any team on a given time. That bodes
well for our coaches, our players and our league as a whole. That’s the
direction we’re going right now.”

The Badgers will add
four freshmen to their roster from last year’s second-place team — defenseman
Brittany Haverstock, forwards Brooke Ammerman and Carolyne Pr?vost, and
goaltender Nikki Kaasa. With seven sophomores returning from last season, UW’s
lineup will be young.

That’s where seniors
Vetter and Lawler step in.

“I just do my best to
make them feel comfortable. I think a lot of the seniors and upperclassmen on
the team do the same thing,” Lawler said. “I think the best thing you can do is
make them feel comfortable off the ice and then it’ll carry on to the ice and
everything will hopefully come together.”

With three of the four
having experience in international play, Vetter doesn’t expect them to run into
many issues adapting to the style of play in the WCHA.

“They’ve been playing
hockey their entire life and it’s no different now,” Vetter said. “You’re just
playing at a little higher level and playing against really good competition,
so just have fun.”

One of the things the
Badgers — along with the rest of the teams in the WCHA — will be doing during
the conference schedule to add a bit of excitement to games will be a shootout
to break ties. If the two teams are unable to break a stalemate after a
five-minute overtime period, they’ll each select three players to take part in
a shootout.

The team that loses will
come away with one point, while the winner earns two — something that could be
beneficial in the final standings.

“It just gives us a
chance to get an extra point, and it gives the fans something to cheer about,”
Vetter said. “Coach actually asked me when we were in camp together if I want
to do shootouts this year. I was like, ‘You know, I think it would be fun.'”

“Some of the coaches
were like, ‘No, we could lose and they take away the point,'” Lawler said. “But
I think what you need to focus on is that you can also win and then get that
extra point. I think that our chances of winning in shootouts are awesome. I’d
rather go for the win than settle for a tie.”

Johnson knows ties
aren’t ideal either, both from the team’s and fan’s perspective.

“There’s going to be a
winner and a loser when you leave the building. I think that bodes well for
what we want to do here,” Johnson said. “We’re in the entertainment business,
and we have fans that are paying money to come and watch us play. We certainly
want to entertain them.”