[media-credit name=’GREG DIXON/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]

After a pair of impressive victories over Ohio State last weekend in Columbus, the Wisconsin women’s hockey team heads to northern Minnesota for a weekend series at Bemidji State. The Badgers enter the series in possession of a 6-0 record and the No. 1 ranking in the land; Bemidji sits at 1-1-2.

On Friday, the Bison will host the Badgers at their home ice, but on Saturday, the teams will compete in the first women’s hockey Hall of Fame game. The Hall of Fame game will be played at the Hippodrome in Eveleth, Minn. Head coaches Mark Johnson of Wisconsin and Steve Sertich of Bemidji are excited for the opportunity to represent women’s hockey in this special contest.

“It will be the first time in women’s hockey that we have a USA Hockey Hall of Fame Game,” Johnson said. “They’ve been doing it in the men’s game for a while. It will be fun, also good recognition. I know Steve [Sertich] is excited about the game to showcase his program, and I know I’m excited also.”

Wisconsin heads into the weekend outscoring its opponents 39-7 and allowing an average of only 16 shots per game while creating an average of 43 shots on goal themselves. Despite the impressive stats, the Badgers aren’t overlooking the Bison, who went 1-26-2 in the WCHA last year.

“They are going to work hard and be aggressive. Our league has become a league that any team that plays well and works hard has a chance to win.” Johnson said.

Last season the Badgers went 3-0-1 against the Bison and outscored Bemidji 14-0. Bemidji’s 0-0 tie against the Badgers was one of just three games they didn’t lose last season in conference.

All four of Bemidji’s games this season have been decided by one goal. The Bison split the season opening series against Wayne State with a 3-2 win and a 2-1 overtime loss. Last weekend, Bemidji was tied with Northeastern at the end of regulation in both games, but the Bison broke the ties by winning both shootouts, the first going nine rounds and the second decided in three.

The main offensive weapons for Bemidji will be sophomores Erin Johnson and Erin Cody, as well as freshman Kaylee Keys. Cody leads the team with four points through its first six games. The goaltending tandem of Zuzana Tomcikova and Alana McElhinney has been impressive thus far, stopping 111 of 117 of the shots they have faced. Bemidji’s offensive drought could continue as Wisconsin’s senior goaltender Jessie Vetter has stopped 79 of the 83 shots she has seen this season and is undefeated against Bemidji in her career.

The Badgers are coming off a sweep of then-No. 9 Ohio State and just recently replaced Minnesota-Duluth as the No. 1 team in the nation. Wisconsin has been led by strong puck control and a dominating power play that has converted on almost 45 percent of its opportunities. An integral part of the power-play success has been sophomore Hilary Knight, who is now healthy after missing the Badgers’ home series against Syracuse. Knight leads the nation in scoring with 12 points despite missing the series against Syracuse.

The series at Bemidji foreshadows a grueling two-weekend homestretch for the Badgers that includes pivotal matchups against rivals Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth. The stretch starts Oct. 24 and 25 when Wisconsin hosts Minnesota and ends a week later when the Badgers host defending national champs Minnesota Duluth. Johnson insists that despite the looming rivalry games later this month, the Badgers are focused entirely on Bemidji State.

“From a coaching standpoint we don’t talk about anything other than Friday night,” Johnson said. “Our goal when we started this journey three weeks ago was to get better every weekend. We just want to improve on what we did at Ohio State and just continue to get better every week.”