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Most college teams don’t get the chance to visit their respective sports’ Hall of Fame, and even fewer are gifted with the opportunity to play under a Hall of Fame inductee. But after their recent trip to Eveleth, Minn., the Badger women’s hockey team can claim both.

On Oct. 18, in the inaugural U.S. Women’s Hockey Hall of Fame Game, Wisconsin beat the Bemidji State Beavers 9-0 after spending the morning touring the grounds of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame with head coach and HOF-enshrined Mark Johnson.

Senior center and captain Erika Lawler recounted seeing footage of one of Johnson’s most celebrated moments with her teammates.

“As we were in there, they had the 1980 ‘Miracle’ video — like the real video, not the movie — playing,” Lawler said. “We were just sitting there until [one of] Coach’s goals came up, and we kind of started a ruckus in there for a little bit.”

In addition to scoring two goals in the famous Miracle on Ice game, Johnson assisted the game-winner in the gold-medal game against Finland. Lawler said seeing all of Johnson’s memorabilia reminded them of his impressive resume.

“After we left we were like, ‘That’s so funny that our coach is famous,'” Lawler said. “You never would have known he’s a huge part of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He’s just such a humble man.”

Although the team was awestruck by Johnson’s Olympic feats, Johnson downplayed his place in the sport’s history. In fact, according to junior forward Meghan Duggan, while the teammates were celebrating his goal against the Soviets, their coach conveniently was elsewhere.

“When he scored in the game we all went crazy,” Duggan said. “Everyone was looking around for him, and he was nowhere to be found — just kind of walking around, checking out other people’s accomplishments. That’s the type of guy he is.”

Instead, Johnson reminded the team of how special an experience they were endowed with.

“Coach was saying, ‘There’s only one first game,'” Lawler said. “We get to go down in history for that. I think that’s just a tremendous honor. It’s definitely an awesome thing we got to be a part of.”

The Hockey Hall of Fame was opened in 1973 and now honors 136 individual members and two Olympic teams, including the aforementioned 1980 squad. Johnson has actually been inducted twice: first, in 2003 as part of the Miracle team, and the year later individually. He joined his late father and former Badger coach, Bob Johnson, who was enshrined in 1991.

Senior goaltender Jessie Vetter said it was a special experience, and the team will now have a lasting place in the sport’s history.

“We’ll have our little mark in the Hall of Fame now because we played in that first game,” she said. “So that will be pretty cool if we ever get a chance to go back up and take a look at it.”

Beyond revisiting the achievements of their coach, Duggan said seeing women’s impact on the game was a unique opportunity.

“It was just cool to see some of the old posters from the ’98 Olympics,” Duggan said. “Those (were) girls who pretty much built the program and gave women’s hockey a name and a start for itself.”

A week prior to the team’s visit, Catherine “Cammi” Granato became the first woman ever to be enshrined in the HOF. Duggan knows she won’t be the last, however.

“There was a lot attributed to women’s hockey in the Hall of Fame,” Duggan said. “I think women’s hockey has come a long way, and I think we have a lot further to go.”