After being knocked from their familiar perch atop both the national polls and the WCHA, the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team (24-2-4, 18-2-4) travels to Mankato, Minn. this weekend for the penultimate series of their regular season.

Although the Badgers no longer control whether or not they take the conference crown, junior forward Meghan Duggan said the team’s spirit remain high.

“Everyone’s kind of harping on the fact that we are one point behind (Minnesota), and we have just lost the conference championship,” said Duggan, who netted the game-winner in last Sunday’s shootout. “I think there is still four games to be played on our end in the WCHA, and four games on their end, so stuff can happen — funny stuff can happen. I think it’s good for us to just look at Mankato as the next milestone and go into Friday night’s game ready to win.”

While the one point margin enjoyed by UM allows them to determine their own destiny, it is not as if they won’t go untested.

The Gophers host No. 4 North Dakota this weekend before engaging in a home-and-home series against third-place St. Cloud State. In contrast, Wisconsin faces No. 6 Minnesota State before finishing at home against last place Bemidji State.

The last time the Badgers faced off against Minnesota State, the Mavericks — now 8-16-4 on the season, including a 5-15-4 mark in conference play — were overwhelmed by the Badgers by a combined score of 15-2. A remarkable 12 different Badgers collected points in the series.

Even more noteworthy, in 40 all-time contests against Minnesota State, the Badgers are 39-0-1.

Despite the domination, Duggan said the team won’t take the Mavericks, who last weekend tied and defeated St. Cloud State, lightly.

“Our team has always been a good team at being able to focus on the task on hand and not overlooking teams so easily,” she said. “I think everyone in their head knows we are already a point behind Minnesota, so any slip-up just makes things worse for us. Everyone is excited to head to Mankato and get a couple of wins and come back here and play our last home series against Bemidji.”

Though the team wasn’t able to depart from the Twin Cities with a win, the series still proved beneficial. Specifically, the team proved it could overcome injury, as the shootout win on Sunday came without the on-ice leadership and energy of senior center and captain Erika Lawler. Lawler’s absence forced head coach Mark Johnson to shuffle his lines much more drastically than he had at any other point during the season.

Junior forward Jasmine Giles admitted the rearrangement challenged the squad.

“That was tough, the lines were all messed up, and everyone was playing with somebody different,”Giles said.”That was probably the hardest part. And also not having her to give us that boost, that energy she normally gives the team. I think we persevered, we came through. I mean we didn’t get the win, but we did better than we did on Saturday.”

With Lawler expected back in the lineup this weekend, the Badgers will look to get back on track before entering postseason play. In addition, the team will be looking to rewrite the program record books.

In a season that has seen numerous individual records fall — many courtesy of Patty Kazmaier candidates sophomore forward Hillary Knight and senior goaltender Jessie Vetter –the Badgers are now closing in on a multitude of team marks.

Currently, this year’s group sits 18 goals from the all-time record of 170 set by the 2004-05 team, six assists short of the 2006-07 team’s record of 263, and 20 points shy of the record of 429, also set by the 2006-07 national championship team.

Records aside, even with last weekend’s loss and tie, the team sits only one vote out of first place in the USCHO.com poll, and, more importantly, still tops the PairWise Rankings, a measure that attempts to mimic the system used by the NCAA Selection Committee.

And while the Badgers lost at Ridder Arena for the first time since 2005, they very well could get another shot at the Gophers on their home ice, the host arena for the WCHA tournament.

If that scenario comes to fruition, Duggan said the team will enter the game with confidence after their performance last Sunday.

“I think coach is really excited with the way we played and the way we battled and how hard we are going to work this late in the season because it’s important that we get into the playoffs,” she said. “I think we can just take from that, that we are a great team — even when we are missing one of our best players — everyone can step up and play a little better and a little harder.”