After a month-long home stand, the Wisconsin women’s hockey team is ready to hit the road this weekend and take on the St. Cloud State Huskies at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn.
Coming off an exciting 6-4 win last weekend over the Wayne State Warriors, the Badgers head back into WCHA play, hoping for the same success they had last Friday. Despite St. Cloud’s 4-8-0 record overall and a 3-7-0 record in conference play, Wisconsin believes it will still be a tough fight.
“Every time we play St. Cloud they’re a really good team,” UW senior forward Kyla Sanders said. “We always come really close so we’ve just got to out battle them.”
The Badgers are still having a tough time dominating inferior opponents, but they feel they are making progress. Still hoping to break this trend, they know they cannot treat the Huskies as if they are an inferior team. In fact, they have to treat them as if they were far better than their record gives them credit for.
“We’re going to treat them like any other team and just [going to] play as if they were the top team in the nation,” UW junior forward Mallory Deluce said. “We don’t take anyone lightly. We’re going to come out really hard especially on Friday and see how it goes.”
While the team is not worried about being on the road, the Badgers are preparing for the larger ice surface in the National Hockey Center. While they’ll have more space to move the puck around, they also need to be more aware of each other on the ice.
Interim head coach Tracey DeKeyser believes her team will be able to handle the more spacious rink and has been preparing them for it all week. But she is also looking forward to being on the road so they can put all their focus on the game, rather than having the distractions academics can create throughout the day.
“The hockey surface is going to be very different than anything we’ve seen so far. It’s the biggest ice surface in the WCHA,” DeKeyser said. “We’re trying to prepare and do drills that kind of mimic that type of space we’re going to have in front of us. It’d just be great to get on the road because we’ll be able to focus on just the task on hand.”
Heading into the series, Wisconsin is not the only team coming off an exciting win last week.
St. Cloud rebounded after a 1-0 loss to Bemidji State to top the Beavers 5-2 in the final game of the series. In the thrilling win for the Huskies, senior forward Holly Roberts scored a hat trick and was named the WCHA’s Offensive Player of the Week.
With Roberts in the lead, the Huskies are certain to put up a tough fight.
UW senior forward Jasmine Giles anticipates hard work and strong effort from the Huskies and knows the Badgers have to out fight them in order to dominate the series.
“[We expect] just hard work. They’re not the most skilled team but they come out really hard, 110 percent,” Giles said. “We’ve got to expect hard work from them and we’ve got to come back with the same amount of effort.”
DeKeyser also expects a tough fight based on what she’s seen from St. Cloud State in film throughout the season, but hopes Wisconsin’s newly rejuvenated lineup and the progress the team has seen recently can help the Badgers come out on top.
“In watching video of [St. Cloud State] throughout the season against other WCHA opponents, they’re a very fast, speedy group,” DeKeyser said. “They work hard. They’re opportunistic and we’re just hoping to capitalize on the growth and progress of our team and just having people back in the lineup. It’s going to be a battle.”
