As if the team's four meetings this season weren't enough, Saturday afternoon marks round five in the prizefight between Wisconsin and Minnesota-Duluth's women's hockey squads.
With a trip to Sunday's championship game on the line, neither team will be pulling any punches in the semifinal round of the WCHA Final Faceoff.
""[These will be] the most intense games of the season,"" said freshman defender and All-WCHA Rookie Team member Brittany Haverstock. ""We're going to have to be on the balls of our feet and just always communicating on the ice, [giving] 100 percent effort.""
The season series between the No. 2 Badgers and No. 3 Bulldogs has had all the makings of a fight to the finish. In four meetings so far, the teams have been nearly dead even. Wisconsin took the Halloween weekend series in Madison with a 2-1 win and a shootout victory after a 3-3 tie. Duluth countered at the DECC in January, handing the Badgers their first regulation loss with a 4-0 shutout, followed by a shootout victory of its own.
""You have to be careful just because they're a smart and extremely quick team,"" said sophomore forward and WCHA Player of the Year Hilary Knight. ""If you don't concentrate all the time or mentally mess up, they're going the other way with the puck.""
If there is one thing contests between Wisconsin and Minnesota-Duluth never lack, it is physicality.
""You can obviously have a physical game with them because they can handle it, as can we,"" Knight said. ""I guess we'll see what happens.""
Physicality will play an important role this weekend if the Badgers expect to slow down the quicker Minnesota-Duluth team. Spreading the Bulldogs out on the Olympic-size ice surface of Minneapolis' Ridder Arena will also be a key to UW success.
""We love Ridder,"" junior forward Jasmine Giles said. ""I think our team was a little intimidated going to the DECC. [The Bulldogs] pack it with their fans, and it's a small ice surface that we're not really normally used to. I think it will be a lot more neutral this weekend.""
And if either team needed any more motivation, a date with No. 1 Minnesota is likely waiting.
The Gophers are heavily favored in the first game of the Final Faceoff against in-state rival Minnesota State. It took the Mavericks three games to dispatch St. Cloud State last weekend and punch their ticket to Minneapolis. The Gophers, however, surrendered just two goals in a two-game sweep of Bemidji State.
Even with the prospect of another rival waiting in the wings Sunday, the Badgers are reluctant to look past the semifinal.
""It's always a big rivalry, and that's our first game,"" Haverstock said. ""We can't really look ahead to Minnesota. Duluth is going to be the hardest challenge.""
Still, the idea of bringing home a third WCHA playoff title in four years is alluring.
""Obviously, I'd like to play the second game,"" Knight said.
The Badgers and Bulldogs face off at 4 p.m. Saturday at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. The winner will play either Minnesota or Minnesota State Sunday at 1 p.m. for the WCHA playoff championship.
