Back atop the college hockey rankings, the Wisconsin women's hockey team will face off against Ohio State this weekend, the squad that ended the Badgers' season last spring.
Back in March, Wisconsin welcomed the Buckeyes to the Eagle's Nest in Verona for the first round of the WCHA playoffs, needing a strong showing in the conference tournament to move on to the NCAA Tournament. Instead, the team suffered two overtime losses as then-freshman Buckeye forward Hokey Langan earned a hat trick in the second game of the playoff series.
The result was a team that started its season expecting to play late into the spring and possibly earn another national title, but instead was bounced in the first round of the postseason. Sophomore defenseman Stefanie McKeough said the Badgers, now ranked No. 1 in the USCHO.com poll, will have those losses in mind when they take the ice Friday evening.
""We can joke about it in a sense, but I think most of us are ready to show them that we're ready for a fight,"" McKeough said.
Standing between the Badgers and redemption is one of the best teams in the WCHA and one that embodies the conference's increasing parity. Through four games this season, No. 10 Ohio State (one of five WCHA teams in the top 10) is tied with Wisconsin for the top team offense in the conference, averaging 4.5 goals per game.
Buckeye junior forwards Natalie Spooner and Laura McIntosh have provided much of that offense with five goals apiece.
According to Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson, the Badgers will have their hands full with Spooner, McIntosh and the rest of Ohio State, who he called Wisconsin's ""biggest test so far."" But with the goal-scorers in the Badgers' lineup, namely junior forward Hilary Knight, Johnson said the defense has had a good opportunity to prepare.
""They've been hurting everybody,"" Johnson said of McIntosh and Spooner. ""[But] it's nice to practice against good players. If Hilary Knight's coming down at you one-on-one in practice every day, that's no different than Natalie Spooner coming down at you.
""They won't be surprised by the speed and craftiness of those players [because] they've seen it in practice.""
