The WCHA champion and No. 1 seeded Wisconsin women’s hockey team (23-2-2 WCHA, 31-4-2 overall) will host Mercyhurst (8-1-3 CHA, 23-7-3 overall) in the NCAA quarterfinals this weekend at the Kohl Center.
The Badgers lost to Minnesota-Duluth in the semifinal game of the WCHA conference tournament last weekend. As far as head coach Mark Johnson is concerned, Saturday will be the start of a new season.
“Regardless of what happened in our playoffs, we have another chance to play,” Johnson said. “What we’ve done in the past—you throw it out the window. It comes down to one game.”
While junior forward Brianna Decker does not view Wisconsin’s loss to Minnesota-Duluth as a good thing, she thinks it worked to prevent the Badgers from entering the playoffs over-confident.
“I think it’s an eye-opener for us. It shows that we can be beat,” Decker said. “We’ve just got to be ready to play Saturday.”
Senior forward Brooke Ammerman has enough experience to know playoff hockey and regular season hockey are two entirely different games.
“Now we’ll be playing for our lives,” Ammerman said. “Now it’s just one game.”
Wisconsin and Mercyhurst have the second- and third-best offenses in the nation, respectively. In fact, two players from each team are among the nation’s top-10 in scoring. Despite the strong offenses that will be on display Saturday, Johnson does not forsee a shootout.
“In [playoff] games, you generally don’t see [shootouts],” Johnson said. “You usually see low-scoring affairs. You see one-goal games, overtime games, pretty tight games.”
Ammerman pointed out the Badgers have played against talented offensive players in practice all season. She thinks a good performance from Wisconsin on the offensive end could be the team’s best defense.
“Hopefully us going against each other every day in practice prepares us for [Mercyhurst’s offense],” Ammerman said. “As long as we can keep on the attack and keep them out of our zone, that’s probably the best defense we can play.”
Special teams are a crucial aspect of every hockey game, and Saturday’s contest will feature two of the nation’s best. Mercyhurst and Wisconsin own the nation’s best power play efficiency and penalty kill percentage, respectively.
“Hopefully we can just stay out of the box so we don’t have to worry about their power play at all,” Decker joked. “If we just stick to our penalty kill and watch video to prepare for their power play, we should be all right.”
Ammerman noted Wisconsin has done a good job this season staying out of the penalty box. She thinks the team needs to continue that trend Saturday.
“We’re not in the box that often, but when we do we kind of get ourselves into trouble,” Ammerman said. “That’s the one thing: stay out of the box and try to play five-on-five hockey.”
No matter what the statistics might show, Johnson said Saturday’s game will ultimately come down to how well each team executes.
“We can set the table for them, and we can put them up in their chair under the table,” Johnson said. “But they’re the ones that have to go on the ice and execute.”
