Coming off a weekend sweep of Lindenwood and winner of three straight contests, the No. 4 Wisconsin women's hockey team (1-0-1-1 WCHA, 3-0-1 overall) embarks on its third consecutive road series this weekend as it travels to Duluth, Minn., to renew their rivalry with WCHA foe Minnesota-Duluth (0-2-0 WCHA, 0-2-0 overall).
The Badgers look to build upon their strong offensive performance last weekend, where they scored a total of 16 goals and had hat tricks from senior forward Brianna Decker and senior defenseman Alev Kelter on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
“It makes you a more dangerous team if you got a lot of people contributing,” head coach Mark Johnson said. “We had a good week of practice so we'll get tested this weekend, which will be a good measuring gauge of where we are early in the season.”
The emergence of Kelter this early in the season has been a rarity so far in her career, as she missed a total of 43 games during her first three years on campus due to her involvement with the women's soccer team. She has recorded five points so far this season, which is already half of her point total from a year ago and has already surpassed her goal total from last year (one).
“We had an injury Friday night so we moved Alev up from defense to forward, and she had an outstanding game,” Johnson said. “She had quite a few scoring opportunities, was fortunate to get the puck past their goaltender, and helped us win the game.”
In its first series of the season last weekend, UMD turned in a poor performance as it was swept by visiting Ohio State (2-0-0 WCHA, 2-0-0 overall), losing 3-1 and 3-2. To make matters worse, the Bulldogs fell out of both the national top-10 rankings this week for only the second time in program history and recorded a mere 42 shots on goal—including 17 shots on goal in Friday's contest—their lowest shot output since they were held to 14 against Wisconsin back on Dec. 4, 2009.
Offensively, UMD is led by senior forward Jessica Wong, who recently became the 16th player in program history to reach 100 career points, only the second defenseman to do so. Senior forward Katie Wilson leads the Bulldogs in the points category (three), recording a goal and two assists last weekend.
UMD and Wisconsin will meet for the 64th time this weekend, with UMD holding a slight edge in overall record (27-26-10). In last year's meetings, the Badgers owned a 4-1 record, but the lone win for UMD came when it mattered most, eliminating then-No. 1 Wisconsin in the WCHA Final Face-off.
“We're going into a little bit of a hornet's nest. Traditionally, they've been a very strong team and they have a lot of pride,” Johnson said. “It should be a good game. Every time we play [UMD] it's tight, it's overtime, it's exciting hockey. Still being in October, it's a good time to go up there.”
