After being swept last weekend against Minnesota-Duluth and being shutout in a series for the first time since 2001, the No. 9 Wisconsin women’s hockey team (1-2-1 WCHA, 3-2-1 overall) look to get back to their winning ways in their first home series of the 2012 season against Bemidji State (0-2-0,1-3-0) Friday.
This weekend isn’t just another home series for the defending WCHA regular season champions; it marks a historical landmark for the program, as they will play in the inaugural game in the new state-of-the-art LaBahn Arena.
“It’s a unique one-time experience. You get one chance to open up a building so I’m sure the energy level will be high,” head coach Mark Johnson said. “It’s a real first-class facility and I know the players are real excited to play so it’s going to be interesting to see what kind of noise is created within it. We’ll find out tomorrow night.”
With a new arena comes many perks that the program has not been previously accustomed to. The arena boasts 2,273 seats—2,400 at capacity—and has the luxury of convenience for the players, which was lacking when the team had to travel to other rinks on campus.
The locker room is attached to the sports medicine room that forces a minimal walk for treatment and holds cold tubs, hot tubs and saunas. Also, it provides a true home-ice advantage that was lacking in the Kohl Center due to the larger seating capacity.
“We’re lucky because this will be our own rink so it’s more fit to our size for the amount of fans we have,” junior goaltender Alex Rigsby said. “Everyone is going to be on top of you on the ice because of the way the stands are shaped so it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be really loud in [the arena].”
Additionally, the opening creates a buzz similar to what was experienced in the opening of the Kohl Center in 1998.
“I remember when we opened up the Kohl Center in the late 90s, and it certainly was a real special night as the young players got to go on the ice,” Johnson said. “The people in Madison got to go into a first-class facility.”
After enduring a tough three-series road stretch to open up the season, the team is anxiously awaiting to play in front of a full-capacity hometown crowd this weekend.
“With young players, it’s a learning opportunity,” Johnson said. “We spent six games on the road. We’ve been on the bus quite a bit. Now we get to come back and create this atmosphere within the new building. So everything’s pretty upbeat. Everything’s pretty positive.”
The inaugural game couldn’t come at a better time for the Badgers to get their offense back on track.
After scoring a combined 16 goals against Lindenwood on Oct. 5-6, the offense went stale against UMD last weekend in back-to-back shutout losses, including a combined 0-for-8 on the power play, due in large part to the increased pressure applied by UMD’s defense.
“Being swept last weekend was a wake-up call for us and I think we’re excited to play,” Decker said. “I think it’s going to be great to play at home—new rink, bunch of fans—that’s just all going to feed into our game on Friday.”
While Friday is another opportunity to win an important hockey game for the team, Johnson stressed to his players that they need to embrace this historical moment.
“I told them it’s going to be a fun experience because they’re the group that gets to [open up the arena]. No other group will get a chance to open up a building like we are about to do. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
