While the Wisconsin offense lit up the scoreboard this weekend against Minnesota State, the defense seems to be hitting their stride after getting off to a slow start to the season. Dating back to the final game against New Hampshire, they have been lights out, allowing minimal shots on goal and have held a shutout for the past 130 minutes.
“Obviously, [junior goaltender] Alex [Rigsby] is seeing the puck well,” head coach Mark Johnson said. “[Friday], she got tested in a couple of situations but, for the most part, I think the players in front of her did a really good job of making sure that it was difficult and challenging to get the puck in the scoring area.”
Senior defenseman Saige Pacholok is very confident on the progress that the defensive line has made and will make as the season wears on, despite having some new faces on the line. “We've done a good job trusting each other,” she said. “Every thing is slowly starting to come together. We're progressively getting better and that's a good sign, I think.” She even went to the extent to say that the trust within the line will become second-nature as the Badgers get deeper into their conference schedule. “We won't even have to look, we could play blindfolded.”
Even though the team is off this weekend, two players will still be in action this week. Rigsby and senior forward Brianna Decker travel to Finland to play for Team USA in the Four Nation's Cup and will join five former Wisconsin skaters in the tournament.
