After being swept by No. 1 Minnesota (2-0-0 WCHA, 4-0-0 overall) last weekend, the No. 4 Wisconsin Badgers (0-2-0, 2-2-0) will look to get back on track when they return home for a weekend series with St. Cloud State (0-1-1, 0-2-2).
The Badgers gave Minnesota all they could handle in their two meetings, but were unable to end the Gophers’ NCAA record winning streak, which now has been extended to 53 games.
“We played pretty well,” senior forward Madison Packer said. “We outshot them 30 to 11 in the first game [after] the second period. We just couldn’t put the puck in the net.”
Indeed UW missed out on some chances to turn good offensive opportunities into goals, which probably allowed Minnesota to escape the weekend with their historic winning streak still intact.
“A lot of these games this year are going to be real close, they’re going to be one or two goal games,” associate head coach Dan Koch said. “Special teams are important. We’re going to continue to work on our power play, try to create some chances off of that and get some goals.”
The power play was a big factor in Wisconsin’s 2-1 loss to the Gophers last Friday night. UW scored once in their four power play opportunities, going 0-3 in the final two periods, while allowing Minnesota to go 2-3.
But the Badgers know they can’t dwell on the past, and that they have to take away the positives from their losses against Minnesota and focus on improving where they may have struggled a little bit heading into their series against St. Cloud State.
“This weekend we’re going to really fine tune everything from Minnesota and play better against St. Cloud,” freshman defender Jenny Ryan said.
The Badgers will be meeting a Huskies team hungry for their first win of the season after losing one game and getting a tie in the other in their conference-opening series against the then-No. 10 Ohio State Buckeyes.
Wisconsin has historically been dominant against the Huskies, leading the all-time series 53-7-2 since the two teams first squared off in 1999.
To continue their success against St. Cloud State, the Badgers will turn to the team’s veteran leadership, including redshirt junior forward Brittany Ammerman and senior goaltender Alex Rigsby. Ammerman currently is the team leader in points, tallying three goals and an assist through the first four games. Meanwhile, Rigsby, already UW’s career leader in saves, has been strong thus far in her final season, recording 105 saves and a .955 save percentage.
“I think it all start with our captains,” Koch said. “Alex Rigsby has a lot of respect from her teammates, so whenever she speaks, the players listen.” Koch also mentioned how impressed he was with this team’s collective work ethic, and said he knows they have to keep that energy going if they want to be successful and avoid being upset by the Huskies this weekend.
“We’ve got to be able to outwork them,” Koch said. “Just because they’re not No. 1 in the country doesn’t mean they don’t have good players.”
Expectations are high for this Badgers team, and a strong performance in their first home series of WCHA play could go a long way in setting the tone for the rest of the season.
