The No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers (4-2-0 WCHA, 6-2-0 overall) will take on the No. 10 Ohio State Buckeyes (2-1-1, 3-1-1) in a two-game conference series on Saturday and Sunday at LaBahn Arena.
The Badgers are coming off of a weekend sweep over Lindenwood, extending their winning streak to four games. The Badgers are undefeated at home this season, with their only losses coming against No. 1 Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Wisconsin has been able to shut down their opponents in the recent games, only surrendering three goals in four games, as well as scoring at least nine goals in the past two home series.
“Obviously, as the season goes on the chemistry on the team develops more and we spend a lot more time with our lines,” redshirt junior forward Brittany Ammerman said. “It was clear this weekend that we are starting to click since many people got scoring chances, which is a good thing.”
The power play has also seen an improvement in the past two series, as UW has converted on 33 percent of their power plays, compared to just 18 percent through their first four games of the season.
“We have been practicing the power play a lot over the past few weeks, working on different plays, having a lot of options, so that has helped a lot.” junior forward Karley Sylvester said.
The Badgers have had success against the Buckeyes in the past few years, winning the previous six of eight matchups the two teams have played. Although Wisconsin is favored in the two upcoming games, the team is not taking this conference matchup lightly. They realize the importance of conference games and have taken great strides following the two losses to Minnesota.
“Those two games against Minnesota taught us we need to work hard every minute we are on the ice no matter what,” junior forward Blayre Turnbull said, “because as soon as something goes wrong, if that is the case, our rankings can be in jeopardy and we learned last year that as soon as we drop in the rankings it’s very hard to get back to where we want to be.”
Ohio State is led by the Schmitt twins, Kari and Sara, who have accounted for almost one-third of their total goal output this year. They have also been strong in net this season led by redshirt senior Chelsea Knapp, who has posted a 2-1-1 record so far.
“We are hopefully going to build on what we have done that past few weekends and play a strong game in all three zones, and if you can manage the puck and keep control of the puck in certain areas it certainly gives you a better chance to win. It has been good to this point and will certainly get tested again this weekend,” head coach Mark Johnson said.
Following the home series against Ohio State, the Badgers will have a week off before heading out to Vail, Colorado to play a weekend series against Northeastern (1-2-0 Hockey East, 4-5-0) and Boston University (1-0-0 Hockey East, 4-1-1).
“We definitely want to end on a good note with the bye week coming up. It’s always a long two weeks if you don’t play your best game this upcoming Sunday,” Ammerman said. “Our goal is to play our best two games of the year so far, come out on top and do a lot of good things so the two weeks leading up to Vail, we are on a good note.”
